Friday, November 06, 2009
OF LEAVES AND YARN
Can you find the yarn hiding in the leaves?
Of leaves and yarn in hues of molten honey further sweetened with caramels dashed with mellowed lime…
The leaves I found clustered across the pavement outside the Tate Gallery last week in London while the yarn I gathered in Glossop, Derbyshire, where Carole, uber indie dyer from Skeins in the Peak District, invited me for a workshop on free-range knitting. To say that I love England, was enchanted by the Peak District, Carole, her yarns and all the people I met along the way, would be too mild a statement. The participants in the workshop so fired their needles with knitting passion that they've been an unstoppable force ever since. Shawls and wraps in symphonies of color have been singing from the needles. Amazingly, they have even launched another group on Ravelry called 'Color4textureUK'.
And remember how I mentioned that finding indie dyers on my travels often surpasses my experiences with European traditional yarn manufacturers? How true for England where I lead the new free-form knitters surrounded by glorious color, some of which I couldn't resist. Carole of www.skeins.co.uk dyes her own yarn using mostly the sheepsies seen romping in the fields around Glossop.
I know nothing about sheep. When I chanced to mention to my knitters that I could see these woollie beasties from my Bed&breakfast farmhouse window, the question came 'What kind?' Kind? There are kinds? I replied: 'The white fluffy ones with black legs'. Later, after driving back down to London through more gorgeous farmland, my understanding broadened as I played 'count the species'. Sheep come in many kinds and the locals can spell out the differences among them the way I, as the daughter of a once-apple farmer, can apples.
Skeins and skeins
Some of Carole's stock pre-forage decimation
I have many more photos to share with you of the surrounding countryside, my knitting friends, Eric (the smelly wool-bearing critter), the works of art that unfolded on the needles of the free-range knitters and much more but first, a few photos of the Windy Harbour (no harbour but plenty of wind) Farmhouse inn perched, as it is, on the edge of the Peak District.
Here is the essence of British countryside. Though the landscape of England varies, one can usually find more shades of green in one square mile than existant anywhere else, more berries, more stone walls, more perfect soft light crying out to be captured in watercolor (Turner, I finally understand. Actually, I spent all morning with his works at the Tate) and more rolling hills evoking misty mystification. A million poems, novels and paintings were launched in Britain over the years and now, methinks, a few knitted masterpieces are on their way to keep them company.
I, for one, have vowed to knit England….
The colors of autumn…backyard England
The holly and the berry…
Posted by Jane on
11/06 at 09:05 AM
So good to meet you and I hope you are in love enough to come back - we ave so much more to show you.
By beanz on 2009 11 06