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!