Good News!
Buy Knit Spin Sweden HERE
- Read championship spinner Josefin Waltin’s analyses of fleece from many of the 19 heritage and endangered sheep. She will provide the details of how each can be processed and used to create unique, artisanal yarn.
- Learn where to find unusual fleece across the country
- Visit spinning mills to see the incredible range of yarns being produced for knitters and weavers.
- Enjoy knitting patterns designed by Sara Wolf from historical garments in Swedish museums.
- Discover famous and newly minted designers in Sweden and knit their beautiful designs.
- See where Sweden’s knitting heritage fits into the history of knitting
About the first edition….
In spite of Covid and all of the delays of companies needing to shut down temporarily, etc., the book made it to press and quickly sold out the first run. I’m in the process of looking for another publisher to do the second edition and the Swedish translation. The whole experience has been….an opportunity for learning. Getting a book out is hard work, but when I hold it in my hands, I’m really proud of what Josefin Waltin and I have accomplished.
For those of you who have a copy, I apologize for typos and other editing “misses.” We will attempt to get these corrected in a second printing, but hopefully you’ll overlook these minor problems and enjoy the book overall. Just FYI, Josefin and I are currently in negotiations with a publisher in Sweden to produce a Swedish-language edition. Here’s hoping!
News from before…
As of June 1, 2020, the manuscript for the book I’ve written with Josefin Waltin has gone into the editing process. It feels so strange to wake up in the morning and have a buffet of choices for what to do next. I automatically turn to my office, and then realize I could garden, or knit, or plan a new dish for dinner. I’m still in decompression mode, and I know I’ll be back to editing and correcting quite soon, but my little boat has been launched.
Over the past two years the premise of the book has changed quite a bit. The entire idea of writing a travel book during a pandemic has raised more than a few eyebrows. I do expect, however, that there will be a desire to travel again as treatments and vaccines develop for the Covid-19 virus. And meanwhile, so many other aspects of the book changed as well.
For a start, I began with a vague idea about a few types of sheep and how I might best describe them as part of this book. In the end, they took over and became the major component. That part of the book will hopefully appeal to both spinners and knitters, and I hope it has made a contribution to the discussion about some interesting ways to use this huge resource.
Initially, I thought there would be only 2 or 3 knitting patterns, but I was completely overwhelmed by the generosity of the designers I interviewed. The relationships and friendships that underpin this book have been an incredible gift.
You can read below about how all of this started, but meanwhile, here are some illustrations that we are planning to use to give you a taste of what is coming soon:
In the fall of 2018 when Bruce and I visited Stockholm, I was very lucky to reconnect with someone I had worked with at The Textile Museum almost 20 years ago. Karin and her husband were in the US for a project, and because of the type of visa, she wasn’t allowed to work. Her solution was to spend the year volunteering in my conservation lab. We had a great time, but were not at all good at keeping up with one another when she returned to Sweden. Meeting up after all of that time was just like we had seen each other the day before, and of course, as fellow knitters, our choice of a place to meet was OF COURSE, a yarn store. Karin served as our guide for the day, and we did both tourist and non-tourist things, but it got us to thinking about writing a travel book for knitters. In typical fashion, when I made the suggestion, her response was, “Why Not?”
And so we began. I spent the time since then researching traditional knitting as well as locating contemporary knitters and designers to talk with in June 2019. I also found a craft school called Säterglantän in Dalarna province, where I took a class in tvåändsstickning (two end knitting) from renown teacher Karin Khanlund.
Tåändsstickning uses two strands of yarn, one each from the two ends of the ball, alternating one after the other. Because the two ends twist as you work, the technique has also been called “twined knitting,” but this is actually an inaccurate label/translation. For something to be twined, two elements (yarns) need to be twisted over a third element, such as you see in some kinds of basket weaving.
Here is my friend, Nancy, modeling my first attempt at a tvåändsstickning hat. The designs are no where as clear as I’d like, since I had to seriously felt this hat to get it small enough for anyone to wear.
But back to the book. All knitters like to acquire new and different kinds of yarn. Traveling to other countries, it’s pretty easy to find a local yarn shop, find a traditional knitted item to buy as a souvenir, and go home satisfied that you’ve made a connection to a new place. For me, that’s not enough. I want to see what the locals are doing; talk to other knitters about their craft; find yarn from the local sheep, and understand something about the culture of the place I’m visiting. In my opinion, if you are able to make a connection with someone from a different place and culture, stereotypes begin to disappear, and you find that it’s easy to overcome prejudice and mistrust of others….something we desperately need these days.
So, in addition to visiting yarn shops, I visited sheep in the countryside, as many museums with textile collections as possible, a couple of spinning mills. I hope to find more locations where it would be possible to take a course that might coincide with your travel schedule, find sources of information on regularly scheduled meet-ups, wool festivals, and as much about the availability of local yarns and indi-dyers as I can collect. Stay tuned!
Since my return from the trip in June I’ve been swatching different Swedish yarns, learning more about the sheep there, and how to locate commercially available Swedish yarns. Many are truly artisanal craft yarns that you can find only at fairs or craft shops. Others are available online, although often only in Europe. This is changing, and I encourage international accessibility every chance I get. Some incredible yarns are being produced, and I’m hopeful that my book will reach a wider audience to help support the industry.
Another innovation is an additional focus for the book. I’ve been lucky enough to have Josefin Waltin, spinner and teacher, agree to collaborate with me. She will be producing hand-spun yarn from a number of local breeds, and providing information on how the fleece handles to also encourage hand-spinners to enjoy Swedish sheep. We will focus on those breeds where there also is a commercially available yarn, but we do want to discuss a few of the conservation breeds. If there is a demand for the fleece, wool, and yarn, there will be encouragement for farmers to rebuild these herds.
I have another trip planned for early 2020, and hope then to finish off writing the book in the spring. Stay tuned for more updates.