Kirikindad - Patterned Mittens II

Recostructions of mittens based on the Collection of the Estonian National Museum.

Aino Praakli has been a regular user of the textile collection of Estonian National Museum for years.That means hours of work with museum files and catalogues and hundreds of pages in archival documents. She has examined considerable part of those materials and also succedded in knitting the copies of the mittens. This presents publication has special value due to the fact that every sample pair of mittens is provided with the register number of original item or archival document preserved at the museum, which are thus easy way to find.

Aino Praakli is one of the persons keeping alive the tradition of knitting etnographic patterned mittens in today's Estonia. She has knit excellent copies of mittens preserved at hte museum, and has been actively involved in promoting the art of knitting patterned mittens at high atistic and technical level (e.g. several publications "Targu Talita" in weekly newspaper Maaleht and at many handicraft events). Aino Praakli has shown that it is possible to knit quality mittens despite today's busy lifestyle. Her activities are especially welcome, considering that during recent years the quality of mittens has decreased in the hands of "rushknitters" (particulary in case of machine knitting), yet the artistic value of their choice of colours and design styles remains rather questionable. This present publication contains a selection of the best sample mittens knit by Aino Praakli, thusproviding an interesting and essential material for any person interested in handicraft.