Fiber Field Trip!

My mother and I recently traveled abroad to Finland, Russia, and Estonia for our yearly field trip. Thanks to my mother who moonlights as my travel agent, we traveled very smartly this year. This trip really has been the most knitting/fiber-related of all our European travels to date. Instead of posting pictures of all the trinkets and treasures purchased on this trip (and believe me there were many!), I decided to "return the favor" and post information about the yarn shops visited along the way. We always scour the net for knitting blogs and yarn shop reviews when we travel, but we found a lot of yarn by accident.

Our first stop was at the Hakaniemi market hall, Hakaniemen Kauppahalli, which is a charming

old market building right next to the tram/metro stop of the same name in Helsinki, Finland. There is a small outdoor fruit/veg/flower market with a few vendors selling baskets and household items on the actual square there, but the market building was a little adventure in and of itself! The entire lower floor was crammed with bakery stalls, fishmongers, butchers, cheese shops, and vendors selling all different varieties of olives, spices, mustards, preserves, sausages, sprouts, organic and specialty foods, etc. as well as a few small cafes/coffee shops. It was an absolute maze in there and if you miss the escalator the first time around, it's kind of a puzzle to find your way to the upper level! Upstairs were more craft/gift-type shops.

There was a Marimekko shop where you could get finished items as well as yardage and I couldn't leave without a meter of their flagship poppy print. There was a woven rug place that sold poppana woven items, a sort of haberdashery shop with trims, beads, buttons, appliques, and patches but I wasn't thrilled with anything and then we unexpectedly came across a stall named Vihrea Vyyhti Oy. The gal there spoke Swedish with me and was very helpful, as well as being gracious enough to pose for a picture. We'd read about poppana before the trip and she explained what it was (more on that later) and took us down to another stall to show us examples of the material. I bought 2 skeins of a local handspun bulky yarn and a ball of sock yarn in some lovely shades of green.

We ventured down to the harbor market half by tram, and halfway on foot. This market was a major attraction because it is right next to the harbor where ferries and cruise ships unload cash-laden tourists. Many of the vendors there were artisans selling any and all kinds of handwork and handcrafts: wrought iron, carved juniper wood items, amber and silver jewlery, pottery, handknits, baby clothes, nic nac paddywhacks, t-shirts, birch bark woven items, fused glasswork, handwoven items, you name it. They also had ice cream stands and huge grills with fresh seafood and veggies-watch out for seagulls! We also noticed upon returning from Russia, that several people had stands of common Russian craft/souvenir items we'd seen there--but for 5x the price! We wondered if they didn't ride the train to St. Petersburg every few weeks and bring back a suitcase full of stuff to re-sell to the ferry and cruiseline tourists.

We were, however, specifically looking for The Riihivilla Mitten Man I'd read about in Piecework. When I told him I'd read about him in an American knitting magazine, he laughed and was kind enough to let me take pictures of his wares. I really liked the luse mittens and wanted to get them as a kit but they were only available already knit, so I instead bought some yarn to knit myself a pair.

The market building opposite the harbor market houses mostly cafes, coffee bars, and specialty/imported food vendors which were very interesting. We walked through and looked at everything before sitting a bit for a cup of coffee and a cardamom-y apple strudel and map review. We then headed to the Taito shop on Etelaesplanadi 4 which is visible on the corner if you're standing next to the fountain. Taito had housewares, glassware, linens, etc. but we were interested in the yarn in the back.

They had several shades of a few different weights of what looked to be local brands, but nothing truly fabulous in the way of yarn in my opinion. They had heddles and carders and other small equipment, as well as a large selection of poppana for weaving. Poppana is a uniquely Finnish cotton ribbon that is used for weaving. It reminded me of inch wide strips of cotton t-shirt material and when woven is almost a chenille texture. Mom bought a beautiful poppana wallhanging from a woman at the harbor market, so it was interesting to see what it was made of. I bought knitting nellies for myself and my two nieces and learned they are called nuelenukkes in Finnish! :)

We specifically went looking for the yarn shop Menita because I'd read that it was THE yarn shop in Helsinki. It is located at 20 Korkeavuorenkatu which is across from The Finnish Design Museum. I thought I had died and gone to heaven in there. Seriously. They had several different weights of Finnish yarns in several shades, a large selection of Drops yarns, as well as staples like Jo Sharpe, Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Regia, etc. I could have spent hours in there just walking around and around looking at it all.

The staff were very helpful and spoke both English and Swedish. They also sold needles, notions, patterns, tools, etc. and there was an adjoining embroidery/needlework shop. It really is a shame that they do not have a website, but maybe that is for the best because you truly need to experience this store to appreciate it. I have no doubt if you contacted them, they'd bend over backwards to ship you whatever you wanted if you were able to describe it or send pictures of what you wanted. They were SO helpful and friendly and I enjoyed myself immensely. I should also stress that Helsinki has an excellent public transportation system with easy to navigate bus/tram/metro lines which made yarn hunting very easy.

I picked up some Finnish yarn as well as some Drops including a lovely linen yarn. We were visiting with the gals in there and saying how for us living in the Midwest, we may as well travel to Europe to shop for yarn in an actual yarn shop because we simply don't have well stocked yarn shops here. The nicest shops I've been to here in the US have thus far been in Fargo, ND and that is an 8 hour journey by car. In this case we traveled 8 hours by plane and hit the mother load.

We spent another day at the open air museum and toured around the various buildings and visited with some of the demonstrators. I couldn't believe how many working antique wheels and looms we saw as well as flax brakes, swingle knives, and hatchels for processing flax into linen. Until then I'd only seen pictures of them and I kept expecting Tasha Tudor to walk into the room.

I loved how the buildings had all kinds of furniture pieces and tools and items just sitting out in the rooms. I especially liked these stockings hanging over the fireplace. They are flammegarn or Flame Yarn which is basically a peasant tie dye process where the yarn is wrapped in birch bark strips and it creates a mottled effect when knit up. I'd read about them in Nancy Bush's book "Folk Socks" but had never actually seen any. These must have been well worn because they have patches sewn onto the heels and soles.

We traveled on to St. Petersburg, Russia by train where we were met at the station by Sergei and Vladimir, our guide and driver respectively. We were accompanied for a few hours each day to tour the city, tour The Hermitage, and travel just outside of town to Tsarskoe Selo Palace. The rest of the time was spent frantically trying to see as much as we could which left no time to look for yarn. We'd found a few yarn shops mentioned in blogs, but the addresses we had were in the Latin alphabet and of course the signs were in Cyrillic. Navigating was a bit nerve wracking at first too because it is the closest you'll ever feel to being illiterate when you can't recognize the characters of what you're trying to read. There is no place to start, no root words, you can't discern suffixes or prefixes let alone see patterns in them, etc. I experienced this years ago in Greece too and it is the strangest feeling, almost alarming. This photo of a statue of Lenin is one of my favorite photos from the trip, even if it has a streetpole in the middle of it. Vladimir was an excellent driver but he was aggressive and kept up with the traffic which means we were literally being thrown around in the backseat at times. I feel lucky that we got the shot that we did! ;) We braved the Metro alone and were the only tourists riding the trains and bought blinis from a street vendor! We also visited The Ethnographic Museum and saw all the national/folk dress/costumes from the entire and absolute expanse of the Soviet Realm and you have to stop and think of the huge area that entails. That place is a national treasure and it's a good thing they didn't have a guide book in English or I'd have paid any price and then carried it even if it weighed 50 pounds. We took pictures of almost every display in there. I was reminded of the costumes from the newer treatment of Dr. Zhivago by some of the regions.

We could not come to Russia and not look for any Orenburg Lace. You can get lace shawls from the markets, but they are not the real Orenburg. I was reading before we left that they use the word "sherst" to describe any fiber content. Sherst literally means "fiber" and sometimes they are made from wool and mohair blends and sometimes even dog hair blends. The knit shawls we saw on the street were soft and pretty and I wouldn't have cared if they were in fact made from dog hair, but the point they were trying to make is that there is no such thing as a $10 Orenburg Lace shawl. Mom found Nevsky Souvenirs online and sure enough they had the real stuff in the back and we had to ask about them. I bought a square gray shawl and Mom bought a white lace stole for my sister in law and white square shawls for my sister and herself.

I could not figure out a way to take a picture that gave some sort of justice to this beautiful item. It is as fine as gossamer and shiny and delicate and you'd swear it was knit on piano wire needles. It drapes beautifully and you can actually pull it through a ring it is so fine. You have take care not to snag it on your jewelery or buttons and even rough skin can catch it because it is so fine and delicate.

We visited St. Isaac's Cathedral with Sergei and marveled at the dome and the mosaics and paintings. We visited an Orthodox church in each country which was fascinating. Sergei was a wealth of information and Mom and I both really enjoyed him. We've both said, "Anyone who knows his way around The Hermitage without a map really knows his stuff."

We traveled on to Tallinn, Estonia and stayed in the Old Town area of the city. Last year in Copenhagen, I bought some Kauni yarn which we later discovered was made in Estonia. We set out for the market in Town Hall square and stopped into several shops selling knitwear along the way. Most of the shops appeared to be craft guilds and sold a variety of locally handcrafted stuff like hand knit socks and mittens, carved juniper wood items, amber jewelery, horn handled cutlery, silver jewelery, pottery, wirework items, woven braids, felted hats and slippers, linen items, etc. The Old City Wall had niches built into it and every day they would set up huge knitting stands in the recesses. The knitwear seemed to be priced fairly consistently wherever you found it, but you really had to pay attention to the prices of amber. You can get very beautiful amber pieces almost cheaply and a few other places had mediocre items at horrendous prices. Our favorite amber shop was on Viru #7.

We saw this sign for "crafts and wool" on the corner of Town Hall Square next to Raekoja plats #18. It was a small shop that sold the Kauni I was looking for! I bought all 5 skeins they had of the same rainbow colorway I bought last year in Copenhagen. The woman working there was so very nice and helpful despite the language barrier. She kept apologizing that she couldn't speak English very well and told us she could speak Finnish very well. She directed us to their sister store which was 3 times as big as the shop there on the square.

The sister store is located just a little past the corner of Suur-karja and Muurivahe. It is #11 I believe. The Old City has close pedestrian streets with almost almost starburst intersections of 5 and 6 streets so it is easy to get turned around. They had a larger inventory of the other store and I bought 5 more skeins of that rainbow colorway. Each skein was twice the size of my forearm so that was a lot of yarn, but I was thrilled because it was exactly what I was hoping to find and I never thought I'd be so lucky! As we were entering the store though, I heard a man behind me calling out, "Madame. Madame," and I turned and looked and here was a man standing on the stoop across the street beckoning to us. He said, "Come. Look. We have beautiful yarns." Turns out there was another yarn shop just there across the street from this sister store. But talk about competition! We did stop in there after we finished in the Jolleri shop, but his inventory was mainly novelty and synthetic yarns and I have no interest in that.

We also saw what appeared to be space dyed pencil roving made by the same factory as the Kauni. I could not believe all the felted items we saw for sale, both wet and dry. I looked at this but didn't buy any because it was so thin that I don't know how you'd spin it because it would just pull apart and it was too delicate to knit with, or so it seemed to me. I saw some wet felted panels and wallhangings that appeared to have strands of this felted onto the surface.

Pikk #15 housed what appeared to be multiple handcraft guilds. The main showroom had bead knit wrist warmers, braided trims, what I would call "bunad shoes" or shoes for their national costumes, sweaters, jewelery, beautiful and ornate knit stockings or almost hose, and actual woven yardage of their national costumes. It appeared to be 60" wide or so, but it was almost 80USD/meter. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures in there because it didn't seem too browser friendly. It was what I'd call the closest thing to a Husfliden that we saw on this trip. Through their back hallway was a felt workshop called Vildikoda with wet and dry felted items like elf-ish slippers and hats, animals, and objects, pallets of wool roving, more Kauni yarn in variegated and solids in fingering and sport weight, and more pencil roving.

I bought some flax for spinning and some linen yarn in odd lots. I am so impressed with the flax and linen processing and history that we've seen. When spun and woven or knit, flax is known as linen. It lightens and softens with each washing and old pieces are quite valuable. I was reminded of the expression "flax colored hair" and it makes sense when you see raw flax. I have flaxen hair ;) We visited Estonia's open air museum and were very impressed with the buildings and the spinning and the weaving and the knitting and the history and the people. We rode the city bus through the city and saw the evidence of Communism in the buildings and the rows of apartments. We climbed up into the Old Wall and walked the ramparts and climbed the Nun's Tower which was the view from our hotel window. Utterly enjoyable.

I did buy myself a machine knit lace linen sweater from a vendor next to The Old Wall for about 55USD which is an absolute steal. This picture does the garment absolutely no justice because it is just stunning. Mom bought a linen stole knit in the same pattern.

I also bought some handknits from the vendors along the Old City Wall. The lace socks and the patterned mittens are hand knit and cost around 15USD. The colored Kauni stockings were machine knit and also cost around 15USD. The lace mittens were purchased in a shop and were about 21USD and are absolutely gorgeous.

One of my other favorite photos from the trip was this statue of a peasant girl. She was just standing in a clearing on the way to The Museum of Occupation. She looks like a Soviet propaganda poster and was so pretty.

We had such a good trip and I bought a lot of yarn! I still don't quite know how I got it all home, but thank heavens for space bags, that's all I can say! In Finland, everyone spoke Swedish or English and we got along just fine. In Russia and Estonia not all museums or not entire museum collections had English descriptions, but lots of people spoke English. We were able to communicate by pointing and counting on our fingers and we learned to say "thank you" in their language which makes such a difference. Once or twice we used the Visual Translator and of course we had our frustrating moments, but for the most part we were just fine.

I am so lucky to have my own Travel Agent/Travel Buddy in my mother! She planned another great trip. Once again she was the brains and I was the brawn!