Maailma suurim Muhu sukkade näitus / The world’s greatest Muhu stocking exhibition

Abstract

The Estonian National Museum offers everyone who wants to share their interests with others in the form of exhibition an option to do so in the participation hall with the size of 130 sq. metres. What you need to do is to come up with an idea and take part in the contest. The public gave the largest number of their votes to the proposal to hold an exhibition of traditional stockings.

On the 7th of August 2020, the Estonian National Museum opened the biggest exhibition of Muhu stockings in the world called „Meie argipäeva vidussepidamise aeg” (“Our everyday knitting circle”) in the participation hall. The curators of the exhibition were Anu Pink, Anu Kabur, Anneli Kenk, Heli Kiverik and Knitters’ reproduction club (Kudujate Koopiaklubi). In 2018, Anu Pink posted on the Facebook page of the Knitters’ reproduction club an invitation to knit a pair of Muhu stockings. These stockings are knitted with 1.25-millimetre knitting needles making 160–180 stitches in each circle. The exhibition displays about 150 stockings. The museum collections all over the world comprise a total of approximately one hundred pairs of Muhu stockings. The exhibition displays 70 old and 85 new stockings made by the members of the Knitters’ reproduction club.

The design of the exhibition is simple and visitor-friendly. Each theme and every single stocking stands out. The historical background of colourwork Muhu stockings can be seen; a video demonstrates the dyeing of Muhu pink yarn, the drawing and the puzzle show how to follow the unwritten rules of pattern assembly, when placing the pattern in the stocking.

For knitting, Muhu women used the favourite colours of the period – orange, pink, dark red, leaf green, and yellow. Muhu women never knitted similar pairs of stockings, so taken separately – every stocking is a piece of art.

The biggest exhibition of Muhu stockings in the world displays the traditional values of the Estonian cultural space for viewers coming from the outside too. Here we can see the permanence of our knitting tradition, our thorough skills, and the fact that such things can be created only when you are aware of and respect the tradition. In order to get hold of tradition, old items are studied to enable proper insight.