A Knitter’s Weekend: Northern England

This spring I was lucky to head back to Northern England for another textile tour with my traveling partner Janine Bajus.

We went to Cumbria, the Lake District, and Yorkshire, visiting some of the same spots we went to last year plus a bunch of new ones.

We visited Susan Crawford again for a class where we were greeted with a new studio and teaching space. Susan also has a couple of new yarns, a BFL yarn in two weights, and a Lonk sock yarn. I succumbed to both even though I haven’t knit my yarns from last year. Many of us fell for her new scarf pattern Hubbard and came home with kits.

Another repeat visit was Ninthwaite Grange. Maria, Zoë, and John are still hard at work changing the way designers, knitters, and farmers think about British wools. In the past year they have partnered with several farmers, designers, and even the park service to design single breed (even single farm) yarns and accessories.

They are developing more products made with local British breeds to sell through their own business The Wool Library, including finished garments and handwoven wool yardage. They are also sourcing more breeds from more farmers—the locks in the top photo are, left to right, Gotland, Teeswater, Herdwick, and Castle Milk Moorit.

We traveled north into the Lake District; this is the road to Keswick. I got little to no knitting done on this trip because I couldn’t quit just watching the scenery.

Because fiber people tend to also have an affinity for stationery and art supplies, we visited the Derwent Pencil Museum. We learned about how graphite was first used in the Dales (to mark sheep), how pencils are made, how Derwent grew into one of the most beloved supplier of watercolor, pencils, pastels ,and other artists’ goodies. Special pencils helped soldiers in WWII (they had a map and a compass hidden in them).

Art supplies may have been purchased.

If you are even close to Hawes, North Yorkshire, I highly recommend a visit to the Dales Countryside Museum. There are displays on farming, mining, local industries, and textiles, from prehistoric times to the present day.

There is a big exhibit on the Terrible Knitters of Dent and the legendary stockings and gloves that were part of a cottage industry. “Terrible” used to mean “wonderful,” just like “sick” is apparently a good thing, or so say my kids.

The knitters of Dent used a particular type of knitting sheath and they had close to 100 on display at the museum, all beautifully crafted.

Something I really appreciate when visiting the UK is that every museum and manor house has wonderfully conserved textiles, and there are many grants available to preserve and work in contemporary textile arts.

The Dales Museum had an exhibit of modern textile art that references and celebrates the history of textiles in the Dales, reimagining them through embroidery, weaving, needle point and knitting.

We visited the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop and gave a talk about Wensleydale sheep while having tea and scones. These were still warm.

Wensleydale yarn at this shop is much softer and silkier than Wensleydale yarn I’ve knit with in the U.S. The shop carries 90% their own Wensleydale yarns, and sells finished objects and spinning fiber along with their yarns.

Nearby are the Castlerigg standing stones. Like most stone circles, no one is 100% sure what they were used for, but the setting is beautiful and a little eerie. I did whisper to the stones and asked if Jamie Fraser could come out to play in his kilt. No luck. I know, wrong stones and wrong country, but I had to try.

If I had to choose one place from this trip that was the most inspiring I would choose Farfield Mill in Sedburgh, Cumbria. It’s an old textile mill that combines all of the creative things. They honor the history of the mill through detailed exhibits.

We were lucky to have a talk from Marie Wallin about color and her career from designer to queen of the Rowan Magazine to having her own yarn line.

Nineteen artists have studios in the mill. This one is Angela Bradley’s knitwear studio. There are printmakers, weavers, painters, spinners, ceramicists, and jewelers. All have work for sale and there is a gift shop that sells the work of even more local artists.

The mill has four gallery spaces, with several different shows a year. The one that I spent the most time with was Verve: Tapestry Touring International. Tapestry Touring International is a non-profit group who encourages artists to work together creating small format tapestries on a theme. This year’s theme is Verve and the weavers are from the UK and New Zealand.

Farfield Mill is one of those places that has the most amazing contagious, creative energy. I left there with so many ideas for fiber work.

Just outside of Grassington in Yorkshire is Gam Farm, a farm dedicated to preserving and educating the public about animals on the Rare Breed Survival Trust list. The RBST maintains a list of animals in England in danger of extinction that is updated every year. Gam Farm raises rare breed sheep, goats, pigs, and cows, and sell yarn made from their rare breed sheep.

Our last day in Yorkshire was a free day in York. We wandered the Shambles, visited the York Ghost Merchants, peeked at the Minster, had tea at Betty’s Café and Tea Room, and touched all the buttons at the legendary button shop Dutton’s for Buttons.

This was our last trip to Northern England for a bit and I will miss it.  Next spring we’re off on a new adventure headed to the south of England, exploring from Bath to Penzance. If you are interested in information about the trip when it’s available, drop an email to je**@*************ys.com.

Several of the photos in this post were taken by Karen Melnick, textile traveler extraordinaire.