Yesterday, I was watching the incomparable Abby Franquemont’s video download, ‘Respect The Spindle’. I’ve had the book since the week (hour?) it came out but finally got round to getting the video recently, as despite my thirty odd years’ worth of spinning, knew I’d learn something new from it. And I did. At one point, […]
Category: Re-enactment
Two weeks ago today, we were privileged to spend the weekend doing living history at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, where William Wordsworth and his family lived from 1799-1808. Wordsworth was a revolutionary; writing about ordinary people going about their everyday lives; finding poetry in the mundane and his environment. He wrote about beggars, leech-gatherers, the disenfranchised, […]
In June, we are travelling back in time to 1800. At Dove Cottage, in Grasmere, during Woolfest weekend, a small group of us are descending on Mr. Wordsworth’s neighbour, Mr. Fisher, and we hope to spin on the Great Wheel and knit, 1800-style. There may be some undesirable beggars a-calling, as Miss Dorothy Wordsworth describes […]
The myths around traditional knitting are worth exploring. One new one seems to be the idea that Tudor, even medieval, sailors or fishermen wore a forerunner of the gansey. I’m going to explode a few myths in a forthcoming book, so should keep my powder dry – but here’s a few thoughts and woolgatherings that […]
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 