Tag: fair-isle knitting
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Fair Isle in Whalsay
Are you going to Shetland Wool Week this year? If so, can I strongly suggest you set aside a day in your itinerary for a trip to the wonderful island of Whalsay?. The Whalsay Heritage Centre is currently hosting an exhibition of the island’s fair isle knitting that will, I assure you, really blow your…
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Shetland Textiles: 800 BC to the Present
Writing of the worn and mended Fair Isle sweater that Shetland knitter, Doris Hunter created for her fiancé, Ralph Patterson, who spent four years in a Japanese POW camp during the Second World War, editor Sarah Laurenson states: “Ralph’s sweater is much more than a physical object. It is a site of personal and political…
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um, a tea cosy?
For reasons completely unfathomable to me, knitters have been contacting me asking me to provide instructions to modify the Tea Jenny hat pattern into a Tea Cosy. I am frankly at a loss to understand exactly why one would prefer put teapots on a teapot rather than a human heid, but what can I say:…
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thinking time
Well, I had a fantastic time in Shetland. As I was on my own, I stayed in Lerwick. I really enjoyed meeting up with Shetland friends old and new, and pottering about toon. But I was there to work — I have a couple of writing commissions in the pipeline, one of which involves producing…
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ready for autumn
The leaves are turning. In the hedgerow, just a few berries remain . . . . . . and there is a decided nip in the air. But I am ready for Autumn. I have a new hat . . . . . .and mittens. These lovely things were not knitted by me, but by…
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in colour
I’ve been thinking a lot about colour of late, and about how closely one’s experience of colour is tied up with one’s experience of landscape. I had a conversation with Mel the other day — concerning the crazy hues of the lichens she’d seen in a particular West Highland location — and was reminded of…