Hello! Kiloran Bay, a cherished childhood location for me, was the inspiration behind my latest knitting cast on. Last Saturday I hopped on the train to Perth to attend a Knitting the Landscape workshop with Karie Westermann! The workshop was planned by Eva from The Scottish Yarn Festival as a very generous way of thanking her volunteers - thank you Eva, I think we all loved it!
The theme of this workshop was to create a knitted piece based on a place or a memory of importance. I immediately thought of Kiloran Bay on the island of Colonsay, somewhere I loved being as a child and somewhere I then took my own children when they were primary school age.
Karie encouraged us to forget about the constraints of knitting (such as following a pattern and sticking to the "rules") whilst at the same time to cling to the elements that were important to us (such as using the pair of needles which felt just right and working with wool with particular memories attached to it). We all shared our stories and our ideas which gave each of us a rich and inspiring expereience.
The photo above shows the point all the participants had reached at the end of the workshop, my piece of knitting is on the large, straight needle. I'm knitting and allowing the images in my head and those from the photos I have to influence the lasting impression I have of this magnificent bay. I'm not working with much of a plan (though I did sketch out the beginnings of an idea), I'm simply allowing the yarn and the stitches to guide me. There will be crocheted elements too - I used a crochet cast on to make it even easier to crochet into later. I'll share more of my progress in a future post to let you see how I'm getting on.
Have you ever tried anything like this? Do let me know!
Until next time,
Marta xx
