PENELOPE HEMINGWAY
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 […]
Then we run our little boat into some quiet nook, and the tent is pitched, and the frugal supper cooked and eaten. Then the big pipes are filled and lighted, and the pleasant chat goes round in musical undertone; while, in the pauses of our talk, the river, playing around the boat, […]
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 […]
Proof that sometimes, carrying a bit of ballast is a Good Thing. And also a timely reminder to oil and maintain your spinning wheel! From ‘The London Evening Post’, February 24th – 27th, 1759, comes this cautionary tale: We hear from Wingrove, near Aylesbury, in Bucks., that a few days ago, one Susanna Hannokes, […]
Knitting and sewing have always been feminist acts. Sometimes, it has been about activism as well. As a sort of historian, I’ve written on the blog, and will continue to write, about nineteenth century women who used crafts to escape the ‘cage’ of domesticity. It always fascinated me that needle arts were seen, culturally as […]
A quick heads-up. I have two pieces out this month. One for the knitters and one for the genealogists. For the knitters, there’s something about reverse engineering knitting from old photographs (‘The Knitter’, Issue 107). Probably something I should go into more depth with here on the blog, some time soon. Over the few […]
As promised long ago, here are some gansey alphabet charts, for anyone wishing to knit initials. These are 15 rounds deep. I prefer a serif. Some motifs are solid, some in moss (seed) stitch. These are solid. Spacing here is arbitrary – decide what looks good to you, when planning your gansey. Clickable PDFs proved […]
https://archive.org/details/victorianknittingmanuals “THE WORK-TABLE MAGAZINE by MRS MEE and MISS AUSTIN… This is, of course, a lady’s periodical. The mysteries of the needle are illustrated by plates, some of them coloured, which will no doubt be clear enough to the bright eyes that may examine them; but which to ours are as impenetrable as Egyptian hieroglyphics.” […]
Recently we were demo-ing at the Kendal Wool Gathering, and at some point in the early afternoon, a lady came in, walked up to us, and asked us if we’d be interested in having her old spinning wheel. She said she had just got in the building, we were the first people she had spoken […]
Last week, my new gansey pattern came out, in ‘The Knitter’. It’s published in the supplement. I’ll put up some gansey alphabet PDFs for initials, for anyone thinking of knitting it – or any other gansey – in a day or two. But for now, here’s some info about the gansey itself. It was knitted […]
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 