We're blessed with early springs here in the Pacific Northwest. Snowdrops and crocuses start to appear in February, and my native flowering currant starts to blossom in early March. It's still sweater weather, though! Summer often doesn't really arrive until after the 4th of July.
This year's Irish Festival was a fantastic success, and I'm looking forward to taking my Gansey Knitting Trunk Show to Port Townsend for the Puget Sound LYS Tour in May. I haven't yet decided on a home for World Wide Knit in Public Day on June 14th, but it will be in or around Seattle or Issaquah. Then comes the Wooden Boat Festival over Labor Day Weekend, again in Port Townsend, WA.
I'm breaking with my usual routine of one design at a time, and have THREE new sweater patterns on my needles! More test knitters are needed, for both ganseys and Arans - feel free to text or email if you're interested.
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 and passing on the art of gansey and Aran knitting.
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!
This year's Irish Festival was a fantastic success, and I'm looking forward to taking my Gansey Knitting Trunk Show to Port Townsend for the Puget Sound LYS Tour in May. I haven't yet decided on a home for World Wide Knit in Public Day on June 14th, but it will be in or around Seattle or Issaquah. Then comes the Wooden Boat Festival over Labor Day Weekend, again in Port Townsend, WA.
I'm breaking with my usual routine of one design at a time, and have THREE new sweater patterns on my needles! More test knitters are needed, for both ganseys and Arans - feel free to text or email if you're interested.
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 and passing on the art of gansey and Aran knitting.
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!