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Chicago 2

The story starts a couple of years ago with Lene's blog, Dances with Wool. She posted here some unusual mittens that she had knitted following a traditional technique from Rovaniemi in northern Finland (Lapland). As you know I love knitting mittens and finding out new traditional techniques. So I was frustrated at not being able to work out how they were knitted. I could see that it was a kind of intarsia in the round (because the palms are not patterned) but that was as far as it went. There weren't any descriptions published in English - then.

All went quiet until I read on the Yarn Harlot's blog (... you can get there yourself, surely!) that she had taken a class in knitting Rovaniemi mittens with Susanna Hansson. I could hardly contain my impatience and envy, but I reasoned that eventually more information would leak out. Then my trip to Chicago had to be organised. I had the option of staying on a couple of days by myself to look around. In doing one of my routine sweeps of the internet I came upon the Windy City Knitters Guild workshop weekend - led by Susanna Hansson. Yes! I could be there!

So, on the Friday evening I found myself at the Evanston Ecology Centre with about twenty other knitters (all women) and Susanna Hannson. She is a good speaker and had lots of mittens to show us, both traditionally coloured ones knitted for tourists (that Lene calls 'ugly' mittens) and Lene's own. (The 'ugly' mittens aren't ugly, just a bit bright! See in the background.)

This was a lecture, however, rather than a class and it was a little frustrating not to get down to the knitty gritty of how you actually do the intarsia technique. Susanna told us about the Sami people and their traditional dress and how she believes their weaving techniques have influenced the mitten knitting. You can see this in the clever way they organise the many ends of yarn:

If, like me, you'd like to know more, watch out for Piework magazine early in 2008. Lene's writing an article with a project to knit using the Rovaniemi mitten method.

Isn't the internet great? To think that I'd end up in Chicago in a roomful of mid-Westerners to hear a Swede speak about an obscure Finnish mitten!

Chicago 1

Well, I had a good time in Chicago and it's nice to be home. That's an accurate summary, but I suppose I could flesh it out a bit. Here are a few Chicago scenes.

For the first five nights I stayed downtown by the river. Here is one of the many bridges (they open up like Tower Bridge, but not very often these days) and some of the beautiful buildings.

I particularly like the one with the fancy guilded top. Chicago is pretty much the birth place of skyscrapers and they are splendid. Lots of them have art nouveau details. Here's a panel on the Carson, Pirie, Scott Building (a former department store, presently undergoing restoration):

I arrived on Easter Sunday and it was freezing cold (really), with a biting wind. On the Tuesday we awoke to a snowstorm. Walking along the river to the conference rooms was quite an ordeal. I bought an umbrella at my hotel but it was broken by the time I got to cover. I realised afterwards I should have got a cab and it probably wouldn't have cost much more than a brolly! By the time I left the following Sunday it was sunny and warm, though still stark and bare of spring foliage. I moved north over the weekend to a cheaper area near Lincoln Park. Looking back over Lake Michigan I got this magnificent view:

Of course I rode on the El:

Saw my reflection in the Bean (Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture):

I also visited the amazing Harold Washington Library (largest municipal library in the world, opened in 1991). Not only is it huge (9 storeys), it is also magnificently designed and built and puts our current public buildings to shame. Inside it has the feel of an international bank's headquarters: lofty halls, numerous escalators and lifts, marble and bronze details, art and sculpture on display, and many helpful staff who are obviously really proud of their library (I didn't get to look at the books themselves, but went round an exhibition of special bookbindings commissioned by the library). From the outside it is massive and heavily built with huge chunks of stone. The roof is green (possibly copper?) with amazing decorations at the corners (hope you can see the owl in this one):

I also visited Frank Lloyd Wright's house and studio, but for some reason I don't seem to have taken any photos. I thoroughly recommend it, however, especially if you have visited any Charles Rennie Macintosh buildings.

Then there was the yarn shopping and a meeting of the Windy City Knitting Guild! Stay tuned...