In my previous post I wrote about meeting with a group of
knitting and crochet friends. On the Friday
afternoon we had the opportunity to visit the Knitting and Crochet Guild Collection (KCG) in the village of Scholes, near Huddersfield. Having heard of the collection via a blog post by Kate Davies when she was researching a Shetland hap shawl, what I didn't realise was how close the collection is to my home in Yorkshire. So was thrilled to be invited over to the archive to be shown a selection of the vast number of items held there. (Thanks to Stylecraft and Juliet Bernard for arranging the visit).
From left to right: Kathryn (Crafternoon Treats), me, Angharad (KCG Textile Archivist), Sandra (Cherry Heart), Sarah (Annaboo's House), Lucia (Lucia's Fig Tree), Barbara (KCG Publications Curator),
Phil (The Twisted Yarn), Jane Crowfoot (Janie Crow), Alex (KCG Volunteer).
The people who look after the collection are all volunteers. Here we are in the office with some of the staff and one of the items in the collection on the table, a box of knitted art by Jan Messent.
A selection of knitted and crochet items had been chosen by the staff, we were allowed to handle the pieces wearing white cotton gloves. There was a brief history of how the collection had acquired each item and details about who had made it and when.
Here's a sample of some of the pieces we were shown. Firstly, this colourful unmistakable piece by Kaffe Fassett. The pattern is called the Foolish Virgins circa 1980's.
As the retro them is quite popular at the moment, it was interesting to see this original crochet jacket in these popular 1970's colours. Note the price on the Sirdar pattern 7 1/2p...
Moving further back in time to the 1950's now with this publication from Vol 47 Vogue Knitting. Priced at 2/6 in old money, which I can hardly remember, let alone convert into new money...
One of the patterns in this Vogue book is a crochet shawl which has only recently been matched up to an actual shawl held in the KCG collection.
Here's the colourful shawl, my picture doesn't do this justice. How very current these crochet squares are and the colours so vibrant. There are 250 squares in total worked in 3ply yarn on a size 13 hook, that's size 2.25mm in metric.
And finally here's a close up of that box of knitted art work which was on the table in the photo at the beginning.
There will be more photos and details to follow later in a second post about my visit to the Knitting and Crochet Guild Collection Part 2...
