Knitting in Estonia

We had a lively discussion of Bush’s Folk Knitting in Estonia (see inside), a book that is well suited to our geography of knitting class. Estonia was variously conquered and controlled by Denmark, Germany, Russia, Poland, and Sweden, came under Soviet Control in 1940, and declared final independence in 1991. The oldest knitting in Estonia was found in a grave dating to the 13-14th century, placing it within the range of the oldest knit materials found anywhere in Europe. It may have been introduced to Estonia by the servants of Crusaders brought back from Palestine with knitting skills intact. The patterns in Estonian knitting must have been influenced by all these cultures and we tried to identify some of these influences in the samples seen in the book. Like many of the other regional designs we’ve seen, the knitting patterns, which are often linked to specific places in Estonia, likely evolved from or were inspired by other textiles, plants, and animals.

Knit items appear in Estonian culture in many ways – as practical clothing, gifts, or talismans. Again, people in a cold climate benefit from two-color designs that create a thicker fabric, but the designs incorporated into the items often had another purpose – to ward off the evil eye, to avoid corporal punishment for a crime, to ensure the birth of a son. A woman who accepted an offer of courtship from a man would return a pair of mittens tied to an empty bottle of liquor (the full bottle being a gift from the man to the woman and her family). A bride might need fifty pairs of mittens in addition to stockings and belts to give to various members of the bridal party and the groom’s family, many of these mittens being laid on the thresholds that she crossed as her mother-in-law gave her a tour of her new home.

We talked through one of the patterns so that students could learn the important aspects of pattern reading such as how to decode abbreviations, substitute yarns, and adjust patterns or needle sizes to their own gauge