As in other spheres of culture, Newfoundland and Labrador has its own distinctive seat at the worldwide knitting table. Our saucy weather has always demanded warm clothes in all seasons. Some items made here today are rooted in European knitting traditions. Other curious inventions came straight from the clever minds of industrious Livyers who needed to keep warm while working. This talk and slideshow will fill you in on why and how we knit what we knit today.
Shirley Anne Scott, sometimes known as “Shirl the Purl” is a retired librarian who spends most of her waking hours knitting or thinking about knitting, and she has done so for more decades than you have fingers on your gloves. After writing Canada Knits: Craft and Comfort in a Northern Land in 1989 she became known as Canada’s Knitting Historian, a title to which there have been remarkably few claimants. She has written patterns for The Rooms Grey Sock project, based on items in the provincial collection. Presently she is collaborating with Christine LeGrow on publishing Some Warm Mittens, a collection of printed instructions for our traditional mittens.
Listen to Shirley Scott’s lecture: