The new Haapsalu Scarf book is out

The warm and stylish presentation of 'Haapsalu rätt / The Haapsalu scarf' book was held in Haapsalu yesterday. The first books were sold at the event, it will be about a week until they hit the stores.




This post is intended to make your mouths water, because I already have the Pink Bible! And naturally, signed by the authors.
These are just my first impressions, it will take a while to take it all in and fully comprehend all the contents, after all, the book has 272 pages and weighs 1.888 kilos (4.2 lbs)!
This time it is published simultaneously in Estonian and English, that may add somewhat to the volume, but charts still make up most of the contents.




There are 47 patterns for square shaped shawls in the book. A square shawl consists of a centre section and a border section with a special narrow stitch pattern inbetween, plus a sewn-on lace edging. These stitch patterns are already conveniently combined together in the book, but can be used separately to design your own shawl as well.




The triangular shawl pattern count is 26 and there are three different techniques explained: knitted beginning from the upper edge, from the lower point or decreased in the centre. Triangular shawls/scarves also have a sewn-on edging.




Must be my favourite part of the book, because these can be used in so many other types of knitting projects too - the lace edgings. A lot of them, all so gorgeous and more intricate than in the first Haapsalu Shawl book.




Since the charts are given fully with all corners included, making enlarged copies or using a magnifying glass might be necessary for some of them. Of course, there are pattern repeats, so the large chart can be used as an overview.




As a nice little gift for everyone attending, these pocket calendars were handed out at the presentation. The text says: 2012 - the year of knitting a Haapsalu scarf. Everyone could then mark those (few) days they were not knitting. Great as a bookmark and chart marker.




More pictures of the event can be found in a gallery of the local newspaper.

Haapsalu Shawl Day

The picturesque town of Haapsalu celebrated the annual lace knitting day yesterday: woolwhite lacework was to be spotted everywhere, both in finished and work-in-progress status. The seaside resort atmosphere was something well worth envying as always.

The lace knitting contest was not too crowded with its fourteen participants:




Some people just knitted on the street without competing:




Shawl dance presented by a classy local dance group:








And some other highlights of the program:






Shawls and other lacy items made by the local master knitters were also sold at the craft fair. And for a shocking price of 50 Euros - unfortunately, this is what people who value handmade can afford here. (The price for being an economically well-behaving country.) Well, start planning your lace shopping trip for next August!






This is the window of the Dome Church chapel, where the White Lady appears on full moon August nights (she must be hiding in there by day as well):




By the end of the day, all this motivation overdose resulted in a midnight swatch with Karukellakiri pattern. This project cannot be postponed any longer and as soon as I'm done with the hardest part - choosing a stitch pattern - my first Haapalu shawl will be cast on.




There is also a sweet short film about knitting in Haapsalu in 1937 available in the Estonian Film Archives:

Belt pocket

This March I took a short course on bead embroidered belt pockets worn with folk costumes on Estonian islands. These wonderful bags were tied around waist and used for keeping coins and other small items. Indeed, this kind of extra pocket comes very handy nowadays as well (although I haven't worn mine yet), perfect for a phone or a camera, for instance.
My green pocket is not what they used to look like, the front side was usually fully covered with very colourful beads in different patterns. Unfortunately, I could not find any photos of the beaded pockets on the internet. I used my own colours and other ancient motives instead, the ones that were traditionally embroidered with thread. Here's an example.