Annual Viking Market

In the north of the island, they hold a three day Viking market once a year so we went. All the Vikings were dressed in thick wool robes and very hot. The temperature was more than 28 degrees C. But lots of things were happening.

Viking woman with skeins of natural dyed yarns. Madder and cochineal at the front bottom, then birch, then indigo (centre) and a Swedish tree (left and right) then at the top, various mixtures. Alas she was from Sweden. Quite a lot of the smallholders were from other parts of Scandavian including two Norwegian ladies who told me that there are lots of Viking markets in the UK, including at York which they attend. There are others in East Anglia and the North East. They were a bit astonished that I had never attended one but I pointed out that theVikings did not get to Mercia and all the local re enactments were of the Civil War.

Viking tents. People were living in these with everything in period.

A basket maker.

Lanterns for sale. They hold a candle. The near transparent wrap around cover is tanned salmon skin! I found several stalls with Inkle braids and skeins of wool but none were from Aland. There was someone with interesting bales of fabric for making Viking clothes but, on inquiry, that was imported from India. I did see a floor loom but it had been converted into a set of stocks!

So I only bought one thing which was very unexpected. I came across a stall selling leather ties, like ribbon so you can lace up the neck of your Viking robe. They had a wide range of colours and I bought for - guess what?- bookbinding. They are perfect for wrap around and tie book covers. I refused to buy any yarn because none of it was from Aland. I really thought there might be a warp weighted loom. There were lucets for sale and card weaving braid kits.

 

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Extreme Weaving

I remarked this morning that I should have brought a loom because it was the perfect place to weave. Anne thinks this should be called Extreme Weaving and that I should aim to weave at Everest Base Camp. Well it was a spectacularly good day.

As evidenced by the photo of the neighbouring island which was claimed by Anne this morning when she landed on it. We have all been out to inspect it this evening although there is a fast current this evening. Other things seen

A fish eagle eating lunch. We saw him catch it. There was a shoal of fish out there and all the birds were stuffing themselves. The eagle was at extreme range for my camera.

A tiny conifer growing in a rock cleft

A slightly bigger conifer in a rock cleft. There is so little soil here that the bigger ones have nowhere to root and just fall over. Oddly enough there were no conifers except some very low junipers on the little island but lots of deciduous trees, rowans, birches and what looked like a beech. Local flowers are campanula, thistle family, flowering sedum, armeria (pink sea thrift) and loads of lichen everywhere.

I have looked at my Convergence notes and written up the trip for out Guild Newsletter. And made todo lists.

And every evening we get one of these about 1030.

 

 

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More Enjoyment

I was asked for a photo of me in a canoe so I got some from Derek

Madi and me in our canoe.

All of the canoeists approaching the neighbouring island.

Today we went to a castle which has a museum attached and was reported to have a craft fair. This turned out to be a mistranslation and it was really demos of crafts, black smithing, rope making, boat building. And paint making. This was highly entertaining. And it is the making of the Cherokee Red colour that a lot of houses are painted in. Apparently it goes off fast so you decide you are going to paint the house next week and start boiling up at once. The ingredients are various and obtainable on the islands. Copper leftovers from copper mining, oil(should be linseed but that is expensive so they use fish oil). Flour, must be rye!!, various poisonous chemicals. Stir well over a wood fire until it boils and thickens. They were doing this in a very large pot, I guess forty or more litres, and the wooden spoon was several feet long. And it was very smelly.

There was someone spinning and we saw a two shaft floor loom doing a rag rug. Counter march. It had four treadles so it must be possible to add another pair of shafts.

Note the rather nice stove on the left, we have two in our house, and a sauna which was used this morning.

Spun yarn at the show.

House painted in Cherokee Red.

And a sunset. The sun does not set until 1030 and if you look at the sky at three am, there is red in the sky.

Marienham

Today some of us got up ever so late, after 9am. First walked, then paddled the canoes round a neighbouring island. We would have landed and taken possession for the Queen but the coast was very rocky and we could not see where to tie up the canoes or pull them out of the water.

By carto Mariehamn which has a population of ten thousand and is the biggest place on the island.

The Main Street in Mariehamn. The weather is marvellous and half the passerbys were eating icecream. Apparently that is the norm here which is why it is so popular as a holiday place. We visited craft shops (well what else) and I found local yarn.

They have their own breed of sheep here, Aland sheep, and the pale brown (natural colour, undyed) is from them. There were a lot of different colours, greys, shades of brown and white. But no black in the pile. Elsewhere I found some local spun yarn which had been dyed. The dyed yarn was all two colour and unusual mixes. I surreptiously found a loose end and can say, yes this will work as a warp. There are several craft shops in Mariehamn. Tomorrow, we are going north to the castle where they are holding a crafts day with demos and stuff for sale. That should be fun. I was in a shop called SALT today and could see an eight shaft floor loom. They would not let me near it!! Never mind, better luck tomorrow.

We visited this ship, Pommern. Commissioned in 1923 and taken out of service in 1939, it was the last big sailing cargo ship in the world and did the Australian run. It is enormous. Four masted, lots of space for cargo.

Alex trying out the wheel.

Back to our house which is so beautiful, I cannot see why we are bothering with towns.

 

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Åland Islands

The view from my hotel bedroom in Stockholm

We were roused by Anne at 0530 this morning and by 0630 were eating breakfast in the ferry port cafe. The car ferry runs to Helsinki, stopping at Turku and Åland Islands. It was a large ferry with twelve decks and it was full! The trip to Åland Islands took five and a half hours of which the first three and a half were taken up working our way through the Islands round Stockholm.

Above are two car ferries going into Stockholm between some of the islands. Once at Marienham we picked up a hire car and drove into the hinterland, picked up the house owner who led the way to our house which is on the most western point of the islands and is extremely remote. Our gate is a good eight km from the house! We have 2.5 miles of Coast line! ISo we are substantial landowners, except that it is all pine trees and sand.

 

The house itself

The view from one of the verandas.

A very stunted pine tree about six inches across. There is masses of lichen and an awful lot of rock. We have a rowing boat and two kayaks.

Åland Islands are very odd politically. They are in Finland but they are a demilitarised, self governing unit. So they have their own parliament and issue their own stamps. Enter my son-in-law, Derek, who is a stamp collector and started collecting the island stamps several years and has been corresponding with the Chief Post Mistress. Which is why we are here. I did not know that till this morning. We have to do a royal visit to the post office. The islands try to be self sufficient and I am sure I have read about the spinning here. Certainly there are lots of sheep. Tomorrow I shall set out to view the three yarn shops. I should say that the total population of the islands is about 50,000 people, less than Worcester(93,000) or all the Malverns (71,000). They have got more land though.

The weather is fantastic, hot with a breeze and good visibility. Lots of strange sea birds. The owners says we will see hares and foxes herein. Only one serious defect. The nearest grocery shop is 30 km away. Anne and Derek rushed off over an hour ago to buy food and I do not expect them back for a bit. No pub visiting or fish and chips here. And I need an ATM of which there are two on the islands, both in Marienham, which is fifty minutes drive away! Clearly forethought is required in planning.

 

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Sunday Dublin

It is 0530 am and I am having croissant and tea in Dublin airport! Weird isn't it? Got to Logan Airport in plenty of time, plane to Dublin on time, slept a bit but flight time is only 5.5 hours. Plane for Stockholm leaves in an hour. I remembered as I queued at the cafe that Eire uses Euros and scrabbled in a bag for a purse full of them. When I get to Stockholm, I will have to buy some kroner otherwise I will not get to the hotel.

Yesterday morning I listened to the juror of the Catwalk Show as she walked us round the entries. Very interesting, just as keen on neatness and tidy seams as Daryl Lancaster but with more emphasis on fashion. One piece was dismissed as 'verging on costume' which was true but it was nice. There were pieces there which were appallingly finished inside. Gill Arnold would never allow that. Altogether worthwhile.

The day before, Friday, I attended a class on network drafting from Robyn Spady who is a good lecturer. She does network drafting quite differently and I understand it much better. Like turning drafts, it pays to do it with graph paper and pencil. It teaches me a lot about what is going on.

Still no decisions as to major projects. Rosie has a challenge in September which is 'green'. And I have a wish to do some pleated double weave which I saw in the new book by Stenton. That means completing the double weave on the Louet which has been there for four years. I need this loom back in use because it has two warp beams.

So the order is

- wind on, tie on and weave small Newbury Coat this week. Time will be spent dyeing weft. I have quantities, several kilos, of white weft and I do not want to dye it all. The Guild in the shape of Yvonne Withers. Thinks we could sell the yarn to members if it was white and ready to dye.

- wind Tencel warp (before next Saturday) and tie it for Ikat. I want to try out some ideas. This job has to be done this week because the Guild Dyeing day is next Saturday and I am taking the Burco Boiler for an indigo vat.

- weave up Louet which, as I recall, is very slow. There are two layers of Tencel 30/2. I need about ten sections, each six inches long. That is sixty inches and, if I work hard, I might get twelve inches a day done.

Then I mount the warp for the green pleated scarf on the Louet and weave it.

All to be done before August 16th when I take the TGV to the South of France along with the entire family. TGV = train grand vitesse. And is it fast!!

I am slowly conquering iweaveit which is on the iPad. I need to buy some addons and will work on it this week. I want to design a piece of reversible tweed. Debbie Richardson, by the way, has a stunning reversible coat woven of double faced cloth in Tencel. But writing lists is the most important thing.

No photos today. I am sitting in a cafe and the idea of digging out camera, cables and rigging them is too much.

I can say I enjoyed Convergencec. I have come away with a lot of ideas especially about colours picked up from Rosie and Debbie. Lots of meals out with pleasant people. Now off to catch the next plane.

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Weaving courses

Yesterday I attended two classes, one on turning drafts and one on Tied Weaves. The Turning Drafts one was interesting. I turn drafts by telling Fibreworks to do it. It was a revelation to have to do it by hand. I got it wrong first time round. The Tied Weaves was by Robyn Spadywho provided a great handout and talked very well. Later on in the day, I listened to John Marshall talking about his judging of the yardage show. It sounds to me as if it is the luck of the draw whether you are accepted or not. He took 22 out of over 50.

The pieces were hung from a balcony. The photo above shows mine on the left and Cally Booker's on the right.

All the swatches are shown above.

In the evening, Rosie and I went out to supper with Linda Bowden who is the saganishiki expert. She and her husband have a rented place in Jamestown - and this is the view from their patio!! We sat there drinking wine and admiring the view, then went for a seafood meal. Great. I ate bluefish on the grounds that I had never tried. I prefer scrod. And of course we discussed textiles.

So now another day and another two classes.

 

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