Förebilder

När jag var en svår tonåring, tänkte jag en tanke som bet sig fast i mitt annars rätt flaxande minne: jag ska minnas hur det var att vara sådan jag nu är. Med det menade jag att jag skulle ha ett öppet sinne och inte döma eller håna, och jag skulle vara nyfiken på allt nytt, och jag skulle vara tolerant. Men åj så arg jag var på föräldrar, lärare och samhälle. Korkade var de. Riktigt korkade.

Det är himla längesedan jag lärde mig sticka, i ett kort perspektiv: några decennier. Så där femtiofem år sedan. I fyraårsåldern försökte jag sticka, men det var en traumatisk grej. Jag lär ha kastat stickningen så stickorna rök. Jag var ett hetsigt barn, och jag blev en omöjlig tonåring, och en arg ung kvinna. Numera är jag bara svår i största allmänhet om jag är på det humöret. Däremellan är jag idel honung. Men jag försöker vara öppen och nyfiken och tolerant och att inte håna. Jag försöker att inte kategorisera.

Nå. Stickandet. Det blev en självklar sak, en som jag klarar utan att egentligen tänka på eller ens titta på. I femtio år har jag stickat och läst samtidigt. Hur är det möjligt? Träning. Enkla mönster. Jag är inte ensam. Jag är inte ensam om att ha upptäckt att en stickning fungerar som en minnesbank: det jag läste medan jag stickade kommer tillbaka när jag tar upp stickningen nästa gång, fast det kan ha gått veckor sedan sist, och följaktligen många böcker. En eller två eller tre romaner i veckan är min takt, plus facklitteratur i bok- och tidskriftsform, plus forum och bloggar, och dagstidningar, reklam, vägskyltar, mjölkpaket, myslipaket, brev från myndigheter, räkningar, allt som består av bokstäver läser jag. Jag läser jättemycket. Riktigt mycket. Faktiskt himla mycket, om du inte redan är övertygad. Jag läser hela tiden. Och jag arbetar med litteratur och på internet, och jag skriver på jobbet: "skriv ner allt du vet, det får vara högst en A4a med dubbelt radavstånd och Ariel 12 punkter", sa min förra chef. Kommunal beredning kallas det där. Man gör det för att få budgetmedel.

Så börjar då alla dessa stickböcker dyka upp, för så där tio år sedan. Behöver jag dem? För det mesta, nej. En del, och ibland många, unga wannabe stickare är helt överväldigade av stickgurus och deras bloggar och böcker och workshops. Är jag imponerad? Inte egentligen. Jag försöker att inte rycka på axlarna, men jag gör det ändå ibland. Och så kommer en dag då jag kommer ihåg vad jag lovade som tonåring.

Då köper jag äntligen Debbie Stollers Stitch 'n Bitch. Och tänker att titeln borde ha VÄCKT mig, jag är dock ett barn uppvuxet med rock'n'roll, hippies och feminism. Jag var en riktig bitch. Slängde bhn, bredde på mängder av makeup och skulle vara en som inte stod i köket, fast jag älskade att stå i köket men inte som en kvinna utan som en riktig karl. Så allt som Debbie Stoller skriver om är ju riktigt bekant, och naturligtvis väcker hennes bok en hel del nostalgiska känslor och lite försynt "hur i helsicke kunde jag glömma vad jag lovade". "Vad har det blivit av mig".

Hennes text är ljuvligt bra. Hon skriver så bra. Det hon skriver uttrycker hela frustrationen och längtan att få forma saker av tråd som jag alltid har levt med, och som jag har gjort ända sedan jag plockade upp den där stickningen på nytt när jag var runt sju år. Frustration därför att det är så svårt, och så tantigt, och så ointellektuellt, och så bortkastat, och så onödigt, och så fördummande, och så förslavande. Jag minns inte allt som stickning kallats. Men det var alltså något man skulle göra i smyg, absolut inte erkänna att man sysslade med. Ordet "syssla" är vansinnigt förnedrande: vad sysslar du med? När det gäller kvinnor, handlar det om allt från att föda barn och ta hand om dem till att disputera. Jag vet inte om vandrarkängor är att syssla, men ser ni damen som vandrar fram med sjumilasteg med långkjolen fladdrande och stickningen i en projectbag hängande över axeln? Hon kan se ut så där i dag, men hon kan också sitta i färggrann volangkjol med piercat ansikte och högklackat på en betongsoffa i tunnelbanan. Hur hon än ser ut, så är hon målmedveten och självmedveten. Och det är ju det som vi ville på sjuttiotalet, men vi såg inte stickningen, för att inte tala om projectbagen. Vi gömde dem. På 80-talet plockade vi fram dem. Jag stickade en massa på tåget, jumper efter jumper i Angorina Lyx, mellan Åbo och Vasa och Vasa och Åbo, på väg från jobbet till seminarier och tillbaka till jobbet medan min gamla mamma tog hand om min son och våra hundar.

Jag stickar. Jag virkar. De senaste åren har jag spunnit, väldigt mycket. Att spinna är att hålla liv i mänskligheten. Spinning är det mest grundläggande av allt man kan ägna sig åt. Utan kläder byggs inga katedraler. Om man vill ta reda på livets mening, skall man spinna. Sedan kan man börja fundera på om det är genen eller guden eller ingentinget som styr. När man har kläder på sig, alltså. Medan man fryser har det där ingen betydelse.

Debbie Stoller är inte ensam stickguru i dessa tider, men hon är central. Därför får du nu ett foto av hennes pärmbild, som är mångtydig. Tyd den som du vill. Stickning är en meditativ grej, säger Stoller. När du läst Stoller, kan du med fördel läsa Elizabeth Zimmerman. Hon stickade på bönpallen när jag var ung. Från henne har vi fått ssk, slip slip knit, genialiskt. Det ryktas att hennes liv skall bli Hollywood film. Sedan kom Kaffe Fassett, och många fler.Visst är det uppmuntrande! Vi blir aldrig fullärda. Vi blir inte uttråkade.

Allt det här finns på notstället jag använder när jag läser och stickar eller virkar. Boken ovanför Stoller är Merete Mazzarellas "Resa med rabatt, om konsten att vara pensionär". Det är också en bok jag varmt rekommenderar för alla, oberoende av ålder

Trapper Joel's Hook

Trapper Joel sent me pictures of one of the beautiful crochet hooks he has made out of a spoon handle. Here is one of the pictures:

Flat hooks like this one have been used for Bosnian crochet, at least in Scandinavia. Sometimes they are made from silver spoons.  Silver is a wonderful metal, so I am now looking for an old silver spoon that Joel could transform into a crochet hook for me. If you want to buy one of Joel's hooks, you can contact Amy at The Yarn Stash in Minot, North Dakota. She is yarnfloozie on Ravelry, where you can find links to her shops on her profilepage. I bought one of the two Joel-hooks she had only yesterday :) Joel says it's difficult to find spoons to make hooks from.

You can read more about Trapper Joel in Carol Ventura's blog. If you already haven't read the interesting article about Bosnian crochet "From Carpet to Jourabs" that Carol links to in her post "History in Making", remember to read it! But for Joel, scroll down until you find him! Look at his amazing hats!

On Ravelry you find Joel as Trapper336. He is now working on hats in Bosnian crochet, look at his Ravelry Projects. Joel says he likes increases better than decreases, so he works from the top to the bottom. I understand why he does that, because in crochet increases often look better than decreases. I'm very taken by the fact that Joel is left handed, but learned to crochet with his right hand. I'm right handed. The last few weeks I have tried to learn how to crochet left handed, but it's NOT easy! In some amigurumis you  crochet backwords in a round without turning the piece.

Joel also mailed me copies of articles he had gotten from Mr. Larry Smith last year. One of the articles is "Old World Crochet", written by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, and published in the summer issue of Spin Off 2001. I greatly admire her way of making both history and technique visual and easy to understand. If you have that magazine in your bookshelf, do look at it again, there are some great photos! Gibson-Roberts lists some of her resources at the end of her article. Among them are some very interesting publications, that I now have in my wish-list. I didn't subscribe to Spin Off that year, so I had not seen that article. I'm happy that Interweave is now publishing digital editions of back issues, as this is not the only year I thought I could survive without that magazine! There is a tutorial article in the same issue, written by John Yerkovich: "Old World Crochet Bags".

One of the articles was from a Swedish book I have read some 20 years ago, but did not try to find for my article about Bosnian crochet in western Finland: "Gamla textila tekniker i ull", written by another of my favorite authors on textile: Kerstin Gustafsson, a very skilled spinner and weaver. The book was published in 1988 by LT förlag. It's a fantastic resource when you want to get a first look at old techniques where wool is used. It's interesting to note that Kerstin Gustafsson did not know all the Swedish terms we now have for Bosnian crochet. When Kerstin published her book, there was almost no elder books in Swedish where Bosnian crochet was mentioned, and little was known about it at that time. The picture shows how you hold the flat hook:

It seems to me that this hook is made of bone or wood, but I can't say for sure. The picture has traveled around the world in different shapes a few times :) It shows a hat, that is crocheted from the brim up to the top. In Joel's Ravelry Projects you can see his version of this hat, crocheted in a beautiful coopworth yarn.

Intermezzo, lament: Oh, all the books and magazines I have seen and read during my 40 years as a librarian! And oh how many of them I should have bought when they were published and still available for a reasonable price!

 

Back to more of the interesting texts Joel sent me:

In a letter from Larry Smith to Joe, Larry writes that the flat hook has been used in "pjoning", which is one of the terms for Bosnian crochet in Norwegian and Danish. Larry Smith mentions that some people find it easier to use the flat hook than a standard hook in pjoning, and that is what I have found, too. You hold the hook inside your hand, like a knife, and cast the yarn with your hook hand the same way as in twined knitting (twoendknitting, Swedish tvåändsstickning). Once you get used to this technique, you find it very comfortable and natural for Bosnian crochet.

On copy was from a Norwegian book, "Strikke, hekle, binde" by Gjertrud Saglie, published in 1989 by Landbruksforlaget. In this excerpt I got more terms in Norwegian than I had before: krokbinding, påting, bosnisk hekling, gobelinhekling, mosaikkhekling. Here is a picture from that book, showing an old and a new hook:

Thank you, Joel! You sent me some interesting texts and pictures. I will add them to my library ( my private one, not the one where I work!)

Now I'm sitting here wishing that someone with much knowledge and skills would write a book about Bosnian crochet in English. There is a lot of information that could be put together: history, culture, fibers, yarns, hooks, a lot of pictures, and some patterns, too. A thick book printed on good paper, and in a bind that stands opening and reading over and over again.

Spinnare - Kehrääjä - A Spinner

Men - det där är MIN spinnstol, Miranda vännen.

Mutta - tuo on MINUN kehruutuolini, Miranda ystäväni.

But - that is MY spinning stool, Miranda my friend. What I said in Swedish and Finnish can't be translated very good into English: in both languages cats are said to "spin" when they "purr".

Miranda är tolv år gammal, och en formidabel jägare. Hon har tappat en hörntand, men det hindrar henne inte från att ta gigantiska vattensorkar och hämta hem dem åt oss. Ibland fäller hon rätt mycket hår, och då kan man spinna några meter garn, vilket jag gjorde i fjol. Jag kardade Mirandahåret med lite ull.

Miranda on kaksitoista vuotta vanha, ja vielä hurja metsästäjä. Se on pudottanut yhden kulmahampaan, mutta ottaa silta valtavia vesimyyriä, joita se ystävällisesti tuo meille. Joskus se pudottaa aika paljon karvoja, ja silloin voi kehrätä muutaman metrin lankaa, minkä myös tein viime vuonna. Karstasin lampaanvillaa sekaan.

Miranda is twelve years old, and still a formidable hunter. She has lost one canine, but that doesn't prevent her from taking gigantic water voles that she brings home to us. Sometimes she sheds pretty much hair, and then you can spin a few meters of yarn, which I did last year. I blended the Mirandahair with wool.

Det här gör man helst utomhus :) - Tämän teen mieluimmin ulkona :) - You preferable do this outdoors :)

Bosnian Crochet

Hillevi's wristdistaff for securing fibers while spindling. Bosnian crochet in the back loop. Handpainted yarn from Limmo-design. Spindle "Comet" by Tracy Eichheim at Woollydesigns. Fiber merino-silk from Das Wollschaf

This blogpost about Bosnian crochet is an English version that is not translated, but completely re-written for Englishspeaking readers, thank's to Carol Ventura (dear Carol, you are a capable teacher, getting people to do things they have not thought of doing just by asking in a friendly way ;) of my blogpost in Swedish earlier this year. I have photos in that post that are not published here, so when I refer to my Swedish blogpost, please look at this link: Smygmaskvirkning

First some clarifying information about where I live. I live in Finland, my mothertongue is Swedish. My second language is Finnish. Finland is a bilingual country, very similar to Canada. The Finnswedes have lived along the western and southern costs of Finland for hundreds of years. We have strong bonds to Sweden, stronger than to Eastern Finland. Our culture has much in common with Swedish culture in Sweden. We have our own Finnswede media, but we also watch Swedish television, read Swedish books and magazines, listen to Swedish radio, but, and this is where we are oh so Finnish: we cheer for the Finnish sportsmen :) What could say more about a people than that?

Bilingual surroundings can sometimes cause confusion, because when you speak two or three languages in your everyday life, you mix things up. You think you are using the proper words, but you might have invented them yourself, or use a word that doesn't exist or that means something you didn't have in mind. It happens all the time, and usually there is no harm done (even if me and my wonderful Finnish husband, who just brought me a cup of French coffee, have communication problems sometimes!)

And now to the matter of this blogpost. Bosnian crochet is a technique where you use only slip stitches. By crocheting through the back or front loop, and by adding color, you can crochet quite nice looking things. The technique is best suited for small garments like mittens, gloves, and hats. It might have developed from tambour work, a way of embroidery where you use a small hook to draw the yarn through the cloth.

I got hooked by this old way of working crochet, when I read an article about tapestry crochet in the local handicraft guild's magazine. The article was written in Swedish, and strictly speaking it was an abstract of a Finnish article published in the magazine "Kotiteollisuus" in 1988. The headline of the abstract confused me, because it read "Krokvirkning", a Swedish term for Bosnian crochet. The writer, who by the way is a very skilled woodworker, obviously translated the Finnish term "kirjovirkkaus" (=tapestry crochet) without checking the accurasy of the word. This made me want to know more about crochet terms. Tapestry crochet, by the way, is called "flerfärgsvirkning" and "pälsbältesvirkning" in Swedish. English translations would be "crochet with many colors" and "fur-belt-crochet". Huh! How much more do you need to get confused :)

I wanted to compare five related techniques, so I crocheted five purses with the same yarn, Novita 7-veljestä, and a pattern with 3+3 stitches and 4 rows. I will not go into details about the purses, because I think the photo tells a crocheter pretty much. A few things though: Bosnian crochet in the front loop looks very much like knitted purl stitches (purse 3). This confused Swedish textile people when they first started analyzing garments in the museums in the first decades of the 19th century. Bosnian crochet had fallen into oblivion almost everywhere, but luckily there were still people who knew the technique. In purse 3) you can also see a typical design in Bosnian crochet with two colors, the way the stitch divides the pattern. There are 3 stitches in each motif, believe it or not! The pattern also slants to the right, and this is something that is often used to create patterns in Bosnian crochet. You can see it in the photos of the cover of the Swedish book, and the glove in my Swedish blogpost.

The purses: 1) Bosnian crochet in the back and in the front loop 2) single crochet (double crochet in UK) in the back and in the front loop 3) Bosnian crochet in the back loop, two colors 4) single (double) crochet in both loops, tapestry crochet 5) single (double) crochet in the back loop, tapestry crochet. The Bosnian crochet was worked with my aluminum Bosnian crochet hook, and the single crochet with an Aero 3,5 mm (US E/4, UK 9). You can find a converter here: Garnstudio crochet converter

You can see the hooks I used in my Swedish blogpost. The flat aluminum and wooden hooks are of a type that was often used in Bosnian crochet at least in Scandinavia. The crochet hook is the Aero 3,5 mm I used in three of the purses. Hooks for Bosnian crochet were often made of old spoonhandles, sometimes silver, and with beautiful ornaments. I know at least one person who has made a hook in that way.

I very soon found that crochet terminology is not quite established, and that misunderstandings can spread very fast in blogs and the internet. I also found there is very little written in Finnish and Swedish about Bosnian crochet in the area I was interested in, the coastal area of Ostrobotnia (Swedish Österbotten, Finnish Pohjanmaa) in Finland.

As the guild's editor was interested in an article about Bosnian crochet, I started writing it. I added information about Bosnian crochet in Europe. Lis Paludan, the Danish textilehistory scientist who is especially learned in crochet, wrote her book "Haekling" about European crochet in the '80s. She has one chapter about Bosnian crochet in her book. The book was later translated into English, and published by Interweave Press under the name "Crochet, History and Technique". From what I read in other books, especially from Sweden, it seems that most of the texts goes back to Paludan. I could have found much more about this technique if I knew more languages, such as Bosnian.

Lis Paludan traveled through Europe in the '80s and looked at crocheted items in the museums. She found no crocheted pieces older than the late 18th century. Bosnian crochet seems to be older than other forms of crochet, and to be concentrated to the peripheral areas of Europe: Bosnia, Balkan, the Scandinavian countries, Scotland, the Baltic countries.

In the 19th century, and also in the 20th, Bosnian crochet was often crocheted very loosely, and then felted. That made strong, warm and soft garments. After I had finished my article, I learned from Caprifool in Sweden that his grandmother used very tight Bosnian crochet for workmittens. She felted and then brushed the finished mittens to be even stronger and durable. She and Caprifool used to have crochet competitions, sitting on their front porch crocheting away the fastest they could :) They used crochet hooks of the kind we are familiar with nowadays.

Hjördis Dahl, a textile scientist from Finland, wrote her thesis "Högsäng and klädbod" about textiles among Finnswedes. Hjördis Dahl mentions that Bosnian crochet has been used to some extent in the northern and southern parts of the Ostrobotnian coast. There is a photograph in her book showing a pair of very nicely crocheted white gloves. Marketta Luutonen, who is one of Finlands most highly learned and respected textile scientists, sent me two photos of Bosnian crochet in the Finnish National Museum in Helsinki. She was, by the way, the writer of the original article about tapestry crochet that was called Bosnian crochet in the abstract. She is in no way responsible for the misinterpretation. I used one of the pictures in my Swedish blogpost, here is the other one:

And that is about all I found. I asked people on a couple of Finnish Ravelry-forums for more, but nobody knew anything about history, even if a couple of crocheters were familiar with the technique.

Now, what about the word "krokvirkning" that confused me? Well, the terms for Bosnian crochet in Swedish are many. We call it smygmaskvirkning (=slip stitch crochet), gammelvirkning (=old crochet), påtning (I have no English word for this, but it's a technique used for making cords and for nålbindning aka nalbinding), gobelängvirkning (=gobelin/tapestry crochet), bosnisk virkning (=Bosnian crochet), and krokvirkning (=hook crochet). "Kärt barn har många namn", as we say in Swedish. A dear child has many names. The most common term right now is smygmaskvirkning.

The Scottish/English term shepherd's knitting for Bosnian crochet is also a bit confusing, as it is clearly a crochet technique. The term has been in use since the late 18th century. "Bosnian crochet" of course indicates the area where the technique has been widely spread.

This little excursion into the world of crochet terms taught me, besides my first rows of Bosnian crochet, that crochet terminology is far too big a field for an amateur to try to explore in a few weeks alongside all the other things in life that have to be done. But it was a fun place to visit. If some of my readers have more information, or want to correct mistakes or misunderstandings (there must be some, as I have no one who could read this through before publishing), I would be happy if you let me know. I would gladly return to the subject later.

Fjädergarn - Höyhenlanka - Featheryarn

Svenska först - Suomea alla - English below

Det här fjädergarnet  spann jag i en spinalong i den finska spinngruppen Suomalaiset kehrääjät på Ravelry. Titta i tråden Yhteiskehruu om du vill se fler fjädergarner.

Vi hade höns för många år sedan. Minken dödade dem en natt, alla utom en liten tupp. Jag brukade samla fjädrar och dun som hönorna och tupparna fällde. Jag har använt dem till allt möjligt, mest påskdekorationer. Nu tog jag fram de sista fjädrarna och spann in dem i ett tvåtrådigt, turkosblått garn. Jag tvinnade på min största slända, som jag fått av min vän Kris. Hennes pappa har gjort sländan. Den har löstagbar trissa och fyrkantigt skaft. Det går bra att sätta igång den med fötterna.

Det kom några påskhäxor i år också :) De ser lite annorlunda ut än tidigare år, bl.a. har de fått en spetsig svart hatt. Jag undrar varför? Jo, jag vet, det var en retorisk fråga. Jag gillar också Harry Potter. Det var bara pojkhäxor i år, vilket förstås beror på att byns flickor har blivit äldre och inte vill gå runt och tigga godis mera. Titta på det härliga lila håret!


Kehräsin höyhenlangan suomalaisessa yhteiskehruussa Ravelryssä. Voitte ihan hyvin liittyä mukaan vielä, koska lankaa ei tarvitse kehrätä montaa metriä. Ryhmän nimi on Suomalaiset kehrääjät, ketjun nimi Yhteiskehruu.

Monta vuotta sitten meillä oli kanoja ja kukkoja. Minkki tappoi kaikki paitsi yhden pienen kukon yhtenä yönä. Tapasin kerätä kukkojen ja kanojen pudonneita höyheniä ja untuvia. Käytin niitä kaikenlaiseen askarteluun, enimmäkseen pääsiäiskoristeisiin. Viikko sitten hain viimeiset höyhenet kaapista ja kehräsin ne turkoosi-siniseen lankaa. Kertasin suurimmalla värtinälläni, jonka sain ystävältäni Krisiltä. Värttinä on hänen isänsä tekemä. Siinä on irroitettava kehrä, ja neliskulmainen varsi. Sitä on helppo käynnistää jalkaterien välissä.

 Tänäkin vuonna tuli muutama trulli :) Trullit ovat vähän muuttuneet viime vuosina, mm heillä on mustat, suipot hatut. Mistähän tämä johtuu? No, se oli retorinen kysymys. Minäkin pidän Harry Potterista. Tänä vuonna kaikki trullit olivat poikia, mikä kyllä johtuu siitä että kylän tytöt ovat liian vanhoja kerjätäkseen karkkeja. Katsokaa ihanaa lilanväristä tukkaa!

I spun this featheryarn in a spinalong in the Finnish spinner's group on Ravelry. Some spinners are still spinning their featheryarn, but if you would like to look at pictures, go to the group Suomalaiset kehrääjät and look for the thread Yhteiskehruu. Go to the posts from the last few days.

Many years ago we had hens and cocks. A mink killed them one night, only one small cock survived. I used to collect the feathers and downs that the hens and cocks dropped. I used them in all sorts of decorations, mostly for Easter. A week ago I took the last feathers from the closet and spun them into a turquoise-blue yarn, that I plied on my biggest spindle. I got the spindle from my friend Kris, who's father made it. It has a whorl you can take off, and a square shaft. It's easy to start between your feet.

We were visited by a few "Easter witches" again this year. Their dresses have changed these last few years. One new thing is the black, pointed hat. I wonder why? Ok, that's a retoric question. I like Harry Potter, too. The witches were all boys this year, because the girls have grown up and don't want to wander around the village begging for goodies anymore. Look at the wonderful lilac hair in the photo above!