You Can Never Have Enough Yarn!

I trained in Dress and Design at the "Do School" in Aberdeen, part of Robert Gordon Institute of Technology...now University. I'd been sewing since a child, as my mum had been a tailoress and she passed that skill onto me. My grandmother could not sew...but she knitted and knitted and knitted. The family always had knitted jumpers and cardigans, usually in Fair Isle or Icelandic style. How she managed all those colours was a mystery. Yet my mum didn't knit and I wasn't keen either, though I had to produce some knitwear for coursework.

Instead, I focused on weaving as a specialist subject. I had a small 4-shaft loom at home to do samples on, at college I used a "Harris" loom to produce fabrics from which I designed and made tailored garments. Also I did "tablet" weaving ...a portable method of weaving braids just like the Laplanders used to decorate their garments. For a theme I used "Inspiration For Weaving" . Using designs that appeared in textiles within the North Sea areas...so Scotland, Norway, Iceland, Fair Isles, and Shetland featured in my work. In those days there was no internet, so all research was done by reading and writing to embassies and organisations for information. I recall that I received some lovely information regarding Hardanger embroidery, so when I visited Norway a couple of years ago I was delighted to be taken to the Hardanger Fjord.

When I was pregnant I decided to sew and knit most of the garments required. I'm afraid to say that the knitted garments were mainly plain or striped as that was the extent of my knowledge at that time. Once more I was later encouraged by an elderly neighbour and she nurtured my knitting skills ...and so it was that I took up Aran knitting, with great gusto! My family benefited from real wool sweaters. I only have one cardigan left that I knitted myself. It gets an airing every winter. Why only a couple of weeks ago I looked at it in wonder...just how did I do all that? I thought.

I consider myself a sort of 'Jack of all Trades' as regards all needlecrafts. I try any new skills. I have a lucet (look that up). I've done fabric marbling. I crochet, dressmake, embroidery of all sorts, patchwork, quilting, appliqué..... I have a stash of knitting yarn, embroidery yarn, fabrics of all descriptions for a variety of uses. I probably have more than I'll ever need or use. Fellow needleworkers will know exactly what I am on about. You can never have enough yarn !

Recently I've hankered after a small loom ...but just where am I to find the space or  time to  do
any?

Anyway I read this week of the benefits of knitting to one's health...so I'll just finish that cardigan that I'm making, and finish that crochet hot water bottle cover that's half done, and crochet Anne a promised hat, and print some favourite photos onto that special fabric that goes through the printer    (might make a quilt?) ..Oh ! And I have some hand patchwork lurking in my wee campervan to while away the holiday evenings...

So where might I put this loom?

My piece this week is short and was written some time ago..

                  NEEDLEWORK.   May 2015

                  I sit and I sew- I sew as I sit.
                  Sometimes I sew- sometimes I knit.
                  The hours they pass as my fingers move quick.
                  Sometimes I crochet-sometimes I knit.
                  Sometimes I embroider- sometimes I just sit!

                   Ofttimes I pause and have a long think,
                   Take pencil to paper and fingers move quick
                   To record my thoughts.My brows they knit.
                   Sometimes I write a little bit,
                   Then return to my sewing, as I sit.

Thanks for reading, Kath.