Copyright©vanishing scotland
Galloway Tryst Archive. Collection. Knitting
KNITTING FROM THE ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND
In memory of remarkable women.
From original diaries,manuscripts, transparencies and recordings, a picture has been built of how the Home Industry of Knitting was encouraged among the indigenous people living in the remote Islands off the mainland of Scotland.
The earliest descriptions of how people lived and related to their environment comes from the illustrated journal kept in 1912.
The later information is from the 1940’s to the 1980’s and is connected to the work of The Highland Home Industries Board.
The knitting from these sources include both multi coloured knitting , similar to Fairisle and Shetland lace patterns.
HHI/IBM/VSms13.
Isabella Burton Mackenzie. Rossshire, 1912.
This account is a diary with 6 line drawings and 40 black and white photographs dated 1912-1914. Details about places, people, workers, accounts, orders from UK and Canada, dyeing materials , costs and craft goods produced.
Artefacts. Knitted examples of socks in multi colours which were used as samples for the knitted textile trade.
All of this material relates mainly to the Uists, Barra, Berneray, Skye and Gairloch .
HHI/WS/VSms14.
Miss Winifred Shand.
This account dates from 1950 and covers a 27 year period in the Outer Isles. It consists of five illustrated scrapbooks, an autobiographical volume, photographs, and a set of 36 slides. An oral recording of the informant commenting on the slides was made by Alyne in 1992 for The Galloway Tryst Archive and a copy donated to The School of Scottish Studies. Edinburgh University.
There are also knitted examples of socks in multi colours which were used as samples for the knitted textile trade.
All of this material relates mainly to the Uists, Barra and Berneray.
The intention is to transcribe, document and publish the information contained within these original texts and return the material culture artefacts and original manuscripts to a suitable home in the Western Isles, with copies in the NMS Folklife Archive.
Patterns from the Dreaming; Knitting in Shetland.
Ida Sandison Collection.
Most of this collection is now in The National Museum of Scotland, before it was gifted Alyne Jones photographed the artefacts and recorded the Collectors reminiscences and observations on the knitters, patterns and a way of life in Shetland. “ Being in the presence of this material was an intimate and sacred experience which changed my life as a knitter “
copyright commercially confidential.
Alyne Jones. February 2012