Looking Back on 2009, Part 2-Across The Pond

August I taught for over a week at Margaret Klein Wilson's lovely annual retreat in nearby Dummerston, VT.  It is such a privilege to be there with all those great knitters, eating the best food (in part, thanks to Josie who treated us to Puerto Rican flan (twice!) and Pernil).  We laughed and knitted our way through several Maine mittens! Barely had the boxes been moved into my new place, when it was time to fly to The Netherlands for the cruise!  Nancy Marchant, who lives in Amsterdam, met me and Nancy Bush at the airport.  We played for 3 days, eating out as much as possible!   Be on the lookout for Nancy Marchant's new book on knitting Brioche (no, not the bread, silly!):  Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to The Brioche Stitch.  Published by North Light Books, it is now available on Amazon! Here we are eating delightful Dutch pancakes.  Mmm, very fattening... Nancy M. had let a few knitters know that Nancy B. and I would be in town, and what started out as an intimate get-together turned into a formal presentation of our respective knitting interests.  I was amazed that over 40 knitters showed up!  It was gratifying to see that our work is known and appreciated beyond the US border. Then, we boarded ship in Rotterdam, met the 40 or so knitters who joined us on the cruise, and were on our way to Arhus, Denmark, where we stopped off at Marianne Isager's shop! She was very gracious and spoke to us about her work. Check out the eye candy that was there!  The yarn flew off the shelves.  Voracious American knitters! Norway was next and Nancy and I visited one of our favorite museums--The Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo.  We especially loved the exhibit of the Sami (or Lapp) people, who inhabit the northern regions of Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.  Their embroidery, weaving and knitting are breathtaking.  The socks are from Norsk Folkemuseum, and the mittens were seen at the National Museum in Helsinki, Finland. The embroidery we saw in Helsinki was amazing! In Russia, we took a bus tour before we went to the Ethnographic museum to see the national costumes of the countries of the former USSR.  On the way, we saw the Church of the Spilled Blood.  I LOVE onion domes! When we got to Tallinn, Nancy was so happy to back in her beloved Estonia.  Tallinn is one of the oldest remaining walled cities, which dates back to medieval times. Cruising has its merits.  You sleep in the same bed for the whole trip and don't have to schlep your suitcases from one place to another.  *AND* every night you get to see a new towel sculpture on your bed put together by the ship staff.  This was by far our favorite: Finally, it was time for the cruise to end.  I  loved all the great food, and the fact that I didn't have to cook any of it or clean up!  Every day at 3, Nancy and I went to High Tea and almost every night we went to listen to a string quartet play while we sipped wine.  Ah yes, it was the life!  But further adventures awaited! When we all disembarked, I caught a train to the town where Vivan Høxbro lives.  She had arranged for me to see the Nattrøjer from two local museums.  I spent most of a day photographing them.  One was more beautiful than the next!  I must thank both Vivian and Birgit Wilster Hansen, the curator at the Lolland-Falster museum for arranging this experience for me.  Here are three of the many garments I saw.  I think if you double-click on the images, you'll see better detail. The trip was drawing to a close, but I had one more stop in Germany to see my brother and his family.  Here he is with his newest daughter, Johanna, almost 2 and already understanding both English and German! What an enjoyable visit we had.  It was a great decompression time for me, as I put myself back into US mode, returning mid-September. Stay tuned for Part 3.