They arrived! I hate sending parcels overseas as I am always worried that the parcels will get lost in transit. So, it was a huge relief when Rose sent me a photo of herself wearing the hat and scarf I designed and knitted especially for her. The sunshine yellow is definitely Rose’s colour. She looks amazing. Rose’s scarf and hat …
GENERAL
Did you know scarves have been worn since ancient times? I certainly didn’t. According to Wikipedia, the 9th century BC Statue of Ashurnasirpal 11 is wearing a shawl and, in Ancient Rome, men wore what was known as a Focale to wipe sweat from their faces during hot summers. In the reign of Emperor Cheng, cloth scarves were used as …
In the last few days I have been re-reading Alice Starmore’s book, Aran Knitting (Dover new edition version, 2010). What prompted this reading was a pattern from Vogue Knitting’s Stitchionary 2 (Sixth&Spring Books, 2006) called Aztec. Looking at my finished swatch I found myself questioning its place within the Aran tradition – which led me to Starmore and her book. …
The sub-title of Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook (Abrams, 2016) is: A Breakthrough Guide to Knitting with Cables and Designing your Own. While the editor in me cringes at all the capital letters, the knitter and designer in me is excited by the mere thought of having a Norah Gaughan book in my hands, in particular, one that combines the …
Hannah Thiessen’s book Slow Knitting: A journey from sheep to skein to stitch (Abrams NY 2017) is a new book on my knitting bookshelf. I have to confess it was the title which drew me in; I wanted to know all about this thing called ‘slow knitting’. In her introduction, Hannah laments the constant movement of timelines, deadlines and other …
I have been re-reading Jill Ker Conway memoir trilogy: The Road to Coorain (1989), True North (1995) and A Women’s Education (2001). For those who do not have the foggiest notion of who she is, let me give you a short overview. Jill Ker spent her childhood on an outback (read: isolated) farm in NSW, Australia. It was an unusual upbringing …
As a Kiwi living in Australia, I struggle with this idea of place. The sunburnt country I now inhabit has its own beauty but on the whole, it does not enthral or capture my imagination or sense of place. My roots are in the four seasons of New Zealand and a relaxed way of life, of lush green and NZ …