The Unbroken Thread Continues

June Hall writes "Textiles play a big part in the culture of Lithuanians. As the country has been occupied over the centuries, they have fought to retain their national identity. Their music and costume have been--and still are!--the way in which they have achieved a strong sense of community. The song festivals are of great significance to them, and national costume is worn there. This means that hand weaving, embroidery and other textile skills are in demand, for authentic regional costumes for both men and women. Museum collections of original dress are proudly curated and display, and several handsome books have been published.

Less attention has been given to the history and current practice of hand knitting. A few books of patterns exist, from Soviet times, but no comprehensive account of the country's knitting history has been written. There is one regional study and one book on the regional patterns of wrist warmers. Knitting has been and is regarded as a common, every day activity, like cooking or washing clothes. It is domestic, unspectacular and unworthy of recording in photographs. So very few pictures of people knitting exist. There are a few pictures of sheep and a few of people spinning wool. This is a great contrast with the records of linen processing, which was a commercial enterprise, so was given greater importance. 

I have had great fun researching sheep, wool and knitting. I quickly realized that without the language, I would find out very little. The language is an ancient classical one, said to derive from Sanskrit, and the sole survivor in its pure form of the four Baltic languages. The university in Vilnius provides Lithuanian language courses for foreigners, and I have attended three times, in January, when the temperature go below -30 C. It has been a tremendous help to be able to talk to people in their own language. In many villages, there is no one who speaks English."

To be continued...