PENELOPE HEMINGWAY
Errata are the bane of the designer’s life. I’m thinking about it because of the Edwardian gloves pattern which has resurfaced, and needed my attention this week just as I was hoping for a few days of no knitting. But also because, alongside writing the next book, I am fixing the errata in the […]
I made these quick muffatees from some leftover Wendy Guernsey yarn in shade 590 Crimson. The stunning red reminds me of the heroines in my favourite operas, Tosca and Carmen. Here’s the pattern for anyone who wants to use up a little leftover guernsey yarn – they would work in DK, too – but […]
“I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!” It was not the last time that he wished that! The Hobbit, J.R.R.Tolkien, 1937, Chapter 2. Two years ago, I decided to do something not at all Living History, veering slightly into Cosplay. […]
In Europe the handspindle was the only tool for spinning yarn until the early Renaissance, when the spinning wheel appeared. Simple spindles produced all the thread, yarns and cordage for household use, for commerce and for war, for at least 9,000 years. The handspindle met all these human needs: clothing, household linens, uniforms for the […]
1821 Thursday, 18th October [York] Went over the bridge at 11 ¼. Went shopping with my aunt… Walked with my aunt around the castle yard (she wanted some knitted nightcaps of the debtors)…” [Anne Lister’s Diary, p. 175 ‘The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister” (Virago, ed. Helena Whitbread)]. Reading Anne Lister’s diaries was […]
This is a post for the genealogists – about arcane Masonic documents hidden in tin boxes, and secret compartments in nineteenth century writing slopes and – lots of fun stuff like that. Genealogy-wise, can you believe we have a tin box that originally belonged to my husband’s great-great grandfather, that a lovely step great […]
Mudags, aka: muirlags, Crealagh and craidhleag (creels) were egg-shaped baskets with a ‘post hole’, used for holding wool ready to spin. They are known to have been a thing in Scotland – and so, hopefully, Ireland, Wales and England too. You placed your mudag close to the fire, for the wool’s lanolin to melt a […]
SATURDAY, 19th AUGUST 2017 2 – 4 PM £35 Visit us at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, and LEARN TO KNIT PORTUGUESE-STYLE! Portuguese knitters work with the yarn tensioned round their neck, or secured on a hook attached to the chest. No special equipment is needed, but you can use a knitting […]
So how many miles could a Great Wheel spinner walk in a month? 120 miles? To reprise; in “Spinning Wheels, Spinners and Spinning”, Patricia Baines wrote: …It is said that spinners who worked in the textile industry in Yorkshire and Lancashire walked the equivalent of 30 miles a week spinning wool… [Baines, Batsford 1977 Edition, […]
Just finally got round to making one of these. And I thought it might be useful for other fans of vintage haberdashery and knitters of old patterns. Many charts available only go down in size to the more useful needle sizes for contemporary knitting – ie: around 3.25mm. Yet many Victorian patterns call for 1mm […]
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 