From sheep to cloth

In West Yorkshire there is a beautiful village called Saltaire which is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was built by Sir Titus Salt to house the workers for his mill. In the 1830's Titus Salt was one of the first people in England to work out an industrial process for turning alpaca fleece into a soft and usable cloth. Titus had over 3000 workers and once the mill was open in 1853 he kept building the village, with houses, a church, a school, almshouses, library, shops and a park. The village was completed in 1876. Titus Salt was recognised as a progressive employer who tried to make life better for his workers at a time when working conditions in textile mills were very poor and there was much danger and poverty. 

 

I could talk for ages about Saltaire but that isn't really what this post is about. Suffice to say it is a beautiful place to visit and it gives an interesting insight into industrial history. Salt's Mill is now part museum, part shops and part gallery with a large collection of David Hockney pictures. It is one of my favourite places to spend a few hours. It is absolutely huge and it is possible to imagine what it must have been like as a working mill.   In one gallery space there are a series of murals which tell the story of the making of cloth. They were painted by Henry Marvell Carr in the 1950's. They show the process from sheep to cloth which as a knitter, sewer and lover of textiles I found really interesting.

The sheep, looking very proud. Excuse the reflection, the first two paintings are behind glass.

Shearing time and a big pile of fleece.

Grading and sorting the fleece. Different breeds of sheep produce different quality wool.

Cleaning and scouring the fleece. It gets washed, rinsed and dried.

The wool is carded to produce clean, fluffy wool called roving which is ready for spinning.

The roving is spun to produce a strong wooden thread and wound onto bobbins.

 

The loom has to be correctly threaded so that it will weave the correct type of cloth.

 

The cloth begins to be woven.

Checking the thread quality. Obviously quality checking happens in tandem with the other processes.

The cloth being woven on the looms. 

The finished cloth coming off the looms. 

Quality control of the finished cloth. 

The cloth being folded and ready to go. These pictures really helped me to understand what used to happen in the mill. The area where I live would have been full of textile mills years ago so when I see them, standing empty or converted to other uses now, it helps me imagine how they used to be!

January knitteds

I am loving my knitting at the moment. Absolutely, totally love love loving it. I would be knitting all the time if I could and if it didn't make my shoulder hurt - (extreme knitting injury there)! I always love knitting but there is something about the cardigan that I am knitting at the moment that is making it even better. So I thought that I would share a sneak peak of my progress so far.

This yarn is a beauty to knit with. It is Sublime extra fine merino with silk double knit in teal. It is so soft and has great stitch definition. For someone who loves knitting it is a shame that I struggle to wear wool as it itches me like mad. I turn into a crazed woman screaming 'get it off me NOW' as I contort and writhe to get the offending garment away from me as fast as possible. As this yarn is a) merino and b) has added silk, I can wear it as long as it is not directly next to my skin.

My parents and my sister between them bought me a garment's worth pile of this yarn for Christmas and I knew exactly what I was going to make with it.

It isn't this cardigan! Not that it isn't a lovely cardi but it is not the one. But it is from this issue of Stitchcraft. I started it on New Year's Eve - so only 62 years after it was published! I rather like that, I wonder how many people in 1952 cast on this cardigan.

'To complete her skating outfit, Joan wears an amusing cap and mitts set'!

This is the one! I just fell for it! A perfect short length and fitted shape and that completely amazing stitch pattern. The magazine refers to the stitch pattern as 'chunky blisters' which is possibly the most hideous description of the most beautiful pattern that someone could come up with. I am referring to them as foxglove flower bells as that is what they look like to me.

This is a close up of the stitch pattern patted flat but it is far nicer raised which is how it knits up.

Drum roll............

This is the back of my cardigan, hot off the needles! This is the first time I have knitted a stitch pattern like this so I am very proud of it.

I do like a nice bit of rib! The colour is more like the top photo that this one.

For those of you who have knitted from vintage patterns before you will be well aware that the instructions are often not as full or as clear as they might be or assume a certain level of knowledge. This one is not so bad though there have been a few places where I have had to scratch my head and go 'eh? you what?' a bit whilst I worked it out. Plus a few rows of unknitting when my interpretation turned out to be not quite right! But that is all part of the excitement.

The back and both fronts are complete and I started the first sleeve yesterday. So it is coming on. I just can't wait to wear it! I am planning the outfits that I can make with it. As the magazine styled it with an amusing cap and mitts set perhaps I need to find myself one of those!

This is the back cover of this issue of Stitchcraft. It is such a pretty children's set. There is a bit of snow on the hills around here so it is quite fitting too!