I hardly know where to start. Every day so far has been full of interesting things, good food, and warm, friendly people. And speaking of warm — it has been downright hot here in Stockholm. Heat and jet lag are not holding us back. Nor are our propensity for finding adventure at every turn. After picking up our rental car, we proceeded to drive in circles for the better part of an hour to find our hotel — that was just across the street from the rental car parking lot! Just about that time, Bruce bit down on nothing in particular, and broke off a crown (we were able to get into a dentist office right away and it was quickly fixed).

We began not long after we got off of the plane by heading to a Monday night Knitting Cafe at a pastry shop toward the northern end of Stockholm.

What a lovely group of people! Everyone was working on something completely different from her neighbor. Sweaters, shawls, fingerless gloves, and even window curtains were being worked in both knitting and crochet. They also kindly invited us to join them for World Wide Knit in Public Day at a park not too far by tram and subway (we are getting pretty good at getting around the city that way).

We have seen some pretty amazing textiles in museum collections. There was the knitted glove from the mid-16th century at the Uppsala Cathedral museum, and here is an embroidered mitten from the Nordiska Museum (Stockholm) that is constructed from nålebinding.

This technique is worked with a needle and short lengths of yarn. The construction resembles knitting, but is actually a series of knots that can produce a very dense, tightly worked fabric. The technique predates knitting by centuries, and while it died out in most places when knitting began to take hold, in Sweden, it has an unbroken tradition to today. And, like most traditions, it is finding new interest and new innovation. While known best for its density and durability, it now is being used to make lace.

I may have a chance next week to begin to learn how to make a few stitches. It would be fun to experiment with the technique to see what else we can do.

We have had the chance to visit several yarn shops, and are finding much of interest. In Uppsala the shop YlloTyll features a lovely linen spun here in Sweden. Linen used to be grown here as well, but there isn’t enough production these days to support a whole line of yarn. The colors the shop has chosen are vibrant and saturated. I had a hard time choosing just one, but decided on this dark raspberry for a lace top of some kind. While my original goal had been to buy just one skein of each of the interesting yarns I found (for swatching), that has quickly disappeared as I think of 18 things to make with each new discovery.

More to come!