Speaker at my Craft Club in March

I think I've mentioned before that I go to a craft club in Penistone every Monday morning. I joined about four years ago; I had seen it advertised and as I don't work Mondays it was ideal for me. I was working on the blanket I made for my mum for her 60th birthday. Since then I've rarely missed a week - obviously I have when I've been on holiday, and we didn't meet from March 2020 to September 2021. I really missed it during Covid, and was happy to return last autumn. Since then there's been fewer of us. We used to have around 20 people each time, but now we hover around 12/13. But my favourites are still there! I'm the youngest by far, but I've got quite friendly with Jane, who is around the same age as my mum and who has three children around my age, and there's a couple of others who I always like to chat to. I really love that we are all so supportive of each other's work. Some people knit, others crochet, I usually cross stitch, and others do other needlework crafts. Everyone is always thrilled to see finished pieces, which I love. 

In March it was Penistone Art Week. We've had it before where we've all taken some of our craft pieces to the room we meet in at the library, and we've had members of the public come through to look. We were asked to do the same this year, so I took my carousel blanket that I finished in 2020, and the Nutcracker cross stitch that I've just done. People brought some gorgeous things, I enjoyed looking.

Plus we also had a speaker! The Art Week organisers had hired Esther Rutter as Knitter in Residence. She had a number of talks and stuff throughout the week, and we were lucky enough for her to come to speak to us. Now, I don't knit, so I was a bit apprehensive about the talk. We could carry on working while Esther was talking, so I kept cross stitching (I was working on a piece for my friend Sarah's baby Robyn, which I need to get finished for the beginning of April when it's Robyn's first birthday!) but I was listening too. And it turned out to be really interesting! Esther looked at the history of knitting within the British Isles, researching the traditions and history. For each chapter of the book she made a piece to go alongside it. So for example she made a gansey, a traditional jumper made for fishermen, and a gorgeous shawl made of wool from somewhere in the outer Hebrides I think. She found quite a radical history, including lots of protest, and a tradition of knitting that was largely done by women, and often by poor women, and that it has mostly been forgotten. I love this! Craft IS so radical and I love it for that.

I spoke to Esther afterwards about something she had said, and asked if I could take a photo of her wearing some of her pieces for my social media. She happily agreed. She spoke to quite a few people and did some knitting herself. I'm really glad to have got to listen to her!