• Rare Stitches: Knitting Inspired by Illuminated Manuscripts

    I recently missed this very fascinating virtual knitting event hosted by McGill Library, Rare Stitches: Knitting Inspired by Illuminated Manuscripts. I would have loved to have attended, but I can enjoy watching and rewatching the video… and so can those stitchers out there into history and needlework. In the workshop, historian and knitter Kristen Howard shared her work to bring medieval manuscripts to life by exploring the history of illuminated manuscripts and how to transform rare books into handknits. Howard is a historian, knitter, and Master of Information Studies student at McGill University. She completed a PhD in History from the Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies at the…

  • Bakers Dozen Bonus deal from Stitches with a Twist

    Stitches With a Twist in Blyth, a yarn store with so much more, is offering a great deal on yarn: the Bakers Dozen Bonus. Buy 12 balls of yarn and get the 13th free! Stop by and pick up your Bonus card today! Stitches With a Twist is located at 404 Queen St. Blyth, Ontario. Call (519) 523-9449 or email info@stitcheswithatwist.ca for more info.  

  • Lace Museum offering online workshop in Halas Lace

    The Lace Museum is offering an online workshop in Halas Lace starting September 24. For more information and registration: https://www.thelacemuseum.org/workshops.html Halas lace was first made in 1902 in Kiskunhalas, Hungary. Halas is a needlelace worked with fine thread, and the pattern motifs outlined with thick thread, instead of buttonholed as in other needlelace. It has an Art Nouveau look. The darning stitch is worked in the solid design areas to give the effect of finely woven cloth and there are over 60 types of filling stitches. The Lace Museum is also offering online workshops in Turkish Needle Lace (Igne Oya), Bedfordshire Bobbin Lace, Exploring Grounds with GroundForge and more! Learn more…

  • Stitching inspiration this week: Yarnspirations

    Looking for stitching inspiration this week? Check out Yarnspirations! This great online resource by Spinrite Yarns offers up a whole lot of yarn & stitching ideas to spur your needlework creativity. And their community page provides how-to videos, pattern suggestions, and profiles of their Stitch Ambassadors. Have a look here: https://www.yarnspirations.com/ca-en/community/stitch-ambassadors  

  • wedding dress dated from 1911

    The Dress of Many Patterns – a citizen science project

    Hey, local Huron County stitchers! Would you be interested in a ‘citizen science project’ focusing on needlework history? What would you think of this idea: creating a number of vintage needlework samplers inspired by historic needlework items from the collection of the Huron County Museum in Goderich and then piecing those samplers into a piece of wearable art… a wedding dress?! The wedding dress design will be based on an Edwardian Tea Dress-style dress originally worn by Francis Mason Watson (1890 – 1918) a former resident of Blyth, Ontario. The shawl and dress will be made up of vintage pattern samplers (swatches) based on textile items in the Huron County…

  • Blyth Knit & Natter

    My local yarn shop Stitches with a Twist moved their Knit and Natter night outdoors! The session has changed it’s start time to 6 pm. Bring your project or finished creation and join them evening of stitching and chatting! Visit the Blyth Lions Park on Gypsy Lane at 6 pm on Wed., Aug. 26! Check out their website here: http://stitcheswithatwist.ca/

  • The story of blue

    From www.greatbigstory.com — Real indigo-dyed clothing is not like the blue you know. Richer than the chemical blues used on most fabrics today, real indigo dye comes from a plant and has a surprising range of qualities: on fabric it is antibacterial, flame resistant and repels odor and dirt. With roots in Japanese culture dating back to the 1600s, indigo-dyed fabrics were worn under the armor of samurais to help keep bacteria from wounds. Today, five farmers keep the tradition of growing indigo alive in Tokushima, Japan. Your blue jeans don’t hold a flame to Japanese indigo. The true blue dye makes clothes fire resistant, bacteria resistant, and was once…

  • Knitting in code

    I just finished knitting this lovely lady as a gift for someone special. I’m experimenting and playing with the idea of including a message within the stitchwork itself. This heart has one word stitched into the gray section: look for the odd stitches. I used Madame Defarge’s cipher; each letter of the alphabet is represented by certain combinations of stitches. Here’s the link to more info & to the cipher: https://blog.uwgb.edu/…/knitting-code-a-tale-of-two-very-d…/

  • Wool roving heart

    Here’s a wool roving heart and my first attempt at using code in my knitting. This sample uses Madame Defarge’s Knitting Cipher. Defarge was a character, a tricoteur, in Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities. A combination of stitches can be used as a code, encasing meaning within the stitchwork. There are different methods for using code in knitting. Other ways might be Morse code, or a simple letter and number (related to position) in the alphabet combination. Or you could make up your own. I can see where colourwork could contain messages too! The possibilities are probably endless. In the case of the wool heart, I used Defarge’s cipher.…