About

Gundega Gallery – Friendship knitting

My name is Gundega. I have spent the first 50 years of my life in my home country – Latvia. I had a nice family, a well-grounded academic career… However, in 2016 I pushed the “reset” button for my life and career and moved to Germany, to be together with Ian and share his science, joy and sorrows. Since 2016 I live in Germany and spend summers in the USA (Utah). I have new relatives, and I would like to find new friends.

  • I miss my home country, my Latvian friends and relatives. Being far away from my home country and most of my loved ones, inspired me to return to the values, knowledge and skills that I learned from my mother, which are deeply embedded in the traditions, culture and history of my country.
  • Latvians have very old knitting traditions that embrace the Latvian ethnographic signs with symbolic meaning – for example: Sun, Luck, Home, Wisdom, Fertility and Growth, Nature and Eternity. Knitted items are meant not only to keep one’s head, feet and hands warm, but also to symbolically protect the person from cold and evil, and provide good fortunes. We have a tradition of giving personalized knitted gifts for special life transitions. For example, brides give knitted mittens to her new relatives and special gloves to their grooms.
  • I have knitted all my life, mostly for my family. After moving away from Latvia, I re-started knitting – to fill the dark, silent evenings in Jena and Utah, to patch a home sick hole in my soul, and to develop nice presents for friends – relatives, old friends and potential new friends. Besides, knitting brings me joy and it is a type of meditation. It requires focus and rhythm, but frees my mind to contemplate the pattern, the person, and the expected outcome. The rhythm of knitting is like dancing, but a dancing that leaves you with something that is tangible and beautiful…. . When knitting, I have caught myself counting – one, two three…one two, three…black, white, white, red, black, white…., blue, blue, blue, yarn change, white…etc. This meditative activity is an excellent treatment for stress and helps me to regain harmony and balance after a long working day. The Covid-19 pandemic was an excellent time to for knitting – productively spent time of being locked in, with no danger of contracting the virus. Knit for fit – is my knitting logo.
  • While knitting, I am thinking of my friends – the most important episodes of our friendship, thinking of my old and new relatives and learning about their characters, habits and interests. While visiting new yarn stores all over the world to look for the right color yarns that would personalize the particular Latvian symbols I’ve chosen for a particular knitting project.
  • While visiting these yarn stores, I have learned that knitting is a hobby which unites women of all nationalities. I’m sure that all knitters have their own motivations for knitting, but there must be something in common. I have realized how easy it is to communicate with people who share the same interests and I hope that this site will help to uncover these stories and commonalities. For me, knitting is my meditation and expression of creativity, my way of long distance communication with my friends and relatives; I would love to hear the stories of other knitters.
  • This site mostly represents my knitting after 2016. Although I have been knitting all my life, it never came into my mind to take pictures of my knittings and collect them in one place. I am very grateful to Ian, who truly appreciated my hobby and skills. It was his suggestion to collect the pictures and create this website. Since 2016 I have collected most of the pictures and stories for each of my personalized knittings. When knitting, I have certain motivations: my associations with the person and why have I chosen a particular pattern and coloring.