June 2016 - Talk by Linda Newington "Fair Isle to Scare Isle"

There are two knitting shows next month. The Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show is on at the NEC, Birmingham, from the 1st to the 3rd of July. Fibre East is the 30th and 31st of July, in Ampthill, Bedfordshire.

Show and Tell

Janet and Sandra have been hand-knitting a collection of baby clothes to donate to the Farnborough Sands Charity in the baby unit at Frimley Hospital. Sandra had also knit a child's brown striped pullover. Tannis was working on a colourful brioche stitch shawl. Liz had completed more felt balls from the February meeting, and had made them into a necklace to donate to The Royal Marsden fundraising shop.

Speaker

Our speaker this month was Linda Newington, who is the Head of Library and Archive Collections for Art and Design at the Winchester School of Art Library, University of Southampton. Linda presented a personal and thought-provoking presentation entitled "Fair Isle to Scare Isle" which promoted some interesting discussions and tangents. Linda supplemented the presentation with part of her personal collection of Fair Isle gloves and mittens, which the club members were eager to look through and discuss.

Fair Isle is a very small island between the Orkney Isles and the Shetland Isles, known for both knitting and ship wrecks. Evidence has been found of human habitation going back 5,000 years. There is no hard evidence of the origins of the famous Fair Isle knitting patterns and colour combinations, and it is of continuing interest to both academic historians and new fashion students.

Fair Isle resources

Book - A Shetland Knitter's Notebook by Mary Smith
Book - Shetland Textiles: 800 BC to the present by Sarah Laurenson
Book - Handwork Edited by Anne Sinclair
The Fair Isle website
Spangle Fish - Fair Isle yarns website
Mati Ventrillion - Fair Isle knitter website

Exclusively Fair Isle website

Outi Kater knitwear designs on Ravelry

Shetland Wool Week website (24th September to 2nd October 2016)

Sibling knitwear website (Scare Isle)

Linda also discussed the 'In The Loop' conferences, and the digital resources made available by the University of Southampton. Here are some links to some of the other resources mentioned during the evening.

Knitting Reference Library website
Online digital copies of some of the knitting reference library books and patterns website
In The Loop conferences website

June meeting coming soon

Our June meeting is on Tuesday – 7^th June, 8pm as usual.

We have a speaker this month.  Linda Newington, (Head of Library and Archive Collections for Art and Design at the Winchester School of Art Library, University of Southampton) is coming to talk to us about “In the Loop”, a conference for knitters held at various locations throughout the UK.  Linda will also be telling us about her current research "From Fair-Isle to Scare-Isle".  It will include a slide show so if the lights are off don’t think we aren’t there!

Linda came to talk a couple of years ago now.  Her previous talk was well received and extremely informative.  So much so that we completely forgot to take photos! 

Don’t forget to bring items of recent knitting to show.  I’m sure we’ll make time for that, and the usual cup of tea or coffee!

Hope lots of you make it.  

(And if you can't - don't forget our knitting challenge ends next month!)