WINDPIPE OF GOOSE WITH PEA

We've been on the search for dried goose windpipes for 6 months, and today they finally arrived, thanks to Mr Richardson, my mother's local butcher in Windermere who has made them especially for Prick Your Finger. 

Up until about 1910, hand knitting was a major industry in the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, but due to a lack of electricity, it was worked by candle or gas or fire light.  So, you may ask, what did they do when their yarn unraveled into a dark corner and could not be found?

The answer is simple. 

Take the windpipe of a goose and wash it thoroughly. Thread string through the windpipe, and join both ends, forming a circle. Lay the windpipe down gently in curing salts, making sure that the pipe remains 'open' and not squashed. Allow to dry out, checking every few days that pipes are still 'open'. When dried and stiff, remove string, and stuff it with dried peas. Now use the windpipe as a bobbin, winding the yarn around it.

Your ball of yarn will now gently rattle every time it rolls away, so you will know where to start looking. 

When the national grid fails and we start loosing our wool, you will know where to come.

HATS FROM OVER THE OCEANS

Bit cold and tired this morning so we put hats on. Our hat's came a long way to keep us warm.

Louise's hat was sent by Polly who lives in Natick,  Massachusetts. It was knitted by her grandmother, Daisy, when she lived in England, and it was origionaly a tea cosy. During WW1, Daisy was a secretary for an officer in London, when she fell in love with a Staff Sergeant. He soon moved to Canada, but Daisy was determined and boarded a steamer, with the tea cosy, in 1920, age only 19, and went and found him. She didn't marry him just yet, she spent a year traveling across Canada on a caboose, and they were finally reunited and married shortly afterwards. Daisy found it colder in Canada and stitched up the spout and handle holes to make a cosy hat. Polly, when having a clear out, knew that the tea cosy belonged in England and sent it to us, and we are so glad she did. 

My hat was given to me by Ella's long lost cousin Martin, who came to visit from Chilie. He is an expert in Volcanos and when he came for tea we had scones with jam and cream.  

BIRTHS

To Jamie Fawkes - a puppy - Spanner - Son of Troy - 9 weeks old today, Sunday.

Posted - raw hide bone covered in ripped sari yarn, crochet with 8mm hook.

DYDD GWYL DEWI HAPUS

It is a special day for our Louise! March 1st is St. David's day, the patron saint of Wales, who was born on a cliff top in Pembrokeshire during a violent storm, and where he landed a spring came which is now St Nons Well.    St. David led a frugal life, eating mostly watercress, and encouraging leeks to grow. 

Louise is also from Pembrokeshire, and here she is in her Black Welsh Mountain coat, with her leeks decorated in yellow satin ribbon. 

We have a special offer on yellow ribbon , 75p a metre to-day only. Tomorrow it goes back up to £1.50

STITCH AND BITCH MAP

PYF was delighted to knit a square for the Stitch and Bitch Map of the British Isles. It shows what a creative country we are, with knitting circles everywhere. Creativity and community is alive and well.  Our square is the one down bottom right with a big pink knitted phallis that is pointing upwards.

TEA AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Hello! I made tea for Mrs G. and Richard for nigh on 40 years, and it was a lovely time. Towards the end of my stay there I was attacked by moth. It was terrible. Here I am (above) when they found me.

I was brought to Prick your Finger, where they gave me a face lift, new arms, new hair and now I am happily back in service, pouring tea for the lovely ladies and gentlemen in the shop.

KALYANAMITRA COTTON FOR LIFE

RED COTTON is scarce in our shop at the moment, because the organic peruvian farmers only spin it in indigo, white, and grey, but when Mallika popped in the shop today, thank God we had one ball of red cotton in the bargin bin. Red cotton is for the Kalyana Mitra ceremony. Kalyana Mitra means 'Beautiful friendship' in the buddhist world and Mallika was on her way to the ceremony without her red cotton! 

Two senior buddhists become lifelong friends with a junior buddhist. The thread comes from the Buddha at the shrine, and then is wrapped around the wrists of the younger buddhist. 

I said one pound please and she gave me two.