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Fiberchat podcast

podcast with Fiberchats

On 4th October, I met with Irina Shaar of Fiberchats, online, to have a little chat.  It was pretty in depth because, I appear to be a talker.  Stories of my journey in how I learnt to knit and my knitting journey were an initial soft entry into the chat.  Topics such as ‘what constitutes an original design’, how do I teach colour blending workshops?, why did I move to Shetland? and did I fit in? talk about my book and other topics are all covered in the chat.  I was totally honest, slightly guarded but honest.

There are things that I learned from my chat with Irina – to go for something new, to be out there – warts and all ( I look like my mother) to put my trust in a recording that was not at all edited, to find a joy in what I have achieved. To actually hear myself talk about what I have done in my life.

My life so far, has been a small but interesting journey.  Of course, the 44 minute podcast only scrapes the surface but under that surface lies a challenging, sporadic, optimistic journey with many dents and bumps and breakages along the way – a bit like my knee at the moment, because I came off the bike – visible on the surface but such a lot going on underneath.

In the podcast, I talk about my knitting journey, my Masters at NTU in Knitting where I developed my skills in CAD fine lace knit which I took back to Shetland and placed in the abandoned derelict homes of the knitters long gone.

Unst – 2018

If you go back in this website, you will see all the Shetland visits to abandoned croft houses.

With Irina, I talked of writing to Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen’s and working with them for a while whilst at Uni, and how that happened, and also, how I got on a train in Sheffield and got off in China. 

Irina asked me about my online workshops, and about the book I wrote whilst living in Shetland for which I had an agent but no publisher.   If you have ever wondered what it is like to move lock, stock and two cats to a remote Island, I am releasing the chapters in monthly instalments on Patreon.  There are already 4 months posted – August to November, filled with the joy of buying the house, walking to the village beach, collecting flowers, shells, and sunrises, whale watching, soil digging, paint stripping.  December’s will come out on 1st December.  There are also knitting posts, with downloadable Fair Isle motifs in colour and b/w –   It is all there. Well, it is all here.

and here is a little note from Unst in 2018

So, if you want to listen to my chat with Irina, then, it is here.  say hi to her for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVQR4FMa1dA

Much  love Tracey

 

https://patreon.com/tracey_doxey

Sitting in on someone else’s class

https://videopress.com/v/jenKqMMl?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

It is raining.  It has rained and rained and rained, amid strong winds.  Here, in the city, this extreme stroke of lashing weather is nothing to what it was like when I lived in Shetland. Today, the weather that has brought trains and buses to a standstill and cars are sitting in 3 ft deep water on Chesterfield road in a huge city puddle where the roads dip (why?)  It is like an Autumn day in Shetland, where it was exhausting to even go to the shops and come home in the car and carry the bags to the house.  So, I got wet today, so I sat in traffic but it is relatively mild storm weather and I feel safe.

At work, I dropped in to the Architecture lecture for module 1, for the first year Architect apprentices,  so that they could see me, ask questions related to their apprenticeship support and for me to understand their first module.   I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did. It was so exciting to sit in a class situation and be inspired by the slides of the work of Architects who deliver sensory responses to social, physical and environmental spaces – to develop relationships between person and place, altering sensory experience.

My mind flew to where I would go with the project group work, if I was in their class and I realised that I missed academic stimulation to create new work.     My mind rushed back to my own Fine Art degree of 1995- 98, and my MA in Knitting at NTU 2016 – 18, creating site specific work back in the abandoned croft houses in Shetland, and then it flew forward to Kyoto and how could I carry the inspiration I felt from this one hour lecture that wasn’t even for me, to create work within the environment of a city I have never seen, using found materials to make a prop to alter the sensory perception of place? that’s the brief, but in Sheffield from the city to Sky Edge.

I unintentionally started drawing a row of thin, long, unambitious, vertical lines / threads with ideas of tiny macrame baskets fastened to the lines, full of sunflower seeds, that I have gathered from my trip to Tickhill Sunflower fields in the heat of one day, seemingly so long ago.  The vertical lines would be tied to a tree branch and anchored into the ground, burying a pellet of mixed sunflower seeds from Doncaster, in to a wood in Kyoto.  I also thought of the confrontation and humorous work of the artist, Nina Saunders, that I saw in 1996.   It feels like forever ago that Nina, upholstered sofas and chairs with great spheres couched into the seats in Chesterfield sofa style buttoning, making them into structures that could not be sat upon.

I also stripped sofas in 1996, when I was at Art school and upholstered them in dried rose petal filled muslin upholstery.  The scent was sensory.

Used furniture has huge potential to tell a new story if used in sculpture or out in the environment.  It is interesting how people relate to everyday furniture when is has been manipulated. In the 90’s, I found Nina’s work both beautiful and memorable. I felt part of the confusing artwork that asked me questions.

So, today, as I watched the presentation for the degree students, my own thoughts developed ideas that I could  make to be manipulated into seed hills on sofa frames for the outside sensory experience for the passer by to connect with environment and place.  I have collected many sunflower seed heads and am going to send some to Shetland, in the hope that they will grow in my friends’ (x2) poly crubs and bring a flash of yellow to the Shetland weather.   I no longer want to rip out the upholstery of a sofa to reveal the frame to rebuild it as a sensory object, but I am thinking of taking sunflower seeds to Kyoto to make site specific work in nature and walk away, never knowing if they will grow, or be eaten by birds or squirrels, using fine cord and maybe crochet.

Did you know, that the stripey sunflowers have stripey sun flower seeds?

I haven’t felt so alive in a long time as I did in that class that wasn’t even for me.   How lucky these students are to be able to experiment with environment and materials to make architectural choices at the beginning of their 3-year degree.  I could drop in on Fridays, I might drop in on Fridays, but it is hard for me to keep quiet, because I am so excited by such possibility and it isn’t my degree so I need to keep away. Though, the lecture did trigger my memory of my own site specific work in Shetland which is here which I did during my MA.

After today’s presentation, the SHU library beckoned.  All of the art books from the library when I did my degree in 1995 – 1998 were transferred from Psalter lane when it was demolished, to the city library – the art book collection is extensive, though some are missing.   Where is Twombly’s 24 poems to the sea?

I borrowed – Van Gogh and Japan.  Let’s see what happens. Maybe nothing, but for one hour, I was transformed to think completely creatively and those ideas bled into thoughts of reading, art and site specifice work. Now, I have to keep quiet on my ideas and just be an apprenticeship coach.

Small wins / Gratitude

I had forgotten to read, almost forgotten how to read. Reading used to be my go to, my come down, my love but now, my time being taken up with work and knitting admin, I had forgotten how the written words of others, feed my own written words.

Nourishing transient words and thoughts flowing from the simple act of reading.

To neglect my relationship with the written word removes one of my senses – not sound, nor sight, nor taste, touch or smell but the 6th sense of inspiration. 

I am visiting Kyoto for 3 weeks in December / January – to nourish excitement, to be in the moment, to be baffled by everything in front of me by not recognising a thing – not the written or spoken word, nor the food or shops or culture – to have, in essence, my senses born again.  I am also going whilst I still have most of my own faculties, though I may have to tie my name and Japanese address on a string around my neck. 

To pursue a real and floating world that I never knew existed is exciting.  Who knows where it may lead. Three weeks, or thereabout, give or take forty hours of travel in the sky and waiting in my old beloved Pudong airport, is a wonderful hard-earned gift in life.   To leave a son and a daughter at Christmas would be unthinkable to most, but ‘Christmas’ is brief and we will make it up at the beginning of December – tree and all.

My trip to Kyoto slots in between a holiday break given at work (plus a few days either end) and, although a great financial cost, I will make do – cycling around the city, walking and eating cheaply.  I will wash my clothes in the wash tubs on the roof of the hostel over looking the mountain and I will live small with big thoughts.   I will stay in the attic of a hostel owned in Kyoto by a couple that I met in China in 2008, when they owed a hostel in Chengdu. They sold up and moved to Kyoto.  I never thought that I would ever see them again but I return, to people, to places.  They are beautiful people and Maki has been in touch regarding the booking. I feel quietly excited although a little nervous. 

I am knitting Maki a gift, which I will wrap beautifully and hand over to her with two hands and a faint bow as a sign of respect – something I learned in China and became second nature. Respect for a hard working woman, for communication, and mutual respect.

So much still to organise,  the thoughts are on a little back burner, slowly simmering.

For now, on this rainy day in Sheffield, I am having a delicious hour with the three books that I bought in the summer from a real book shop. That day,  I returned to work and said to my colleague, ‘ I think I’ll nip to Japan.  After all, I bought the books so now I have to go. ‘

I’m thinking of taking a small business card to reflect my knitting, this is a mock up, it is not the finished image but an idea – quite ridiculous and not at all corporate – What do you think?

Stash buster neck warmer is here

When do the reminders of my journey past, stop?

October 5th, 2015, 8 years ago today

When will spontaneous social media reminders stop pulling me back to a place in the past, a place of my dreams even though it is no longer a dream when it became a reality.

Visual reminders drawing me back to a time of pure joy in a place – Shetland  – it is always the frozen moment in time, captured in an image.

and, I begin to be torn, in my head.

question my leaving, questioning myself and my own judgement.

I achieved my dream but left it behind.

Re reading my journals for my Patreon posts pulls me back – leaving one foot in each place.

The city and the island.

How do memories fade?  Are they skewed or chewed?  Will my brain shrink until there is no capacity to remember?

This week, I heard the beautiful lilting pure Shetland accent on Louise at Jamieson’s,  flooding out of the telephone through the ether, words hanging in the air long after they are spoken. Such warmth, such beauty are the things I that I hang from. Dangling in mid thought.

Words left floating from a thousand miles away, and wished I could have been there. Back in that shop, in that street, in that town on that Island.

When do I lift my dragging foot out of Shetland?

The beautiful isles

The beautiful lilting accents of tangible generations.

Probably never.

Stash Buster Fair Isle Neck Warmer pattern, Knit along

Dear Friends

I am really happy to offer The Stash Buster Fair Isle neck warmer KAL to everyone who buys the pattern between now and December 2023 – and it begins today.

I’d love anyone who has bought the Stash Buster Fair Isle Neck Wamer pattern to join me in this KAL – I will be doing a free zoom chat on the pattern and the KAL on Saturday 14th October at 4-5pm UK time. if you have bought a pattern – I will email you an invite – last zoom invite will go out on 10th October.

We will all be making the Neck warmer,in however which way you want to.  I have already knitted it in 20 colours, but I will now knit it in 4 (or 5 or 6) so that it is an easier option to show everyone how to develop the pattern to their own tastes. The pattern offers all 16 charts for all 20 colours but it also gives you a 8 b/w charts option so that you can knit it in any of the following ways.

  1. your own 20 colours
  2. just 4 colours or
  3. just 2 colours – all of it.

So, What’s the plan?

Buy the pattern and join in on Ravelry on Tracey Doxey Knitting Patterns Group on link below – but you don’t have to join the ravelry group

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/tracey-doxey-knitting-patterns-group

the knit along questions page on ravelry is here

https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/tracey-doxey-knitting-patterns-group/topics/new

The Knit along will last until Friday December 8th. – I will be knitting a second neck warmer in 4 or 6 colours so that you can see how easy it is to use your own stash.

The Yarns? 

I used Jamieson’s of Shetland but this is not easy for everyone to get so I want you to use your own yarn in this project because Gauge doesn’t matter.  JUST USE THE SAME YARN IN ALL THE PROJECT

Prize? 

I reward starting, not only finishing.  All you need to do to be eligible for a prize is post your photo of your Stash buster Neck warmer knit on Instagram or on Stranded Knits facebook group and tag #traceydoxey, or @traceydoxey So that I can see it  —  Prize – there will be one prize for one person drawn randomly out of a hat on 8th December. The KAL winner will win – A choice of 4 of any of my knitting patterns on Ravelry. Just tag me to go into the draw. I will be keeping a tally.

There will be a free Zoom chat with Tracey Doxey about the neck warmer pattern and choice of colours and any questions. To be invited to the zoom meeting, Buy the pattern before 10th October, and I will invite you to join me on Saturday 14th October 4-5pm UK it’s free, come and ask any questions. Say your bit. Please NOTE the last opportunity to recieve a zoom invite to the KAL chat, is 10th October.

The Tracey Doxey’s Stash Busting Fair Isle neck warmer KAL zoom chat and question time will be on the date and time below.

Time: Oct 14, 2023 04:00 PM London

I am looking forward to my first KAL

Let me know your thoughts 🙂

best wishes. Tracey

Stash Buster Fair Isle Neck warmer

I designed and knitted a little thing – then a big thing.  I made the neck warmer, initially because my face got cold while I was biking to the swimming pool at 6:30am every day in the Winter and spring and then, as I knitted, the whole thing developed into a swatch for a jumper that I began to want to knit – this is how my mind races.  So, I spent hours and hours graphing out the charts, changing the joining sections of the motifs to fit 24 stitches, placing them in order and choosing colours, then, I just set off knitting without any real plan, though, alignment and the feel of the drape is crucial for me. I wanted a Persian carpet look using traditional Fair Isle motifs. And I got it

Finally, I put a little pattern out on Ravelry   It has a lot of colours BUT, really, you can knit this pattern in just two colours because the gauge doesn’t matter, so you can use your own stash and to support that, I have added all the motif charts in 2 colour ways and in Black and White so that you can knit it in your own colour choices – so give it a go.

If you want to use the same colours as I have, you need one ball of Spindrift in each of the following colours – Peat, Burnt Ochre, Sunrise, Burnt Umber, Mustard, Maroon, Daffodil, Coffee, Midnight, Sea Grass, Twilight, Granny Smith, Port Wine, Old Rose, Mantilla, Pot Pourri, Peony, Pumpkin, Camel, Clover

But, really, use your stash – don’t leave it in your cupboard – it is a waste and share your projects with me on instagram here @traceydoxey

I am also thinking of doing a knit along on Ravelry, if enough people would like to join  – I will knit the second neck warmer in much simpler colour work.

In total, there are 8 charts/motifs – each in knitted in 2 different colour ways, making 16 charts in total and 16 colours used and 4 additional colours used in the small band at the beginning and end. But, as I can’t stress enough, this is a pattern but it is also a worksheet for you to choose your own colours and use your stash of yarn – it is even called Stash Buster. For complete ease, you could knit the neck warmer, entirely in 2 colours only. For example, a light background and a darker colour motif. And if you only use two colours, you could knit it in the round – that would be easy peasy.

Take a little look – it is here and it took a very long time to write and chart this pattern out, it would be great to see it knitted by a community of stranded colour work knitters. 🙂

Ravelry: Stash Buster Neck Warmer pattern by Tracey Doxey

much love. Tracey

now I am going to share my behind the scenes knitting piece with Patreon supporters

walking

At the stones, it occurred to me, that, I could just keep walking, without preparing flask, or cardigan or the right shoes, or thought for returning.

Disconnected. Thinking.

Triggered annoyance from the repetition of the act of the cat and the woman’s words

Walking and walking, over drying mud and water.

In the wood.

Until I look up and there it is, the magnificent creature. Balancing on long thin legs, poised to leave.

We look at each other for a long while. It, finding its place, in the exact present moment. Ony being here and now. A sign.  Finally, I connect to something other than the words in my head. Hovering between awe and rising joy, stepping forward, only to see the wide winged heron bend, crane its neck then fly above the water, through the trees, passing the sun.  

All the sounds of the world are here, water flowing, trees creaking, the earth turning facing its ground to the sun, damp rising, warmth creeping, shadows stretching, the flapping of the heron’s wings as it takes flight to leave.

Pure nature, calming my annoyed soul. Hunger rising.

On exiting the wood, warmth rests on my arm and cheek.  It is as if the bird never existed, but for the feeling of joy lifted my heart.

Have you ever wondered…

Tonight, when I was out walking and knitting, through the allotments and the wood, I wondered, ‘Have you ever wanted to know what it is like to sell up your home in a city and move to an old croft house facing the Sea in Shetland?’ 

Well, I did that, as a single woman in my late 50’s and wrote the story.   On Patreon, I will share my story of living in Shetland from the time I went to view the old, tiny, sea-facing croft house three weeks before signing the binding Scottish missives  – from opening its original plank house door, to the day of walking away and closing it again behind me, 14 months later. Because, I had to leave it.  

On Patreon, I will post the book’s chapters in chronological monthly instalments, aligning them with the month of the year that we are in currently in August 2023, with the same month in 2020. The story will start from the day I went to see the house for the first time. As time passes, the story will unfold about the previous tenants of the Levenwick croft house and my research into their lives in Shetland. I spent many hours in the archives at Shetland Museum, going back through records to the 1840’s. I was especially interested in Susan, who was born in the house in 1876 and died there, 83 years later, in 1960. In every chapter, as well as writing on my life in Shetland, I write her a letter, linking past and present. Some of the chapters are linked to knitting patterns that I designed, inspired by my croft house and Susan, at that time.

Additionally, I knit, teach online colour blending workshops for Fair Isle knitting and design small Fair Isle style knitting patterns.  I only use Jamieson’s of Shetland, Spindrift yarn because of its many colours, hues and tones.  Two of my Patreon tiers offer a bi monthly meet up to talk about knitting projects or my old Shetland croft house or life in Shetland for a ‘Sooth Moother’

Take a peek at the tiers and come and join me. If you do join, I will email a thank you but bear in mind, the time difference from the UK to your place and I work in between. 🙂

https://patreon.com/tracey_doxey

the little mitts are Fiona Blue and in the link below

https://www.ravelry.com/designers/tracey-doxey

One Day Colour Blending workshop in Sheffield – 16th September 10:30 – 16:30

200 colours to work with during the afternoon session

I am really excited to share with you that I am finally runing a full day Colour Blending workshop for Fair Isle knitting, here in Sheffield on Saturday 16th September 2023, 10:30 – 16:30 GMT

The Venue is the lovely Dorothy Fox Centre, Botanical Gardens, Thompson Road, S11 8RB, as pictured below.

On the day, I will provide:-

A morning of tuition on how to blend your colours in your knitting projectes. A collection of over 200 balls of Shetland yarn to choose from to knit with during the afternoon swatch knitting session. Print outs of tuition presentation from the morning colour blending lesson. A printed Sea Urchin Hat pattern to work with after the workshop, to practice your colour blending.  Graph paper to practice your colours and coloured pencils. Plus print outs of the motif for you to experiment with colour to knit your swatch.

Experience Level of participants – Anyone who can knit a stitch and purl a stitch can join this session. Anyone who wants to experiment with and understand colours within motifs.  This is a morning tuition workshop plus time to experiment using your new found confidence with colour by knitting a swatch such as the examples below, during the afternoon.

This is a skills based, creative, confidence-boosting, fun, experimental, workshop where you will learn the skills to enable you to successfully and confidently choose and blend your own colours for your own projects.

The workshop is based around the tree and star motive in my Sea Urchin Hat pattern., which you will receive on the day.

During the first two hours, I will teach you the principals of colour blending then show examples of different motifs.  After lunch, you will be able to experiment with the 200 Shetland yarn colours available in the session to knit a small swatch in your own colour choices.

Afterwards, you will take away your colour blending skills to create your own swatches and choose your own colours for your future projects and you will be able to look at your own stash of yarn with a different eye.   On the day, I will bring examples of Shetland and Fair Isle knitting and design pattern books as well as my own swatch books for you to look at.

the session will be £80. If you would like me to send you an overview and booking form, please contact me at traceydoxey@hotmail.com and I will get back to you asap.

Excited? I am.

email me at traceydoxey@hotmail.com if you would like to be sent an overview and booking form.

I also teach online workshops – information in workshop tab on this website – here


Link to Botanical Gardens – On Thompson Road, a turning off Ecclesall Road, Sheffield S11 8RB

https://www.sbg.org.uk/how-to-find-us