Christmas Crafts

Back in Catania, we were lucky enough to drop in on a Christmas crafts bazaar. There were all kinds of homemade crafts, from tatting, to loom-made rugs, to homemade limoncello and wooden boxes. Quite incredible displays of craftwork! Here are some of the wonderful things I saw (and some, I bought!):

The woman above made fabulous handmade rugs - she showed me a little bit about how she worked. She uses scraps of fabric in order to make the process go faster - and she was indeed quite quick at her loom! It reminded me very strongly of the loom I'd seen in the museum in Matera, and it was absolutely fantastic to see that loomwork is still alive and well in Italy.

This woman made beautiful earrings and necklaces with tatting - a skill I've never seen before (I've heard the word, but didn't know what it was). She had a beautiful range of earrings - some in the shape of butterflies, or intertwined spirals, or some that seemed like delicate snowflakes. 

They were both beautiful, and quite affordable - I ended up buying two different pairs!

 Beautiful ceramic work - and some of the finest I've seen in Italy (it in no way compares to the tourist stuff peddled on every corner!)

Not sure what this craft was, but it was incredibly gorgeous -
after some attempts in Italian, I couldn't quite figure out what the name
of this technique was.... incredible process.

Really nice paintings on burlap - great color, and a great idea!






To the right - a master of marquetry and woodwork.


All in all, a wonderful example of Italian craftspeople. :)

Old-school Drop Spindle!

Drop spindle and cotton

When we visited Matera, a city where people built their homes into natural limestone caves, I saw an old drop spindle and loom in a museum! It was pretty fantastic to see the evidence of textiles, and especially spinning, since it seems that very few people in Italy still spin.

Drop spindle

There was also this stick with cotton on it, as a way to hold the fibers. The museum also had an old hand-crank machine for wringing out clothes.

Old loom

I also learned that the women would often rent a large loom, just for the winter, to make the family's cloth.

Wringing machine for laundry

Weaving in Valle d'Itria

 Last week, on a cold windy day, we visited Alberobello, a city of Trulli architecture in the Valle d'Itria (Valley of Itria) on the east coast of Italy. To get out of the wind, we stepped into this shop, which displayed hundreds of unique hand-crafted whistles. As we explored towards the back of the shop, we stepped into a room filled from top to bottom with fabric. All linen, and all hand-made.

The very nice (and effective) salesgirl explained to us that all of the fabric was handmade by retired local women on looms in the old traditional way. The girl showed us a knock-off pattern from China, where the pattern clearly repeated in a manufactured way (those can be found also in Alberobello). The patterns were unique: grapes = abundance, bells = fidelity, peacocks = immortality, and the trullo meant happiness.

What I found the most fascinating was that the dyes were all plant-based and traditional: parlsey & nettle made the greens, strawberry the red, onion the yellow, and more. There were many different sizes of cloths - napkins, tablecloth sizes, different towel sizes, little cup-shaped ones for getting things out of the oven, breadbasket bags, etc.

It was quite an amazing sight, and one of the few demonstrations of textile work I had seen so far in Italy. I decided to take home a bag to use for knitting. :) After, they also let us up on the roof of the house, for a fun panorama over the roofs, and also of the laundry hung up to dry!

Tern Toe-up Socks

I have finally cast-on and am working on the Tern Toe-up Socks, a free pattern by Pam Allen on Ravelry! I've been admiring this pattern since we first began travelling, but I didn't start them until just three days ago. I've made two pairs of socks, cuff-down, but I've been intimidated by toe-up socks. But, thanks to my friend Molly's encouragement back in the States, I decided to tackle these. And they have been pretty smooth sailing thus far!

The cast-on uses "Judy's Magic Cast-on" which was not too bad to start (I think after I did the "Starry Starry Night" Shawl that this kind of cast-on is not so intimidating). Then, after a few rounds it starts into a simple pattern for the top of the sock: k2, p2, with every 6 rounds being a cable row. The cables aren't bad either! Only one is crossed in front, and then 5 stitches are knitted from a needle held to the back.

I think, really, that this pattern is even simpler (so far) than my first sock pattern, which were the "Spring Forward" socks, also free on Ravelry. The pattern for the Tern socks is much shorter to memorize - I only need to remember when to do the cable rows, everything else is k2, p2.

I'm using Textiles a Mano's Caricia, in a purple-navy color. I'm already getting close to the heel!

My Little Ponies

Before leaving our olive harvest home, I crocheted these two little ponies for Giovanna (our host)'s granddaughters. We met her granddaughters the first weekend we were there, and they helped us to repair the olive nets. Their names are Emilia (age 11; pronounced Em-ee-lee-ah), and Tulia (age 9; pronounced Too-lee-ah). Tulia made me a sweet little herb sachet, so I wanted to make something for them in return.

I learned from Giovanna that their favorite animal is the horse, so I went looking for a good horse pattern. I found this one, the Crochet Pony Pattern, and started on it. I learned a little crochet a few years ago, but it has been a long time! It took me a while to dust off my single-crochet skills to get going.

This is also an amigurumi pattern (amigurumi comes from Japanese, it literally means a crocheted or knitted stuffed toy). There are different skills for making amigurumi, such as starting with a very small circle of crochet which has no center hole. This is called the magic circle, and I became pretty darn good at it as almost every piece of the pony is started with it!

I had to change hook sizes a number of times before I had a good result - these were made with a size E hook and my leftover Calafate yarn from Textiles A Mano. I used some Caricia in navy blue and teal for the manes. Really, this was quite a fast project once I had a gauge that I liked. It took about three evenings to make both ponies.

I also had another motivation for making these - I loved My Little Pony as a child (although this pattern is based on the new series of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which is also quite good in my opinion), and so it was a walk down memory lane to make a pony stuffed toy. :) I think they turned out quite cute, and I know the girls will love them. Give this pattern a try, it was a great project for my first amigurumi!

Notre Dame de Grace sweater

At last, I have pictures to post of my finished Notre Dame de Grace sweater! It turned out great, and I love the colors. Truthfully, it's been finished since November 1st, but between finishing the olive harvest and then travelling in Napoli, I haven't managed to get a picture up of it. But it has been great to have it here - it does get cold in Italy, even in southern Napoli. :)

Seaming on Halloween

It is an amazingly satisfying thing to see a project, which has been in pieces for months, finally come together with the magic of seaming. It's currently 5 pm here in Italy, where I sit cozy and warm in our room, watching the night descend and the rain fall outside. Usually, I can see the adjacent hillside, which is covered in trees, a small vineyard, and more olive trees. Right now, it's shrouded in gray - it's been raining since this morning.

My Notre Dame de Grace sweater has one sleeve attached now, and I can't wait to seam the next one on! Seaming, for me and many other people, looms like a monumental nightmarish task - as bad as watching a B class Halloween movie. ;) This is the fourth sweater I've made, and even though I dread seaming, I find that once I have passed the beginning point, I enjoy the process. There is a certain joy to seeing stitches close up together, one by one, and separate pieces become complete.

Halloween is a new holiday in Italy - there is no trick or treating, or costumes... but the idea of Halloween marketing has certainly spread here. We've seen many shops decorated with a classic Jack O'Lantern in the display window, and orange lights. But, that's about as far as Halloween extends.

Still, even though there will not be trick-or-treaters knocking on our host Giovanna's door tonight, I feel a connection through the rainy weather to Halloween in Oregon.

To my wonderful knitting group at Textiles A Mano in Eugene - everyone, I'm thinking of you tonight. Have a wonderful, magical evening of knitting, watch out for witches & warlocks, and.... Trick or Treat! :D