We’ve been in Estonia for the past 10 days – our annual trip to Tartu to meet friends and family, and for language immersion for the kids. That last part has worked wonders, by the way: Ingrid’s Estonian is a lot more fluent than before.

One thing I’ve noticed is the popularity of ethnic patterns in design of all sorts. (Ethnic Estonian, that is, not the fashion trend that involves wearing fake Indian clothing.) I try to think back 10 years, and I believe that at that time I almost never saw any of the traditional Estonian patterns, except for maybe mittens in some weird craft shop, and tourist souvenirs. The folk costumes came out for the song festivals, and that was that.

Now I run into ethnic Estonian patterns everywhere. The stripes are the most popular ones: there are fabrics in various materials, there are throw pillows and oven mitts and bags, there are mugs and boxes and so on. The traditional floral embroidery designs turn up in children’s socks and women’s tights – and those are everyday tights you can find in high street sock shops, not souvenir or craft items. And in paper napkins and kitchen towels, etc. The more geometric patterns that I associate with knitwear appear everywhere from embroidery and felted wool to pottery and leather.

It is so lovely to see that traditions that were getting marginalized are now getting new lives, in new places, new materials, new variations. I hope that this is not a temporary whim of fashion or burst of nationalism, but that it stays.