This past fortnight I’ve got a good bit of knitting in. I managed to finish one sleeve of my Old Maiden Aunt jumper inspired by this pattern I saw on Eva-Lotta Staffas Instagram. I’m loving this pop, and the stripes for the front will alternate between oma’s grellow and ghillie dhu.
I also finished a wee pair of wrist warmers for autumn. These are to go with my jumper, but I’m waiting for the autumn leaves to take good FO photos of this. The depth of colour and layering in oma’s far darrig colourway is breathtaking, and makes this by far my favourite of her colourways. The ribbing is my second favourite of her colours, greige again.
Just the kind of simple round and round that I needed in times of high anxiety. Still having ups and downs in this respect. We have mice back in the kitchen, and that’s really the last straw in terms of trying to keep all the viruses the hell out of my safe space…
I got excited about the Scottish Fisheries Museum’s launch of the Knitting the Herring, Scotland’s National Gansey Network project. They’re creating a gansey collection database (librarian squeal!) and a website on the history of the gansey (knitted jumpers). I emailed them to be added to the newsletter and will be watching with interest.
I would highly recommend watching Her Century: Scottish Women on Film from the National Library of Scotland. A moving collection of film from the 20th century on everyday women’s lives in Scotland.
Hearing the perspectives of a women’s position in society is quite emotional, particularly when you see that, although so much has changed, in some respects it seems that little has changed. A 1951 knitting bee (57m in) seems much the same as my current social life, except she explains its purpose was to combine socialising with catching up on the essential knitting, sewing and whatnot to avoid wasting time.
I was especially interested in the film showing crofter’s lives in Shetland (at 35:25-38:43 min) as they card, spin, twin, knit and then sell their wool products in the 1930s. We later see the Hebrides tweed production; the dyeing and spinning of the wool, weaving the tweed, and the waulking songs.
The weather has been fantastic, and there have been lots of lovely walks, garden knitting, and bee watching.
socherryknits 