If you have attended one of my online colour blending workshops or, if you have knitted my Sea Urchin hat pattern or the Tree and Star hat pattern, I am looking out for another interested person who could do a test knit for me.
This wool is going to a good friend of mine, Mary, who had done a fabulous test knit for me previously (the Fair Isle Hat pattern)
But, if you are interested, please get in touch with me through the contact form below (do not leave a comment as I cannot respond to a comment – please fill in the contact form provided) and please say if you have attended a previous workshop or if you have knitted the hat pattern. On this occasion, I can only work with people who have done the online workshop or knitted my patterns before. I am excited by this new idea and look forward to hearing from you.
Today, is the 26th May, a UK bank holiday. I left home at 6:50am to walk the three miles to Sheffield station and buy the tickets to catch a train to Leeds then on to Saltaire for the annual BH Arts trail open up of the houses and I wanted to see the work in Salts mill by Ann Hamilton.
In Leeds, on platform 4b, I waited for the Skipton train to be unlocked, when a young woman asked me if it was the train to Keithly. I showed her that beside the train is a platform sign which shows all the stations that the train will stop at because I didn’t know if she was familiar with how our trains run as she was from China or Japan. We entered the train together – she said that she was going to Keithly for the Haworth train to go see the Bronte house. We got on immediately with an open, relaxed flowing conversation. I asked her if she lived in Leeds but she said she was on teacher training – she asked where I thought that she was from by looking at her face, which she circled with her forefinger. It wasn’t her face that I was entirely reading. Her English pronunciation was absolutely perfect without any hint of any accent and my experience of Chinese English teachers from living three years in China, is that their pronunciation is recognisable. In China, I was never called Tracey – but Tlacey. When she said she was from China, I couldn’t help saying that I used to live in China, in Suzhou – and honestly, we are talking of a dot of a Chinese city famous for its classical gardens, with a population of 8.5 million in the huge China with so many cities that I couldn’t believe that we both had a connection to the same place thousands of miles away for a brief collision of place and timing on platform 4b in Leeds. She said that she was going back to Suzhou in 3 days so I couldn’t help but mention the special people in my Suzhou life. I told her of my Chinese Jie Jie – (Older sister) who was my landlady and her husband Shu Shu and my Buddhist friend Cai Gen Lin –these three people changed my life deeply when I lived in the old hutong lanes in Pingjiang and I still love them very much to this day, but have not seen them since 2013. I lived in Suzhou from 2008 – 2010 as an English teacher and felt very grateful for the job because I learned so much about daily life from my adult students. In excitement, on the train, I found in my purse, a business card of Jie Jie’s property rental business that I have carried since 2008 and only last week, I was wondering how I could get in touch with them as none of them speak English nor have email. My new train platform friend is called Zhang Yu, I remembered her name after she only said it once and I began to speak with her in Mandarin, something I haven’t done for years. I was catapulted back to a time and place so loved that I could hear it and feel it. We parted after only 10 minutes on the same train. I gave her my email and she gave me a silk bookmark from Suzhou. I have tried to email her this evening but it bounced back. I am hoping that she will keep in touch and if she has time, will seek out my Jie Jie and hand her the card that I have carried for 17 years. On the back, I wrote, Jie Jie, Wo ai ni. Which means, Sister, I love you.
On the top floor of the magnificent, gargantuan Salts Mill in Saltaire, is the multi-faceted Bradford supported exhibition by Ann Hamilton which responds to the space, its heritage and the future. Three different spaced out horns rotate slowly in the huge roof space unhurriedly moving towards my face, playing repetitive singing then whistling. The mechanism to turn each horn is visible on the floor. I’m here early and have the huge space to myself – I don’t know what it is all about yet but I cannot turn away, intoxicated by the layering of sound. At the end of the room, great swathes of locally-woven blue fabric hangs in great lengths held down by rocks, like a loom. In another room, huge images of faces on woollen cloth hang like banners whilst a woman in a, kind of manager’s-box reads letters written by hundreds of unknown and unnamed people as part of the exhibition to their ‘Dear Future’ this is the part of the exhibition that most interested me before I came to see it. The woman reads letters while singing can still be heard from the horns in the vast room next door. News broad sheet papers hang on rails behind each large printed doll (which are blown up images of Feve’s – tiny ceramic dolls / a small trinket or charm which used to be baked and hidden inside French cakes for luck) I have walked around the gallery and collected every news print sheet, some I have duplicated, some I may have missed – there are many sheets. I’m in love with this space. It’s a space that needs a commanding artwork within its huge vaulted roof space. Every time I come, I am in love with the immediate old wooden, oiled smell and openness and light in this huge mill which once wove wool. I’m also in love with this work which I am not quite understanding but want to, so much so, that I sit on a bench near the woman reader, to eat my sandwich and to just listen and give it all time. It is so multi layered that it really needs more than one sitting. Normally, I look at art and leave quickly. Here, I am engaged, writing with enthusiasm and speed, trying capture what this work is making me feel. And here it is.
I feel alive. A first careless rapture of something so completely new to me, that I am besotted.
I feel engaged fully. I’m not off in a rush, not thinking of some other place but I am here, in this roof space in Salts Mill thinking of my own ‘Dear Future’ Something that I have been thinking of for some time but not had a thread of where to exactly, precisely put my energy to reach a goal / aim because I am, for the first time in decades, not sure. My future aim is staying just out of reach – not unattainable but latent as if I am once again standing at a crossroads. My choice is not yet clear enough to run headlong towards it or even to quietly walk or even stumble towards it – my time future is precious as I am getting older. I am hoping that I can make the right choice. The reader in the box, reads on while pulling strings to ring a bell above the large artworks, she’s opening letters from unknown people who have written to their Dear Futures, mostly thinking of the future world,
But what is my Dear Future self? A dream or hope is forming involving heading back towards the east and meeting Zhang Yu on the platform in Leeds, seems to be a sign that heading back towards the old lanes in Suzhou and onwards to the base of a mountain in Japan is maybe the path I should take.
You know, when a piece of paper has been folded and unfolded and refolded again and again, then stuffed into a bag to get out in a cafe or on the moor or on a bench, to follow for reference – correct / edit, then folded again and, you know how the paper flops and becomes thin around the folds until it finally tears?
that’s what I love – use and working outdoors with a loved project
I live in a city called Sheffield in South Yorkshire. The Peak District borders Sheffield for quite a few miles. Here’s some of the things that I do in Sheffield.
I’ve recently started meeting Sara and her friends to go wild swimming at the weekends at Barbrook, which is between Sheffield and Baslow. There is also a stone circle there and an old burial mound. Many people use this large pond of water and there’s always activity. Last week, a lovely young man came and played his banjo on the top of the hill by the water, before he swam. There were horses and butterflies and cake and lovely people – mostly of whom were women out enjoying the freezing water. Thanks Sara Davies for the photos, here is a little link to the post on Instagram.
I’m growing an abundant range of flowers in my tiny garden area outside my flat – The Flag Iris is particularly stunning, the tulips from Amsterdam have been magnificent and I have an eye on my Peony buds. At work, I am drying flowers in the hot windowsill for confetti, for no one in particular, yet.
Putting up my tiny tent.
Yesterday, at 3pm, we were in the middle of a heat wave again, so I decided to spontaneously go camping and the best place is 7 miles from my home at North Lees Campsite in Hathersage. It is a very secluded spot but very popular. It sits at the base of Stanage Edge and beside North Lees Hall, a place of great beauty. It is said that Charlotte Bronte stayed at North Lees Hall and used it as Mr Rochester’s house in Jane Eyre. It is fitting for that purpose and is currently owned by the Peak Park with tenants in it.
I packed up really early this morning so that I could walk along Stanage Edge and sit and knit in my favourite spot beside the age old stone trough and millstones, which were cast aside many many years ago when there were millstone quarries in the area.
Stanage Edge is 5 miles from my flat and is always a great wonder of the world.
There are so many ordinary things that I do in Sheffield that make up my life, like, go to work 2:5 days a week at Sheffield Hallam University. We have a huge new build in the centre of town with its own roof top garden and other fancy benefits. I love working for SHU, it is where I did my own BA Fine Art degree and now I support apprentices doing theirs. On Thursday, I have been going to the Over 55’s film screening including a cuppa tea and a cake. The cuppa is quite normal and the cake has diminished somewhat and the price has gone steadily up from £6 to £9 now but I have seen some marvellous films on a Thursday from 10am – 1pm alongside new friends.
We have festivals. From the flat now, I can hear the fake festival way down in Endcliffe park and it has a bunch of bands on, we have Sheffield Doc Film festival and any number of other things, park runs every park – every saturday, and tomorrow it is Nether Edge yard sale where lots of folks sell their stuff on tables on the pavements or from their gardens or garages – who doesn’t like a rummage?
Once a month now, Mary and I have arranged a crafting night at Café 9 – the next one is on Monday 12th 6-8pm, if you are in Sheffield, and I have started to join Petra from Black Elephant hand dying at her knitting night too.
I live beside a walk into the woods up Porter Valley and every week, I see herons, king fishers, tiny birds and last week I saw a bambi in front of my, really I did and now I feed the foxes as well as my badgers and my cat. Owls call each other from the tree outside.
Life in a South Yorkshire city isn’t what you might think it is in a city and I am nearly 62 years young and still go to the gym every day to swim or yoga or body balance or endurance class. I have a great bunch of friends that I know there which is good for wellbeing. Many other folks have diverse lifestyles here too. It’s a pretty cool city to live in.
I still knit every day and am excited by what I am making at the moment. It is a companion to the Tree and Star Hat pattern.
I will be doing a one day Colour Blending workshop with Hope and Elvis on 18th May but other than that, I am not doing any workshops in May or June – I’m taking a break. My next available session is on 26th July – 2 hour colour blending. my link to the workshops is here , I can send you a booking form and an overview, if you would like to join me on 26th July
I hope to see you at one of my classes or get in touch through Instagram. Show me the projects that you have done using my patterns. I love to see them on instagram and I frequently share your work to my feed.
tracey doxey 
