Categories
Dales

“A Manner of Going Peculiarly of their Own”

“…These men have a decided provincial character; and their galloways also, which are always overloaded, have a manner of going peculiarly their own…”

Categories
Dales Yorkshire

Thomas Anson – the Story of a Slave in the Dales

“…I researched and wrote in the spirit of honouring lives that historians have often ignored and also in an attempt to understand something, however infinitessimal, about what ordinary people wore, or how their lives related to textiles; what their textiles could say about them and society…”

Categories
Dales dales knitting

Dales Knitting Alphabets

Here are the upper and lower case alphabet charts, I use for knitting Dales gloves. They could be used for anything where you need letters that are only a few rounds/rows deep.  These are trickier to figure out than alphabet charts where you have a few more rounds for manoeuvre. Thought I’d share them here, […]

Categories
antique textiles Dales swaving Uncategorized

I Was Too Far Out All My Life; Not Swaving But Drowning II.

  That title’s with apologies to Stevie Smith. Today, an interruption in putting up photos of the gansey patterns in ‘River Ganseys’. Thought I’d put everything I have about swaving here, in one post. This is ongoing research and by no means complete so not the last word on the subject- just the first few […]

Categories
Dales dales knitting Feminism

“Playing With A Piece Of String” – The Story of a Dentdale Knitter in ‘The Retreat’ Asylum, York

First published in ‘Knit Edge’, No 3, May, 2013. Putting a name and finding the life story to one of one Dent knitter. Margaret Thwaite: A Knitter of Dent in the York Retreat Asylum “…remains without material change. July 28 .. She still knits away with a piece of string and pieces of wool and […]

Categories
antique textiles Dales dales knitting handspinning History Leeds local history Textile Arts West Riding

“The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales” by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby

Or: or “How The New Edition of This Book Beloved By Knitters, Came About….” Today I thought I’d give an insight into how we put together the new edition of “The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales”, that classic, much-loved book on the history of Yorkshire knitting… Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley produced six books together, […]

Categories
antique textiles Dales dales knitting handspinning Knitting Leeds local history Textile Arts West Riding

How To Be A Luddite – Leeds Wool Week

Got a parcel, this morning. Getting parcels is always brilliant, but this was a particularly brilliant parcel.  Some print copies of ‘The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales’. These will be distributed around the shops of museums in the North of England who helped us during our period of research. I will put up details soon. […]

Categories
antique textiles Dales dales knitting

The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales

It still doesn’t feel real, to me, but… The new edition of ‘The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales’ is here! Our new edition reproduces the text of the 1951 First Edition, but we have added a Dales glove pattern and an Introduction, which gives biographical information about the previously mysterious writers/illustrator, Misses Hartley and Ingilby. […]

Categories
Dales swaving

Knitting the Old Dales Way – Talks & Workshops

This weekend, I’ll be mostly going on about the history of Dales knitting. So just a reminder to anyone who fancies a day out at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming. It’s Country Crafts weekend, so there will be various living history folk, and craftspeople in costume, around the museum. I will be there in full […]