Spinning A Yarn's Tale Blair Staake

This week we're going over the brief history and culture surrounding Fair Isle! There's some....... Misconceptions about this supposedly ancient way of knitting. But! I think my favorite part this week is about how fair isle came to the Fair Isles. I know it sounds a little redundant, but trust me, it's a good one! 



Resources:

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1427&context=tsaconf

“The art of fair isle knitting history, technique, color, and patterns” Ann Feitelson

https://yarnandknitting.com/know-your-sheep-the-shetland-sheep/

https://www.jamiesonsofshetland.co.uk

https://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland

Hi and welcome in!  This week we're chatting about ganseys! This adventure takes us through a little bit about the history and stitch pattern of a traditional gansey, as well as the culture behind the fishermen wearing them. Sometimes they were great husbands, sometimes they were.........not. But either way it was interesting to research!  Thanks for watching



Our sources: 

Ruhe, Stella. 2014. Dutch Traditional Ganseys: Sweaters from 40 Villages.

Gilpin, Di & Greenwell, Shelia. 2021.The Gansey Knitting Sourcebook: 150 stitch patterns and 10 projects for gansey knits. 

Pictures of ganseys

http://www.ganseys.com/gallery/gordons-ganseys/the-netherlands/urk/

A cool article about Ganseys

https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/the-hand-knit-gansey

Hi and welcome in!

This is our second episode and that's so weird to think about. Today we chat about the histories of a few different countries, Scotland, England and Ireland to name them. Though there are not as many stocks and socks references in this one, there is a decent amount of banter! MY favorite highlights are the terrible knitters of Dent, tams, and aran sweaters. Thank you for listening again and see you in two weeks! 

https://www.eweandiyarns.com/

Blair & Denise (@spinningayarnstale) • Instagram photos and videos

References:


Howitt, William. The Rural Life of England (1838)
Rutt, Richard. A History of Hand Knitting. First published in 1987.
Hartley, Marie & Ingilby, Joan. The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales. 1951.
Blogpost by Penelope Hemingway about "swaving": https://theknittinggenie.com/2013/02/04/not-swaving-but-drooning/
Dales Discoveries about the Terrible Knitters of Dent https://www.dalesdiscoveries.com/more-inspiration/71-terrible-knitters-of-dent
A Stitch in Time https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2020/05/stitch-time-knitting-archives/#:~:text=Knitting%20was%20a%20popular%20practice,and%20tight%2Dfitting%20for%20warmth
Nargi, Lela. Knitting Around the World: A multi-stranded history of a time-honored tradition. 2011.
History of kilts - Scottish Kilt Collection

Hi and welcome! 

This is our first episode of Spinning a Yarn's Tale, a podcast brought to you by Ewe and I Yarns in Chehalis Washington. This episode is a brief history of knitting, and an even brief-er history of spinning and sheep. We chat about the general history without getting too into the details, and there might be some allusions to wearing socks and sandals. We hope to have many more informative episodes filled with maybe a little too much giggling, so please stick around! 

https://www.eweandiyarns.com/

Show notes:


The first knitted stockings ever found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Islamic_sock.jpg
Coulthard, Sally. A Short History of the World According to Sheep. 2020.
A good picture of one of the Knitting Madonnas paintings that we looked at https://annkingstone.com/knitting-madonnas/
Rutt, Richard. A History of Hand Knitting. First published in 1987.
Thomas, Mary. Mary Thomas's Knitting Book. 1938.
Nargi, Lela. Knitting Around the World: A multi-stranded history of a time-honored tradition. 2011.