Nostalgic knits, timeless treasures
My daughter-in-law Tash loaned me her copy of " This Golden Fleece, A Journey Through Britian's Knitted History ", by Ethel Rutter, after I mentioned that I had enjoyed a McGill University lecture by Beverley Ann Lee on the 5,000 year history of wool. This is a slim, captivating book, both history and memoir. I learned a great deal, including that crossing heaving autumn seas to attend the famous Shetland Wool Week is not for sissies. That book ratcheted my love (and lust) for Fair Isles, Arans, and Guernseys to the level of fervent devotion. I still want to dress like Virginia Woolf . In that post, which was about scarves, I quoted Woolf: " We may make (clothes) take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking." Both my mother and mother-in-law were expert knitters, calmly clicking through complicated patterns. Below, the Fair Isle cardigans Grandmaman knit for our sons when they were age three: I still have