i love the breadcrumb trail, and how projects lead to other projects.
i was viewing some fantastic photos of the portland, OR krampuslauf, in which our second knitted krampus figured prominently. the photographs had been taken by gerhard hallstatt, an austrian pantheist and founder of the austrian industrial folklore project Allerseelen, who had attended the portland krampuslauf.
looking at some of gerhard’s other photos, i found one of some small, talismanic, red-and-white yarn figures that intrigued me. gerhard commented that they were martenitsa, a bulgarian tradition.
i did a little research. lying in bed with ben on new year’s eve, each of us with our ipads, i forgot about the new year entirely, and started looking forward to march 1. i could not wait to make martenitsa.
there are so many variations, and quite a bit of commentary on how the more contemporary ones are commercialized — made to look like spider man and other pop culture figures — and, on how much of bulgaria’s martenitsa trade is IMPORTED, from china, and how the chinese martenitsas are inferior to the bulgarian ones. wow, there are so many worlds out there, aren’t there? and yet, nothing new under the sun.
here’s a charming photo of a little boy who could use a nose wiping, wearing his martenitsa. i like to think someone made him that sweater, too — love the zipper detail on the shoulder.
here’s a funny little animated GIF featuring martenitsa — although i notice here the colors are switched — pizho (the male figure) is usually the white one, and penda (the female) usually the red.
i decided that i would try to needlefelt some martenitsa and knit others. both impulses resulted in some trial and error and ultimately pieces that i am very happy with.
the needlefelted martenitsa are large and chunky, and low on detail. i like their heft, their bauhaus-style. i only made two sets of these, and one is for me (even though you are not supposed to make martenitsa for yourself, i did.)
the other needlefelted set went to gerhard in austria.
the other sets are knitted, and very adorable — and tiny! when béla and claudia saw me working on these they were entranced and WANTED them immediately…
by all means mom, what we need in this family is more ethnic-y culture-y stuff.
