Sunday 18th May Burrastow House
Demonstrations and collaborations - inputs and interactions
 


CG: We are joined by the lace makers - Kathleen Anderson, Anne Eunson, Zena Thomson, Mary Kay and Bertha Reid. Mary Kay is working with Gordon. I have some good video of them putting patterns together. She was once a math’s teacher. Zena Thompson made the black lace frock the year she retired – she was a knitting teacher. Anne Eunson did the spinning. Kathleen Anderson (Anne Eunson’s sister) is very keen to take commissions.

 
Intro to On the Edge research project
 


CG: Heather and I take an extract from the On the Edge presentation to the European Academy of Design conference (EAD). We present this in quite a conversational way. It seems helpful to put Maakin in context with the other four projects in the research (see www.ontheedgeresearch.org). People are interested. Susan comments on how it gave her a complete picture.

 
Carole’s informal discussions with knitters
 


CG: Mary (Kay) thinks that knitting is more like painting because it is concerned with colour and texture and that lace making is more like drawing because it is concerned with line and positive and negative space. She shows us one of her 'patterns'. It's graph paper with some pencil marks on it. She says it's a 'sketch' - if she likes the look of it she makes the lace, if not she amends it. It's 'just a guide'.

Zena (Thomson) is teaching Christine to make lace. I ask if she’s working to a known pattern - it's a 'Zena Zig Zag'. She has made a fantastic black lace dress – a kind of little black cocktail dress. It won second prize at a UK lace knitting competition. Christine tries it on – it was made for her!

I show Mary (T) some of the 'jumper' textures using Frankie's cut out frame idea. She wants to do some so we go out and take some more! Hazel sees these and has an idea for a 'glove' frame – we make some glove images.

 
Heather's informal discussions
 


HD: One of the knitters spoke of how she learned to knit as a child because "idle hands weren't allowed" in those days "We had nothing, so we had to work". She speaks of how they had to be resourceful and that although it was a very hard life she didn’t remember ever being hungry. She was very aware of how this makes you tough and more resourceful:

"You ken folk just had nothing, no money to be made and yet I never remember being hungry… Wondering where the next meal would come fae, didnae hurt you."

She wondered whether people today would have the skills to survive as they did then - should the need ever arise.

She told me about the 'Shetland Guild of Spinners, Dyers and Weavers', saying jokingly "Knitting is never mentioned you'll notice!" The Guild consists of
like-minded women who are aware that the skills are dying out, especially spinning. They meet each second Saturday of the month and have a different workshop. This usually involves 14 to 15 people and on a good day 20 to 22 (especially for the Christmas Dinner!). She describes this as 'a fine get together trying to promote different skills' where they ‘get tips on how to do things'. She learnt to spin at the Guild about 20 years ago.

Mary (T) said that Jamieson's, the local knitwear shop, will not take just gloves but wants the whole set i.e. gloves, scarf and hat - all matching, because that is what they sell. I said I thought this was odd because not everyone wants a set in such highly patterned knitwear i.e. Fair Isle.

 
Quote of the day
 


"You can make horriblest thing and somebody will like it – everybody is different"

(in response to a beautiful green zig zag line introduced as an experiment in a neutral coloured lace scarf)

CG: Dinner – we have established personal relationships. All bodes well for tomorrow and College. We thank Jo our cook from New Zealand for her excellent cuisine – a true cooking artist! She joins us in the lounge and tells us about her travels. She has cooked all over the world. Other guests come into the lounge and one of them explains to Gordon that Fair Isle came from Spain originally. Is there some relationship between Moorish/Islamic pattern or even Aztec/Inca patterns?

SB: This day creates an infrastructure for future developments and a rich mix of people, ages, experience and skills. Most of the core group are ready with their ideas and embryonic groups for the week in the college on target. The lace knittters enjoy the stimulus of the day and the Lab participants learn much from the lace knitters. All the visiting knitters would be interested I expect in future involvement with a Lab process.

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