View Single Post
  #7  
Old April 27th 04, 03:09 AM
Richard Eney
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

A long time ago...

In article ,
Johanna Koski wrote:

From what I gather from our recent trip to Finland, they are the
people from Lapland.
For more information about them there is a link here
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/saameng.html


Wow. I didn't know that "Saamelaiset" are called Sami in English. That
can't be true.. Sami is a boy's name in Finland and it's very common
too! I checked my dictionary and at least "saamenkieli" the language
they talk is saamish...


I've seen it as "Saami" more often in English.

I tried to buy some traditional Finnish mittens in Finland, but
I didn't realise that shops shut on a Monday in Finland, so missed
them when we went to buy them on our last day there.

snip
They seem to have a detailed intarsia pattern in a traditional
Finnish style. The ones I've seen are knitted in a thick wool
dyed in natural colours. Maybe a Aran weight, and looked homespun too.


I have a book from library where is several patterns for mittens, but
they aren't typical Middle- or NorthFinland style. More like
EastFinland and Karelia.


In an old book from the 1970s, Eve Harlow's _The Art of Knitting_,
there is a drawing of a mitten that is supposedly from East Karelia
and has the pointed ends. It has a broad gauntlet (no ribbing).
The written description is confusing but it seems to say that the
mitten is Saamelaiset. I've had a go at figuring out the pattern
from the drawing, but it takes thinner wool, as it seems to be
70 stitches around the hand, plus about 26 stitches around the thumb.

The intarsia design is mostly just a series of connected diamonds
which the English writers call a "bird's-eye" design.

=Tamar
Ads