You know it is too long between posts, when...

…I have to sign in again to gain access to my website.  Sigh.

Much has been happening in the little home in Rochester. This past week I have turned in a new article for Interweave, proofread a different article for Interweave coming out soon, and had two more accepted for a December publication. Three articles and patterns are due today for a book (thank heaven I have an extension!), and I have another mitten pattern to finish off for Knitsy magazine for next month's publication. My eldest son had "parents' weekend" at his school, and my schedule was filled with concerts and classes dedicated to him and his school. My hubby was out of state, and the homeless shelter where I work had their open house. The rest of my life is continuing as normal!

Next week I'll be in Rochester, Minnesota for a Mayo family reunion. It has been 150 years since great-great-grandfather moved the family from LaSueur, Minnesota to Rochester. For some reason, the Mayo Clinic has determined that is a date to inaugurate. So, Friday night, a bunch of us relatives, and many, many more notables in Rochester will converge on a ballroom and hear Tom Brokaw wax eloquent. 

I plan on wearing Irish lace cuffs I designed based on an Irish crochet linen duster that great-grandma Edith owned. I made them awhile ago, and now they sit by my black dress, one on and one still to be applied.

Until then, it is essays and patterns, knitting and crochet.  What fun!

Here are some pictures of my eldest in his first regatta this weekend:

And, they're off!

Kautokeino, the personal touch

One of the nicest things about going anywhere as a stranger, is being welcomed into someone's home. 

Gerlinde welcoming me with cloudberries

Gerlinde Thiessen was my wonderful home-touch in Kautokeino! We met last year at the 2013 Finnfest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Gerlinde's boyfriend, Bernt, is a singer in the Sámi Jienat choir, whose members are made up of Sámi across Norway, Finland and Sweden, and works for the Sámi National Theatre, or, in Sámi, the Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter. When I visited, he was on a tour with the group.  A loooong tour, which included the major cities and the northern cities of Norway, Sweden and Finland, but also… Tokyo.

Gerlinde is an artist herself. She is German, and originally came to the area hiking, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong anywhere, please, Gerlinde). Then, she hired on at an absolutely amazing silversmith there in town, called Juhls Silvergallery. That place alone could tell a story that would fill a volume! In fact, you can take a walk through by watching this youtube video:

It is obviously an amazing structure designed and built by very artistic people. The building itself is a kind of organic growth that spans various stages and developments in the Juhls' lives. Each floor is like a strata that houses a different flavor of decoration, and a different design of silver. In the oldest part -- near the workshops and the register (which was beautiful in its own right -- and made in Ohio!), the owners housed a little, personal museum -- textiles, reindeer leather and doudji, antique Sámi spoons and other items. Very interesting, and of high artistic quality. These were not for sale, but more than once, I wished I were not on such a strict budget because the silver products in the shop were of surpassing quality! But my eyes and ears would have to hold the free treasures of beauty from this northern world.

An outdoor mosaic 

Gerlinde also drove me to another silversmith in town, and a weaving and knitting shop known as Avži Design, just outside of Kautokeino.

a bridal brooch from the second silversmith we visited

The way to Avži Design

Some of May Toril's shawls that she hand wove 

May Toril is the owner and operator of Avži Design. It is on her husband's farmland. A little red shop, cheerful on the inside and out. Inside, I admired her knitting and weaving handwork, and then Gerlinde and I sat down for a nice chat with her. I learned much about the community and history, from Kautokeino's "Bible," that is, a sort of telephone directory of the generations of Sámi in the area, their ups and downs.  Seriously.  This book tells the births and deaths of everyone in the community, back, perhaps five generations.  It is like the begets of the first chapter of Matthew. And, just like that chapter, a few little zingers are stuck in there -- bits of gossip.

I learned about some people I was studying from the area, but also, more about the Kautokeino Rebellion. 

But, if I ever want to get this on my website, I will have to wait for another day to discuss that!

Kautokeino

I drove into Kautokeino, so happy to finally be there.

Kautokeino road sign in both Sámi and Norwegian

Kautokeino and Karasjok are the heartland of Sápmi -- full of Sámi culture and history. They even have a kind of rivalry. Karasjok got the Norwegian Sámi parliament, and Kautokeino got the Sámi University College. 

Kautokeino is noted for its gorgeous (over-the-top?) gákti. Both the men's and women's outfits have a flared skirting on the bottom edge, which utilizes rows and rows of ribbon.  Rows and rows, ya'll.  I have read the lower edge can consume 20 meters of fabric with the correlating amount of ribbon.  I didn't think about it before visiting, but this can result in quite heavy dresses. The ribbons and trim are echoed on the cuffs, and shoulders of the garment and hat for men. It's like, someone took a dare and thought -- just one more row of ribbon; surely, just one more row of ribbon could fit!

I do feel the need to tell you, I did not take these four pictures of Kautokeino dress.  Many, if not most, of the Sámi people own a gákti, but it is the rare person who uses it for an everyday outfit. It is reserved for special occasions: weddings, confirmation, sometimes Sunday church. Here are two gorgeous pictures of a confirmation Sunday.

Boys at confirmation

girls at confirmation

This last photo is of Nils Thomas Outsiders in front of the town. He was one of the producers of the movie, Kautokeino Rebellion about the famous uprising 150 years ago. Really, it was a kind of backwards rebellion, towards a more conservative life. Kautokeino was, and is, a conservative town, but, during that time, the merchant in town was trying to pay trappers and traders in alcohol. Discontent brewed, as more and more of the people wanted nothing to do with alcohol, influenced by the religious teachings of Laestadius. 

Nils Thomas Outsider

Unfortunately, because of the extreme northern location, the Lutheran priests were usually lousy, assigned there to be out-of-the-way. They often were not sympathetic to their parishioners, their language or way of life. About 30 men and women marched on the liquor seller and law enforcement. At the end, both the merchant and the sheriff were dead, and the town priest was beaten and flogged. On the Sámi side, 30 were arrested. One died on the way to prison. Two were executed by decapitation, and three died in prison. One of the men in prison went on to translate the Bible into the North Sámi language during his confinement.

The reprisals, really, were quite awful. One family was completely destroyed: two sons dead, a daughter in prison, the mother interrogated… Even in death, the punishment continued.  The bodies of the two men who were decapitated were buried outside the church graveyard walls, signifying no church blessing on their lives or deaths.  Their heads were sent to Oslo and became part of a medical facilities skull collection. Even in 1985, when a relative requested the skulls be returned, bureaucrats in Oslo stated, "Mons Somby was a convicted criminal and a murderer and that no attempt should be made to describe Mons as a martyr to any cause." Can you imagine?! It took 12 years, and significant political pressure, to get the skulls returned and buried with the bodies in Kåfjord. I visited the Kåfjord church the day before I drove to Kautokeino.

Kåfjord church near Alta, Norway

150 years later, people are still talking about the rebellion. It is a bitter memory. I heard of the horrible circumstances for the families left without providers. I also heard of the relatives of those from nearby Avži who marched to go help quell the rebellion. Even the movie is discussed and debated for its details that were altered to increase drama. I don't know why that is so often the case -- history, itself, seems pretty riveting to me.

Next up: Kautokeino, the personal touch

On to Kautokeino

It's been a busy week here in Lake Wobegon. The past day was filled with computer dawdling -- doing things I don't like or understand for the greater good of the business. I separated my work Facebook account, and made a new twitter feed.  Please check them out.  On FB I'm Laura Ricketts Designs, and on twitter I'm Laura Ricketts @LRickettsDesign. 

It's amazing that it takes a few lines to write that, but all day to pull off (and, I'm not even sure it's done correctly). 

Meanwhile, knitting and charting continues on.  Saturday, MARCH FIRST, we had freezing rain, and about 4 inches of snow on top of that. Snow and swim meets mean more knitting time.  I finished a lovely Finnish mitten, and started a Swedish one in the same day.  I hope to someday get the second one done.

If I pick up my Fall travel saga where I left off, I believe I stranded all of you readers in Alta, Norway.  I was only there two nights. I was in a lovely little campsite just South of town on the road to Kautokeino and Karasjok, but it was there, in the City of Northern Lights, that I saw my first northern lights.  So beautiful and magical, and surprisingly, very difficult to photograph. For this, I have only my memories.

Early in the morning, I awoke, ate breakfast, and then went through the books I had checked out from the Sámi National Parliament building in Karasjok.  I am a proud card carrying member, and thanks to librarian Kåre Balto, I was able to check out books on the duodji from Karasjok, and return them to the Kautokeino Sámi school.

About 10, I packed up the rental car, and began my drive South to Kautokeino. The road follows the Alta river through a beautiful narrow gorge. At the Karasjok/Kautokeino road, I turned right and went through some high, desert like country, stopped off to see the small village of Máze, and then onto Kautokeino.

I had arrived!