Yarns and Yarns: A virtual knitting and storytelling circle around the North
These are the recorded sessions from our popular Yarns and Yarns a virtual knitting and storytelling circle. Watch or join in while groups knit while listening to tales of woolen and textile artists and crafters from around the North.
This is the first Yarns and Yarns event and was live from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada with the regular weekly knitting group at the St. John’s Public Library! Make yourself a cup of tea, tune in, and knit along as we hook up with friends and colleagues and have a virtual chat with Siun Carden about her woolly experiences from Shetland! All knitters, story lovers, and textile enthusiasts are welcome.
Yarns and Yarns: North Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
Recorded on the 18 April 2023
Join the 2nd session of our knitting and storytelling circle around the North with Meg Rodgers from North Uist, Monkia Ravnanger and Hege Therese Nilsen from Osterøy Museum, Bergen, Norway, Dana MacPhee from Uist Wool, Grimsby, Outer Hebrides, and the North Uist Knitting Group.
Meg Rodger, North Uist, Outer Hebrides
Meg Rodger will discuss croft life on Berneray in the Outer Hebrides and her Hebridean North Atlantic sheep. She will introduce her yarn business The Birlinn Yarn Company and some of her knitwear designs. She will then tell the story of how the outstanding Viking female leader Audur the Deepminded led her to Iceland, Norway and back resulting in an art exhibition which involved the making of a Viking varafeld cloak from many of the North Atlantic sheep breeds.
Monika Ravnanger will join us from Osterøy Museum, Bergen in Norway. She will talk about varafeld, woven cloaks worn by the Vikings and made on warp weighted looms. Hege Therese Nilsen, Arts and crafts consultant in Hordaland, will talk about traditional knitting techniques from Osterøy and beyond.
Dana MacPhee, Uist Wool, Grimsby, Outer Hebrides
Dana MacPhee will talk about Uist Wool a spinning Mill & Wool Centre based on the island of Grimsay, North Uist. Fleece and fibre is bought directly from selected wool growers and crofters in the Islands & Highlands and graded, washed, carded & spun at the Mill on restored heritage machinery. Uist Wool produces handknitting and weaving yarns using natural blends of wool & fibre and commissions woven textiles from independent weavers on the Isle of Harris, Mull and Buckie. As a small community enterprise, Uist Wool also supports projects with educational, environmental and creative purposes that align with its charitable aims.
North Uist Knitting Group
We will then hear from the local North Uist and Berneray knitting group with regards to local knitting patterns, spinning and sheep keeping.
“Yarns and Yarns,” an hour of knitting and storytelling on northern islands, when we will be discussing and demonstrating island knitting traditions that focus on mittens. Local knitter Cheryl Wartman will talk about the tradition of making fishing mittens felted in salt water, as told to her by her grandmother Yoston from Launching Place, PEI. Kim Doherty Smith from Fleece and Harmony, a locally sourced wool mill in Belfast, PEI, will answer questions about how they mini-mill their yarn from PEI sheep. And Lynda Harling Stalker, from a long line of PEIslanders, will join us online from Antigonish to discuss hand-knit mitts and islandness. Knitters: bring your knitting and share your current projects and mitten stories! We’ll be gathering at The Gallery Coffee House and Bistro (82 Great George Street, Charlottetown, PEI), or you can join us online. This is the fourth “Yarns and Yarns” event organized by the Arctic Island Studies Research (NAISR) Thematic Network of the University of the Arctic. Previous in-person and online events were hosted by knitting groups in St. John’s, NL, Uist in Scotland, and Iceland, with over 100 knitters from all over the North Atlantic Zooming in. The Charlottetown event is hosted by the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI in collaboration with the Institute for Northern Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, Shetland, Scotland, and other members of the NAISR.
