Hawes part three - pretty windows, knitted scenes and yet more spinning wheels.

 I promise that this is the last blog post from our trip to Hawes but I can't leave without mention of St Margaret's Church Window.

This window wonderfully represents the Dales life and history, From the market, the knitters, the ropemakers and even the Settle and Carlisle Railway ( more of this later )

 

This is the interior of the church built in 1850 replacing the former chapel built in the 1600's.

If you look at the pews carefully you will see engravings of cats and cravings of mice. The mice carvings are also see in Bridlington Priory.

I have one of the carved mice at home ready to stick onto my Ashford e-spinner.

Remember I said there would be more about the railway? here it is, the knitted railway to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Settle t o Carlise line.

As with any small town in the Dales, it is popular with the tourists and as a result a number of antique shops are dotted around. If you fancy a spinning wheel or yarn winder then Cellar Antiques is your place.

spindle missing

Fortunately? I don't have room for any more spinning wheels although I quite liked the yarn counter. A bowl full of knitting stick provided a more portable possibility but seeing as I rarely use my knitting belt, would I want one? If I did succumb to temptation, would I buy a fancy ornate one or one that had been used, scratched and even mended sue to having been used so much.

Even though we have visited Hawes many times I still enjoy spending time there.

 

Hawes part one ...Finding Fluff, Sticks and String in the Yorkshire dales

 

We have recently stayed in the Yorkshire town of Hawes for a few days to escape from reality and collapsing ceilings. This seemed like a good time to charge up my camera and go in hunt of anything textile related in this small town.

The first place to start is the The Dales Countryside Museum who kindly gave me permission to take photos and post here with a link to their site.

(This post will possibly be split into two or three as I was having so much fun with my camera)

The countryside museum has a small gallery celebrating their knitting heritage as well as other crafts like rope making and braid weaving.

In the past, this would have been a common sight along with water mills dotted along the rivers to power the machinery needed for spinning yarn .

 If you want to delve into the history of socks, caps. jerseys and bonnets being knitted in the Dales then The Old Hand Knitters of the Dales written by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby is a book to read. The book is available at the museum and on some second hand book sites ( hunt around as some versions are going for silly money but as far as I can see they are all the same book with different covers , I have seen it for £5.95 on one of the second hand book sites,

Knitting sticks/sheaths ( providing an anchor for a needle like a Shetland knitting belt ) were used to hold a needle so knitting whilst walking was possible. These varied from purely utilitarian to extremely ornate as given a love tokens at times. (I may have acquired one, more about this later)

Interesting also were the legwarmers used by the lead miners

A nice touch was the addition of information about the fleece.

 

and the dyes

and the pattern source

                 Examples of socks were also on show with the same helpful information.

Interestingly the museum does not have any of the Dales gloves in their collection , these knitted gloves always remind me of the Sanquhar glove in Scotland.

          I do have a book about the gloves and plan to attempt a pair at some point.There was a scattering of spinning wheels and associated fibre tools along with examples of other local crafts.

I will continue in the next post. The Museum does a week long ticket with concessions for over 60s and a discount if you belong to the caravan club. I certainly got my £3.50 worth !!

 

I'm in love with this shop... Ewe Felty Thing

I don't often post about yarn stores, mainly because, as a spinner, I use my own yarn and my personal restriction of only spinning British breeds ( I have Saxon Merino and Bowmont but both sourced as fleece in the UK ) and always spinning from fleece means that my shop purchases tend to be knitting needles.

However, I will often have a look inside when the colours call my name, I came across this lovely place last month whilst we were wandering slowly around Shropshire and North Wales.

Nestled in the the old town of Conwy I spotted a sign outside one of the old buildings.

                                                                  Ewe Felty Thing

With this view from the door step, how could I resisit ? The colours called out but to be honest, the spinning wheels shouted to me as well.

 I had a lovely warm welcome from Andy who was looking after the shop and he was happy to show me the spinning wheel collection, even making sure that I didn't miss the one in the vault. I will add here that having worked in a bank for 42 years I am always amazed how many times I walk into coffee shops etc and recognise the signs of its former use, most of the ones that I have worked at have been reborn as coffee shops over the years.

The shop sells yarn, needles, felting supplies, looms and wheels however the antique wheels are not for sale and they are being retained as a complete collection. They are beautiful.

There are over 20 wheels in all, different shapes, sizes , from different countries around the world.

However, I do think that we have an interloper, I may be wrong but the next one looks more like a bobbin lace bobbin winder.

I found this on Pinterest to show what I mean

there are a couple of winders in the picture.