Tag: textile history

  • Cockatoo Brae

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Yes, you did read that correctly — Cockatoo Brae. This remarkable phrase is, in fact, the name of a lane in Lerwick, Shetland, and it is also the name of the final yoke in my collection. This design emerged from an exciting collaboration with my friend Ella. In Shetland, machine and hand knitting go very…

  • A day at Sanquhar

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Have you been to Sanquhar? I am ashamed to say that I hadn’t — until Saturday. Sanquhar Knitting Workshop was part of Glasgow University’s Knitting in the Round project and was held at A’ the Airts, a lovely community arts centre at the heart of Sanquhar. At the workshop May MacCormick, who has knitted literally…

  • knitwear and cultural relativism

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    One of the issues I’ve found myself thinking about an awful lot while writing my book is how knitwear “traditions” are never completely national or regional in origin, but are always interwoven and interconnected. Knitting is a fluid and mobile medium in so many senses, traveling around the ocean on the backs of seafaring men,…

  • Great Tapestry of Scotland 124-160

    Great Tapestry of Scotland 124-160

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Panel 140: Cumbernauld Well, this is my final post on the Great Tapestry of Scotland! I have really enjoyed revisiting my photographs, and thinking more about the tapestry, and your comments have also provided much food for thought. These photographs are, of course only snippets, and you’ll find much more thorough information in the two…

  • Great Tapestry of Scotland 1-23

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    On Sunday I finally got to see the Great Tapestry of Scotland. I was completely blown away by the vision of Alistair Moffat (who produced the tapestry’s historical content and context), Andrew Crummy (the superb artist who designed these 160 panels) and perhaps especially by the skill and beauty of the work of the thousand…

  • A conversation with Hélène Magnusson

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    (Hélène, Hiking and Knitting between Fire and Ice, against the spectacular backdrop of Eyjafjallajökull.) When I visited Iceland I had the very great pleasure of finally meeting Hélène Magnusson, whose research and designs I have admired for many years. I visited Hélène in her lovely home in Reykjavik, where we drank tea, ate some delicious…

  • A brief history of British socks

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Things are very busy around here! For those of you interested in Peerie Flooers kits, I’ll be updating the shop this Friday, May 9th, at around 9pm GMT. Meanwhile, here’s another article I’ve had time to excavate from my archives — a survey of the history of socks and stockings in the UK, which was…

  • my tam – at Gawthorpe!

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    While I was away in Lancashire I popped over to Gawthorpe to see preparations for the new season’s exhibitions. Excitingly for me, my Richard the Roundhead Tam is included, – the first time my work has ever been displayed in a museum or gallery context. I can tell you that the thought of the tam…

  • Lancashire Weekend

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    We have been away in Lancashire for the weekend. Tom will shortly be participating in a rather testing race, and the Bolton Hill Marathon provided the ideal training run. While he was off doing that, me and my parents visited Helmshore Mills Textile Museum. For someone interested in textile history this is a truly wonderful…

  • today’s inspiration

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Kerstin Olsson in Karen Invarsson’s Bohus design “The Swan”. Twiggy iconic in Fairisle The McCartneys in Shetland Yoke design by Unn Søiland (1951) Yokes, knitted & crocheted pre-1950 Can you guess what my next book is going to be about?

  • of handkerchiefs

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I have a terrible cold. When one is sniffling and snuffling and generally feeling lousy, there’s nothing more comforting than a nice handkerchief, of which, it occurred to me this morning, I possess quite a few. So I took some photographs of the ones that aren’t in use or in the wash. Some of them…

  • Shetland Textiles: 800 BC to the Present

    Shetland Textiles: 800 BC to the Present

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    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…

  • a day at Gawthorpe

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Some days I wake up and I feel massively, incredibly lucky to have somehow landed here, in this curious new life, as a designer of hand-knits. Last Thursday was one of those days. Because I had been invited — along with Debbie Bliss , Jane Ellison, Claire Montgomerie, and Emma Varnam — to visit Gawthorpe…

  • thinking time

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    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…

  • The Sixareen Kep

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    Hello from Shetland, everybody! Wool Week is in full swing, and it has got off to a great start. I thought you’d like to see the pattern we produced yesterday at the Shetland Museum — named and photographed by the workshop participants, and modeled here by the lovely Tania — the Sixareen Kep. In the…

  • Two days in Donegal

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    Kate Davies Designs
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    I am designing a few things at the moment with a yarn that is new to me. I really like this yarn – and surely the best way to find out some more about it was to visit the place where it is made? So, on Friday, Mel and I took a trip to Donegal.…