It is spring in the Pacific Northwest, and as beautiful as always - chilly, though! As eager as I am to get my tomatoes started, I'm forcing myself to wait until nighttime temperatures are no longer in the 30s. It's still great sweater-knitting weather!
New this year: the Seattle Irish Heritage Festival at the Seattle Center on St. Patrick's Day weekend, gansey knitting trunk shows at local yarn stores for the Puget Sound LYS Tour in May, World Wide Knit in Public Day in Issaquah, WA on June 8th, and the Seattle Scottish Highland Games in Enumclaw, WA in late July. And at long last, Peace Fleece is back!
I create historical reproductions of 18th- and 19th-century fishermen's sweaters, faithful copies of family heirloom sweaters, original patterns and knitting kits, and resources for learning the art of gansey and Aran knitting. I plan to release a new reproduction of an heirloom Aran sweater pattern this summer, followed by a new original Aran sweater featuring Peace Fleece for the holiday season. A new gansey pattern is long overdue - follow my Facebook Page or subscribe to my email newsletter for updates.
This is an authentic cottage industry, a home-based small-scale manufacturing business drawing on skills handed down for generations. "Beannaigh" is an Irish word (pronounced BAN-nah), meaning to bless, to honor, or to salute. Handknitting was originally a way for poor women and girls to earn the only extra cash they would see for the year; one elderly woman from the Yorkshire Dales said that as a child, doing some extra knitting "kept the wolf from the door". Another from Ireland referred to her knitting needles as the "four crowbars of poverty".
These are powerful stories for me. When they weren't gutting and packing fish, hauling loads of peat for the fire, and growing their only food themselves, these women knitted. They spent endless hours of winter darkness working by the light of a single candle, if they could afford one, or huddled close to the fire if they couldn't. In spite of their hardships, they created incredibly beautiful patterns and designs that in some cases have remained popular for more than 200 years.
I preserve and pass along the stories of these women with my sweaters, knitting patterns, and classes. The village fishing life of the British Isles has largely disappeared in favor of tourism and larger industries, and their traditional handcrafts have become mere hobby. Thanks to a few dedicated researchers many centuries-old sweater patterns have been recorded, along with the stories of the fishing villages in which they originated and the women who knitted them. Books by Michael Pearson, Mary Wright, Gladys Thompson, and others are still in print and can be found at local bookstores and libraries - take a look at them to learn more!
New this year: the Seattle Irish Heritage Festival at the Seattle Center on St. Patrick's Day weekend, gansey knitting trunk shows at local yarn stores for the Puget Sound LYS Tour in May, World Wide Knit in Public Day in Issaquah, WA on June 8th, and the Seattle Scottish Highland Games in Enumclaw, WA in late July. And at long last, Peace Fleece is back!
I create historical reproductions of 18th- and 19th-century fishermen's sweaters, faithful copies of family heirloom sweaters, original patterns and knitting kits, and resources for learning the art of gansey and Aran knitting. I plan to release a new reproduction of an heirloom Aran sweater pattern this summer, followed by a new original Aran sweater featuring Peace Fleece for the holiday season. A new gansey pattern is long overdue - follow my Facebook Page or subscribe to my email newsletter for updates.
This is an authentic cottage industry, a home-based small-scale manufacturing business drawing on skills handed down for generations. "Beannaigh" is an Irish word (pronounced BAN-nah), meaning to bless, to honor, or to salute. Handknitting was originally a way for poor women and girls to earn the only extra cash they would see for the year; one elderly woman from the Yorkshire Dales said that as a child, doing some extra knitting "kept the wolf from the door". Another from Ireland referred to her knitting needles as the "four crowbars of poverty".
These are powerful stories for me. When they weren't gutting and packing fish, hauling loads of peat for the fire, and growing their only food themselves, these women knitted. They spent endless hours of winter darkness working by the light of a single candle, if they could afford one, or huddled close to the fire if they couldn't. In spite of their hardships, they created incredibly beautiful patterns and designs that in some cases have remained popular for more than 200 years.
I preserve and pass along the stories of these women with my sweaters, knitting patterns, and classes. The village fishing life of the British Isles has largely disappeared in favor of tourism and larger industries, and their traditional handcrafts have become mere hobby. Thanks to a few dedicated researchers many centuries-old sweater patterns have been recorded, along with the stories of the fishing villages in which they originated and the women who knitted them. Books by Michael Pearson, Mary Wright, Gladys Thompson, and others are still in print and can be found at local bookstores and libraries - take a look at them to learn more!