Quimper Hittys

Planning for two more days in Scåne the girls found a map and studied some possible destinations mostly involving tea and rocks…

First we drove as far as we could down to the southern tip of Sweden, parked the car and commenced walking…

…and after a bit more than a kilometre we arrived at the national historic site of the Ales Stones…

…it was a foggy day so the sea was as grey as the sky.

The stones are positioned in the outline of a ship, and they are big! The tallest ones at “prow” and “stern” are taller than the human!

Photos usually show the stones from the air! Taken from the ground it is harder to get a sense of the ship-shape, but they were impressive nonetheless.

Not far away was the little town of Ystad where we found a cup of tea in one of the old timbered buildings lining the cobblestone streets.

The next day we found the “kings grave” in Kivik… these stones have a strange story… the diameter of this stone pile follows the known size as recorded in the 17th century, but most of the rocks were removed over time to build other things, and the central tomb was looted. “Experts” in the early 1900’s decided to “restore” the shape of the stone pile but made it into a Phoenician style tomb, because they were sure there was some connection. The tombstones stones inside are actually very interesting with petroglyphs etc.

After speculation, interpretation, and much perambulation, it was very pleasant to have a cup of tea, an open-faced sandwich and a little cake. This is a really nice coffee shop called Alunbruket near Brosarp! It is a little hard to find but so worth it! And look at the teacup! It’s the same pattern that my Swedish grandfather treasured… I have two of his cups (though as a typical Swede, he preferred to drink coffee in them)!

It’s the end of our visit to the countryside of my fore-fathers and mothers…it was so nice to tramp around and visit places and see the views and vistas they saw too, satisfying and enriching, I am so glad we came here.

On to the next part of our adventure!

A little adventure! Coriander and Arianell hopped into the backpack and went on a 7+ km hike with me in the beautiful Söderånsens park.

The weather was perfect for a long walk, cool but bright…

…we enjoyed walking on beautiful trails through beech forests…

…up to a viewpoint at Kopparhatten…

Through more forest at the top of the ridge…

…with an understory of blueberry bushes!

Luckily for hungry little people, you are allowed to pick and eat berries in Sweden wherever you find them , even in a national park!

We kept walking up, down and around the park…

…through more forests …

…this looked like a troll cave…

…so we rested in a less spooky mossy spot.

It was a long walk! We hoped to see a tapestry weaving spider! But we didn’t. It was so very lovely under the trees with the soft dappled light, blueberries, old farmsteads with rock walls all that remained of people’s lives here in times past.

Arianell and Coriander felt like they could have been some of Elsa Beskow’s forest people!

We were all very glad to get to our next accommodation at Torps Vimsa…

…where the Hittys were provided with their own little copper kettle to make a restorative cup of tea!

The south of Sweden has many ancient burial mounds, we visited a group of about twelve barrows very near to Landskrona, which might have been visited by my not quite so ancient ancestors!

The back of a photo taken by my grandmother in 1948 (they are not viking burials but earlier)

Here’s the front of the photo. Another photo says the mounds are “near Härslöv” – these were the only clues I had as to where they were!

Arianell and Coriander were keen to climb up to the top!

The view south out over the fields was very fine.

After visiting the barrows we drove through nearby Teckomatorp and stopped at the little parish church in Norviddinge…

Where I located the gravestone of the Bengtsson family including my Great Aunt Anna Matilda, who I remember as a sweet white-haired lady who spoke in careful English, and taught me to embroider. We made “little Dutch girl” tea towels together, one for each day of the week except Sunday! She is the one who inspired me in my love of textiles, and whose tapestries brought me here.

Tack så mycket Faster Anna Matilda💐

A half hour away by ferry from Landskrona …

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After visiting Lilla Rödde we went to Svaneholms Slott, “swan lake castle” where…

…there was a lovely lake (formerly a moat) which did have swans, ducks and geese floating about on it.

Inside the castle were many textiles including several old Flemish weavings but also woven, knitted and embroidered garments, like this woman’s woollen knitted top,

Here is a close up of one of the sleeves – such beautiful work!

And here is a wedding shirt made by a betrothed woman for her sweetheart.

Who should we run into in the attic, but Nils! He’s the naughty boy who was shrunken down to Hitty size, and flew off with his farmyard goose visiting important historical sites all over Sweden (in a story written by Selma Lagerlöff)

Nils had a goose friend visiting. Coriander and Arianell would like to have met him when he was smaller, and asked for more details about his adventures!

The visit to the castle was followed by a fabulous lunch…this view is from the parking lot of the Vismarlövs Café and Bagarstuga …(I had Swedish pancakes for lunch!)

The afternoon was spent in the lovely little university town of Lund, then we had to say goodbye to our fellow students, and our tour organiser Sarah Light.

Every aspect of this tour was so well organised, Sarah was attentive, and accommodating and I can say unequivocally that every day of this weaving workshop tour was absolutely wonderful I think any tour arranged by this company would be excellent.

The website for information and upcoming tours with The Tour Studio is:

https://www.thetourstudio.com/about

Meanwhile we will be in Sweden for a while… the adventure continues!

We were conveyed to a little farmhouse in the middle of the Skåne countryside…

…where Hanna and Anna Jönsson were born and lived all their lives.

As was the custom, the two young women prepared dowries for their eventual marriage, but neither of them ever married so their spectacular textiles were never used.

Each sister wove tapestries in the Flamskvavnad style, including enough intended to upholster a sofa and 12 chairs (each!)

…using a large upright tapestry loom.

Besides the dining room sets, they wove many cushion covers, table cloths, wall hangings and other necessities.

It was all so beautifully made and colourful – never used and very little exposed to light.

All quite overwhelming! The kind docent invited me and the Hittys to sit on this bench in front of the stone table top so she could take our photo!

So amazing and wonderful to see these tapestries and after a week spent learning the techniques it was sure enlightening to see the skill and creativity displayed – and in a home in the way they were intended to be used. And what a treat to be driven through the Swedish countryside for a day!

Thank you so much to the Lilla Rödde Museum for allowing us to visit and admire!

The end of a week of weaving has come too fast!

We learned how to tighten up the edges if they were drawing in too much…

…and how to weave a circle with spots in it!

This is where I stopped. There is a whole technique for dealing with the warps after the weaving comes off the frame, which I hope to remember when that step comes…

…but meanwhile the looms with weaving attached are being posted home!

Coriander and Arianell made the leftover yarns into skeins and butterflies…

…and went for an evening walk along the waterfront in Landskrona. Here they visited the statue of Selma Lagerlöff, who lived in this town for a few years.

What a wonderful place the Hemslöjden I Skåne is…a bright and cheerful workshop area, generous, dedicated and helpful staff, a situation convenient to the town centre and a very welcoming well-stocked shop. The dedication to preserving local and traditional crafts is so impressive especially as they have been doing so for over one hundred years. This is their website:

https://hemslojdeniskane.se/

We are not really ready for the weaving to be over, and were very sorry to say goodbye to our wonderful teacher Mrs. Marianne Asp. But we are on to the last day of the tour which will consist of visits to nearby museums.

Bye for now!

What a great course! Mrs Asp brought in several examples of weavings she made in past years…and look! A tapestry from the very same pattern that my Great Aunt made!

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