Ethnic Knitting Exploration: Lithuania, Iceland, and Ireland

Today I have the privilege of kicking off Donna Druchunas blog book tour for her new book Ethnic Knitting Exploration: Lithuania, Iceland, and Ireland*.



Exploration is a lovely book for people who are looking to both understand a bit more about the knitting traditions of other cultures as well as those who are interested in having their own knitting adventure by creating a unique hand knit garment.  This book contains a discussion of the textures and motifs and sweater structures dominant in Iceland, Lithuania and Ireland and also has some beautiful templates to help you get started on making your own custom crafted sweater.  It's a great jumping off point for your own personal knitting explorations!

This knitting book has extra significance for me, because it's the first book written in English that I've ever found that talks about Lithuanian knitting traditions.  I'm a 3rd generation Lithuanian on my dad's side -- my great-grandparents emigrated from Lithuania, in the early 1900s.  However, because of the stigma associated with not being "American" much of the cultural heritage was not passed along and I've had very little exposure to the language, crafts or traditions of Lithuania.  When I started knitting, I spent some time looking for books that might help me understand if knitting had been a part of my ancestors lives, but found very little. 

I was lucky to connect with Donna some time ago when her book The Knitted Rug came out.  I saw her last name (if you see an "as" or "is" ending on a last name, it's almost always Lithuanian or Greek) asked her if she was Lithuanian too, and we emailed a bit talking about her interest in Lithuanian knitting and that she was hoping to travel to Lithuania to explore it further.  Ethnic Knitting Exploration  contains a section on Lithuanian motifs and knitting traditions that are a result of her first journey to Lithuania. 

For the rest of this post, I'd like to share a little "interview" I did with Donna to help me understand better how she approached this book and the knitting cultures she describes within it.  I hope you'll enjoy our discussion! 

KB: What was your inspiration for Ethnic Knitting Exploration: Lithuania, Iceland and Ireland?

 DD: Well, initially my publisher mentioned that she saw a need for a book about ethnic knitting traditions for a younger crowd and for newer knitters who might not be ready for encyclopedic books like Knitting in the Old Way. I thought that was a great idea, because many books on ethnic knitting traditions assume a very high level of accomplishment and skill from readers. I wanted even newbie knitters to be able to learn these techniques and to be able to design their own garments and accessories. My approach was to break things down step-by-step, rather than giving a high level overview of sweater construction and sizing calculations. You shouldn't need to have ten years of knitting experience under your belt before you can design a sweater for yourself.

 KB: Why did you choose to talk about garments from these three ethnic knitting traditions together? 

 DD: Mostly I was looking at the garment shapes. I wanted this book to focus on refinements in the shoulder area, and raglan, yoke, and saddle-shoulder garments all fit into this category. Saddle shoulders are most popular on Aran sweaters, shaped yokes are most popular on Icelandic designs. Raglans just fit in, but there's not a particular area where raglans were traditionally used exclusively.

 KB: What is your favorite aspect of the book?  What part of it was most fun for you to put together?

 DD: In this book I can't pick a favorite section. I love the cable section because I inherited a love of Aran knitting from my grandmother. I love the Lithuanian section because I am half Lithuanian and I have been visiting that country for several years. I love the yoke and raglan shaping because those sweaters are so fun to make, and I always get excited knitting the yoke as it gets smaller and smaller around the neck and after you bind off, there's not much more left to do than weaving in ends. I love the cardigan instructions, because I wear more cardigans than pullovers. I actually was quite surprised how much I liked the whole book after I got a final draft from my editor.

 KB: Many of the Lithuanian motifs that you chose look very Scandinavian inspired.  Did you find when you visited Lithuania to learn the language and do research for the book that there were many Scandinavian influences in Lithuanian knitting (or other) traditions?

 DD: In this book, I focused on Lithuania Minor, which was actually East Prussian in the past. Today parts of this region are within the countries of Lithuania, Russia, and Poland. Because national boundaries have moved so frequently in this area, influences have come in from all sides. In some parts of Lithuania many of the designs do have a strong Scandinavian influence. In some other areas, designs have similarities to Turkish patterns. In some places design elements are shared with Latvian and Estonian knitting. And the knitting technique traditionally used in Lithuania, Combination Knitting, has strong roots in Russia and all of the surrounding areas in Eastern Europe, and is even sometimes found in Scandinavia.

 KB:  I like that you chose not only to introduce pattern and texture traditions from the three countries that you chose, but that you also decided to look at different sweater shapes.  You mentioned that there wasn't much of an actual sweater knitting tradition in Lithuania.  What made you decide on the raglan sweater as a good format for the Lithuanian motifs?

 DD: As I mentioned above, I wanted to include these related shapes that all focus on shoulder shaping. Although sweaters were not a traditional part of the Lithuanian national costume, they have been popular in the area throughout the 20th century. In several of the old Lithuanian knitting books I have from the Soviet period, raglan sweaters are very popular. The sweaters are knitted in the round, and often from the top down (in Ethnic Knitting: Discovery: The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and The Andes , I focused on bottom-up techniques.)

 KB: I know the book is about knitting not about spinning, but did you discover anything about the types of wools that each of the different Ethnic groups preferred to work with?  I know many people are familiar with the Icelandic sheep that are the source for a lot of Lopi yarns.  Are there particular sheep breeds that are more common source of wool for Lithuanian and Irish knitters?

 DD: In Ireland, Aran sweaters were made out of various colors of yarn before they became a commercial product, and sometimes out of fine gansey yarn. When the commercial product became popular, the heavy-weight natural colored yarn became the standard because it's faster to knit and easier to see your stitches as you're working the cables. The sweaters were also switched from being made in-the-round, to the flat construction that we know today. The famous natural yarn is called Bainin (pronounced bawneen). Traditionally it was spun in the grease and the wool retained it's lanolin, giving the knitted sweaters a waterproof finish.

 In Iceland, Lopi yarn is actually a thin strand of unspun fiber that's been drafted out. The yarns that are sold today under the name Lopi are mostly softly spun, giving them a bit more body and strength than the unspun fiber would have.

 In Lithuania, there are two rare breeds of sheep that both have coarse wool. This wool was spun into stiff, heavy yarns that were used to make mittens and socks and also for felting to make heavy woolen over coats. Today most of the yarn from these sheep is rotting in barns while local mills are importing merino from New Zealand. I'm hoping that I will be able to get a business started at some point to have the local Lithuanian wool spun and import it into the US. It's not nearly as coarse as it sounds, and it can also be blended with some of that imported merino to make softer knitting yarns. It comes in a variety of natural colors, too.

 I discuss each of these briefly in the book.

 KB: One thing that the book got me wondering was whether there were traditional colors for the different Ethnic tradition.  I think many of us can conjure up images of the thick traditional creamy white Aran sweater, but what about Lithuania and Iceland?  Were the traditional colors based on the colors of the sheep available or did the knitters also dye their yarns into colors that they liked to work with?

 DD: I haven't really researched colors in Iceland. (Yet?)

 In Lithuania, wool was traditionally dyed with natural dyes, and linen was normally worked in its natural color or bleached white. When I was in Lithuania last summer, I went to a festival like a Renaissance Faire, where I saw a demonstration of spindle spinning and an exhibit on natural dyes. They had many dried plants on display, with samples of wool that had been dyed with the plant material.

 To go off topic a little, while I was visiting Lithuania, I found myself laughing at American Ren Faires,  because they are really not based on history. They're really just for fun. There's some historical accuracy, but not much. In Lithuania, the annual Days of Living Archaeology festival that is held at an important Bronze Age archaeological site in Kernavė, is all about education and the actual history and prehistory of the region. While it's still fun, the focus is much more serious than the American events I've attended.

 KB: I like the approach in your book that encourages people to "design their own" rather than knit straight from a pre-designed pattern.  How do you help people identify which shapes and sweater structures will help them get the best fit and look for their body shapes?

 DD: There are some guidelines for what shapes look best on different figure types, and these are often the topics of articles in fashion magazines. But the best way to know what looks good on you is to go to the store and try on lots of garments. Look at the shape and construction of the ones you like best, and measure them. OK, you can buy some if you want. But you don't have to. You can also do this at home. Look in your closet and examine the garments you find yourself wearing over and over again because they just look and feel so good. Don't pay any attention to the gorgeous pullover you bought that is gathering dust in the back of the closet because you never wear it. That is a reject. Give it to Good Will and just forget about it. Use the department store fitting room -- and your own closet -- as your own design laboratory. And pay attention to what you feel good wearing.

 KB: I know (from reading your blog) that you are planning a trip to Lithuania this summer and that you have been studiying the Lithuanian language.  Are you planning another book focused specifically on Lithuanian knitting?  If so, when do you expect to see it published? 

 DD: Yes, I am working on a book about Lithuanian knitting, along with June Hall from England. June has been working with Lithuanian spinners and knitters for several years, and last summer we travelled around the entire country to do research for our book. We are hoping to get the writing finished by this fall, and with any luck a year from then, a book will be hitting the shelves. There's no actual publication date yet, because the publisher does not schedule the production until the manuscript is completed and turned in. This book will be a lot like Arctic Lace, with a portion of the book being a collection of knitted accessories, and a portion of the book being about Lithuanian culture and history and our travels and experiences visiting the country.

For more information about Donna and all her books, check her out at her website, Sheep to Shawl and be sure to check out her blog where she talks in more detail about her work and shares knitting tips and tricks from Lithuania, Iceland and Ireland.  You can also find a list of the other guests on her blog book tour if you'd like to find out more about Donna and the book as well as get to "meet" some other great bloggers.