“…All this was for nothing, except in some cases a small allowance for a little ale, or cheese and bread…”
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Progress in Pudsey
Category: West Riding
We’re off to the British Wool Show, at the weekend. We’ll be taking our Jack Greene-made Great Wheel, and finally trying out an experiment we’ve been threatening to do, for years. If you’ve ever seen us demo-ing the Great Wheel, you’ll probably know what it is. Sources mention how much it was possible to spin […]
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Oceans of Needlework
There is such a thing as seeing all beautiful around you – pleasant woods, winding white paths, green lawns and blue sunshiny sky – and not having a free moment or a free thought left to enjoy them in. The children are constantly with me, and more riotous, perverse cubs never grew. .. I said […]
‘The Knitter’, Issue 100, is out now and in the shops. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth, this year, I’ve contributed an article about a fascinating and previously unknown piece of knitting; a pair of baby socks, made for Charlotte’s baby, which were destined never to be worn. […]
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The Brontes’ Knitting Sticks
Today (April 21st) is the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth. To celebrate, here is the text of a piece I wrote for a magazine, in 2012. This piece concentrates on the knitting sticks in the Bronte Parsonage Museum’s collection. As well as sticks, there are extant Bronte textiles, including knitted items. Recently, […]
Like many people who lost a parent in childhood, I don’t have much flotsam and jetsam from childhood. I did stumble on this school book, though. I was 8 and as you can see, utterly lacked literary promise. I also lacked artistic ability. But since when did we let minor details like that get […]
One for the genealogists today so you might want to look away now if you’re not into this stuff! This is a blog post I have tried to start, many times. And given up on. Due to its complexity. So here it is – finally – the lengthy (sorry) story of how we finally broke […]
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, […]
Today I’m re-visiting the subject of a recent blog post. Killingbeck, Leeds gent George Walker (1781-1856), toured Yorkshire in 1813-14, recording the clothing of the ordinary man and woman for his book, ‘Costume of Yorkshire’. Plate XXIII showed a teasel field, and was sketched/painted in the village where I grew up. Many of Walker’s […]
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The Tazzle Man
A few months ago, at a car-boot sale in York, I stumbled on a very battered and dirty volume of the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. I maybe paid 50p for it, if that. The reason I picked it up was, I saw it contained an article called ‘The Yorkshire Teazle-Growing Trade’, by R.A.McMillan. Teazles […]
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 