Uncategorized – Page 7

Alfie cat

Alfie was a quiet cat, who did everything on his own terms.

I adopted him from the RSPCA in Sheffield on 16^th December 2012. He chose me. When I visited the RSPCA, I applied for a cat but I didn’t know what kind of cat. When I walked round, I saw all the little animals in different stages of loss and worry. Alfie was standing on his hind legs, scratching at the glass to get out. I loved his spirit, his little fight. Every time I passed his cage, he scratched at the glass – so that was it, he chose me and he was already called Alfie and he was about 4 years old but there was no other information except he had been mistreated.

In the spring of 2013, a feral, handsome, tabby started to come into the house and steal any food left behind. He was terrified of me and ran across and through anything to get away from any human or any sound. When I was out, he would also fight with poor Alfie, who was a much smaller cat. Finally, the tabby let me ghost stroke him when he was gulping food – in other words, I couldn’t touch him but I could stroke the air above him so that he might realise that I would not hurt him. Until, one day, I caught him in the cat basket and took him to the vets to be castrated so that he would stop peeing all over the house. After that, Tiggy loved me and tolerated Alfie and Alfie was carful around Tiggy but that was it, we were a small family and we shuffled along. Tiggy was top cat and he was needy for my love and ate first and Alfie, was Alfie, he went about his day, choosing where to sleep and he ate as much as he could.

Four years later, I moved from that lovely little house on a steep hill, to a small ground floor flat in Sheffield so that I might be mortgage free and I could pay for myself to do an MA in Knitting at NTU. The flat opened onto a large manicured green garden and both cats settled. Tiggy ate as many mice as he could and Alfie slept on the soft grass. During my MA, I fell in love with Shetland until finally, in 2020, I moved, lock, stock and two cats a thousand miles from the city to live in a croft house that faced the sea in Levenwick. I transported the cats in a double cat pram which they fought hard and cried and whined the whole 12 hours up the country to Aberdeen to be released in our pet friendly cabin for the 14 hour journey to Lerwick. On the ferry, they settled in my cabin, at Orkney, we were all woken by the great clanking of chains as the ferry docked in Kirkwall – both cats frightened by new sounds and when we docked in Lerwick, they had become little celebrities in their pram.

We lived in a beautiful, untouched, 200-year-old croft house that faced the sea. Tiggy loved the stone walls surrounding the place – them being full of tiny creatures to catch. He wasn’t afraid of the winds or rains. Alfie loved the fireside; he warmed his face and didn’t leave his little spot. He was scared of the stormy weather and when he ran out to the toilet, he hid under the bushes in the abandoned walled garden opposite to the house. Who was I kidding? I was also scared of the storms. The harsh winds made Alfie squint and flatten his ears to his head, something I didn’t know that he could do, he sat out on the wall – looking out to sea, he followed me to the byre behind the house and watched me dig soil, he sat in the deep window sills looking out at the skies and waited for me to return home his vantage point in the bedroom window, sometimes he would follow me to the end of the lane and nose up to the neighbour’s horses and he still loved his food. By then, he had learned to purr and he was always there, just there for me.

In October 2021, I returned to the city. A single Island life alone was too much for me, too isolated and too much alone in every way and I was a strong independent woman. When we returned, I had no home or job and I continued to drag the cats around, I couldn’t find rented accommodation because of them and no one would take us in for short stay either. I had them fostered out for a week or a little more 3 times and twice, I nearly had to give them up – the Rspca’s law is that they will take back any animal that came from there so they would take Alfie but not Tiggy. I cried and dragged them from pillar to post until a friend took me and the boys in and finally, ironically, I bought a flat in the same place as the one that I sold to go to live in Shetland. But the new flat I bought was a wreck and broken and ugly. We made do. We had a home and the boys went straight out into an area they already knew.

We have been here for three years. Alfie watched the birds, sat with the badgers without fear, sent dogs running from his path on the pavement when he stood his ground, He only had two teeth but he was NO pushover and he still loved his food but over the last year, he had been renamed Alfie thin thin because he was getting thinner and thinner. In January, his breathing had bouts of what seemed like he couldn’t stop a rattling noise and I took him to the vet. They said, that he would be a different boy in a month. I took him home, he rolled in the sunshine, waited by the window at 3:30pm every day for me to return from work, and he met me in the car park when he heard me parking the car. He still ate everything and wanted more and sat beside me purring more and more.

I didn’t realise how much of our lives were together and how much we quietly meant to each other.

On Saturday 15^th March, he woke at 6am and sat beside my face on the pillow, looking at me and purring. I told him how much I loved him and how grateful I had been for his friendship. On that day, he stopped eating, drinking and moving – except to find his comfort somewhere. He sat on my knee for 2 hours and I knew that he was dying. We went to bed and he crawled under the bed into the back corner – something he has never done before. I placed him a cat litter tray under the bed and wondered if he would be there in the morning. When I woke in the night, he was sleeping at the end of the bed. At 5am, he walked up the bed and got into the window sill above my head behind the bed. He lay and spread himself in a long thin line, in the coolness of the window sill, his chin resting on his right paw, his face turned towards me in the bedroom. His breathing was gentle and silent. I put the pillows up the wall and sat beside him, telling him how loved he was, how special he had been and how he had been the best friend ever and I thanked him again.

The pigeons cooed outside, the dawn chorus started at 5:30am for an hour and still he lay there with me silently crying beside him. I didn’t want him to know I was sad, so I kept gently stroking him from his nose to his top of his head and he just looked and listened. I told him that he was, ok. Below the pale sunrise of Sunday 16^th March, and a dawn chorus to wake anyone, Alfie began to slip away in a place of calm serenity, a place he knew and felt safe. His once yellow eyes were all darkening. I opened the window a tiny crack and he wanted to get out, so, at 7:20, I gently lifted him up to take him outside where, he rose, dropped, arched his back and stretched out long and took his last breath. I sobbed a river holding him.

It is the first time that I have ever sat beside the approach and final act of death. I sobbed tears I didn’t even know were in me. I recognised that his soul had left him and he became heavier. I placed him in his favourite cardboard box where he stayed.

It has been interesting to note his absence this week – he isn’t looking out of the window, or waiting to meet me, his nails aren’t hitting the wooden floor as he walks and he doesn’t peer into my face first thing in the morning. I have greatly missed him, but today, Thursday, is the first day that I have felt a little energy again. The sun brought a new gentle energy and oh, how Alfie loved the sunshine. xx

We Live in Time

‘We live in Time’, is my knitted textile piece incorporating a hand- knitted vest and two photographs of sisters from 1970 (my sister and me)

The work is partly about the gaps in the relationship between me and my sister and me not being able to reach her which also takes into consideration the Japanese concept of Ma, the spaces in between (間 ) the silences, the unspoken, past and present. It is also about knitted garments for siblings over time.

I was born on 26/06/1963, my sister 11 months later on 27/05/1964. Our mother dressed us identically for about 12 years until we tried to impress our own tastes upon the clothes we wore. My Grandad enjoyed the latest photographic technology available to a working-class man. He took many photographs, particularly in 1970 when I was seven and my sister, six years old. He loved his polaroid camera -these photos, though, were taken by a small new instamatic. In all of the photographs that I still have, my sister and I stand beside each other but rarely touch – there is an unspoken physical and emotional space between us. All of the images were ‘set up’ in a way for my mother to show that her daughters were ‘well turned out’.

There are hand written words over one of the photographs – ‘What about our Julie?’, which is what I always asked if I was ever given anything and she was not – this was, of course, very rare.

There is a poignancy from our childhood to now, where there is still a wide physical and emotional gap between us.

As a representation of personal choice, I have knitted a vest in nine dark colours which were chosen by my sister as an expression of her preferred colours now. When I asked her what her favourite colours are – she said, black, navy, dark red and mustard –but, I had to knit with some contrast so added pale grey, pale yellow and pale orange. We were cut from the same cloth but with totally different personalities. I knitted the same article for myself but it has sleeves and 100 colours.

We Live in Time, is part of a larger piece called, ‘I cannot reach you’ where both pieces will be exhibited beside each other, not touching, and my jumper will be reaching. Four photographs of us in 1970 will accompany the textile piece – showing how we always looked – for years.

‘We live in Time,’ questions the discouraged individuality growing up in a working class home in the 60’s / 70’s – and the ever growing space between sisters.

If you are in Sheffield on Saturday, 15th Feb, you are invited to the private view, because it isn’t private and it’d be lovely to meet you from 4-6pm. Come and look at some textiles. Address in invite above.

One and Two Cardigans

One and Two Cardigan’s, After Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs.

I finally saved enough money to have a perfect box frame made for the first and only yoke cardigan that I have ever made, way back in 2015. I was never happy with the results, and hardly wore it. The project was a learning curve of both knitting/ textile construction, steeking and colour work as well as my first taste of Shetland from my visit to Shetland wool week that year almost 10 years ago. After making it, the cardigan mostly lay dormant in my bottom draw for some years and I have, on many occasions, almost given it away.

My reason for boxing it, is not sentimental but the fact that, unbeknown to me, Francoise Delot- Rolando, a French artist, painted the very same cardigan in her ‘Clothing Fragments Series,’ in late 2021 and in March 2022, she messaged me asking if she could post the image on her Instagram of the little painted mustard cardigan. I had no idea what it would look like so she sent me images, which absolutely blew me away. In March 2022, she generously sent me the little exquisite painting, framed in a French biscuit tin. It arrived when I was living for one week, in a borrowed house, six months after returning from Shetland, when I was moving from pillar to post without home or idea of home and I was very lost. Here is the post of that time https://traceydoxey.com/2022/04/12/tin-paint-paper-creative-generosity-and-kindness/

When the painting arrived, it took my breath away, made me feel connected to a woman I have never met, connected to her art, to my knitting, to living and creating work again. She lifted my spirits in a very difficult time and I have always been grateful for her spontaneous, incredible generosity. Her gift also elevated my knitted piece from a rugged cardigan in the bottom of a drawer to something to celebrate – a journey – a life.

When I framed the cardigan, I sent an image to Francoise and she said that ‘there’s something of Joseph Kosuth’s, One and Three Chairs, about it.’ I hadn’t heard of the work, so I, of course, immediately googled it.

Joseph Kosuth’s ‘One and Three Chairs’ was a conceptual piece from 1965 – the work consisted of a Chair, A Photograph of that Chair, and a printed text definition of the word ‘Chair’

Every time Kosuth, showed the work, he used a chair from the place of exhibition, so the work remained the same but different each time, with only 2 elements of the piece remaining consistent – the text of the definition, and the subject matter – a Chair. Kosuth’s concern was the difference between a concept and its mode of presentation. He unified concept and realisation. The value of the piece was rooted in concept rather than the work’s physical / material properties. Whereas, I have come about my combined piece the opposite way around – this coupling of the painting of my cardigan and knitted cardigan sits, not as concept – but as materiality and I suppose, women’s work. One and Three chairs explored the idea of the nature of representation – same chair three ways. And in some ways, my piece could now be ‘One and Two cardigans’ but for me, it also raises the question that I return to repeatedly – the notion of what art is and what it should be. I placed the two works together and was introduced to an Artist I hadn’t heard of before as reference to a similar representation.

I have long wanted to box frame the cardigan to sit alongside the painting of it but why elevate the old cardigan? It’s rough around the edges, its yoke colours jar with me now and all I see is how I would knit it now, how I would do better. Let’s be honest, without the beautiful painting, it would not have been a consideration for me to frame this knitted piece. At one time, I would have framed it as a sentimental reminder of my growth in learning a craft involving my love of Shetland, my first experiments with steeking (knitting in the round then cutting the piece open up the front to create an opening) such love and attention to the hand made buttons, such attention to its making would have at one time been a reason for me to frame it – but not now. There was no romance in framing this piece, it is ART when placed alongside the painting, it is something more than itself.

I have finally placed it on the hand printed wallpaper that Emma did for me in Shetland – a Peggy Angus print from long ago. Emma told me that the wallpaper was made to show art – but I always loved the paper too much to cover it – now ‘One and Two Cardigans’ sits on top of a small area of beautiful paper, elevating it even more. Not everyone would see it this way, but I do. The small details in life are what I live by, and then life becomes that beautiful small moment. The small things count.

I invite you to consider this – is my newly framed old cardigan, when framed and placed next to an oil painting of the very same cardigan, is it art?

Is there a concept of knitting as art? Or is it a Textile artist’s work? Kosuth focused on the idea of a chair rather than its physical representation, and now, I too have focused on the idea of The Knitted Cardigan.

Happy new 2025.

Hoping for a year of creativity and small sharp points of beauty. xxx

outdoor knitting

In celebration of knitting outside for one year, for moving around the sun for another 12 months outside knitting, I wonder if I am filling time, or am I connecting to self? Why spend all these hours knitting and walking and sitting outside when there could be something better to do with my life. I saw a post yesterday, where Julia Roberts learned to knit on set and looked at a length of knitting as ‘lonely time’ It made me wonder.

Because I feel, completely calm and peaceful in my outdoor surroundings from the time of knitting temples of Kyoto one year ago this week, to knitting at my favourite place beside ancient abandoned millstones at Stanage Edge, or beside the work of Lee Ufan in the Summer Garden exhibition in the Rijksmuseum, to the simplicity of an early evening walk from my home in the city, through the allotments, beside the stream to wait for the King Fisher and knit – watching the sky change colour. Just sitting quietly and knitting. Am I filling time?

Could I be doing something better with my life other than working with my hands, creating art, out in nature, connecting to self, waiting for that one pure moment of natural beauty whilst knitting? I have realised that all of these times have given me peace. I am not sure what could come close to that total peaceful time? maybe in the arms or a partner but failing that – I rely on myself to find the peace.

Happy Wintering. Peaceful moments in this time of world uncertainty.

If you would like to join me in my online colour work knitting workshop, then please go here , I have a few places left in January. And if you would like to join me for a 1:1 workshop, then please get in touch – I could take you out knitting in the wilds of the local area.

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

Sister Fair Isle Pullover roadmap.

This week, I finished my 2nd Fair Isle Pullover worksheet to make a vest for my sister. The finished vest, has been made for and about my sister, in that she chose the colours and she did not want arms. These decisions, as well as others, set the vest apart from my jumper, which uses 100 colours. I am now interested in exhibiting the two knits, side by side, as a piece called – I cannot Reach You.

Below are some of the instructions in the worksheet, which is easy to adapt into your own signature story in knitting.

Included in this worksheet, are 2, A4 sized complete, full colour charts used in my pullover / vest. Chart 1, is my full body chart and the sleeve is chart 2. All of the, (more than) 90 colours that I used in this jumper are listed. I am giving you the tools to make your own road map for your own vest or pullover, or scarf, or hat.

You can incorporate any of these 11 large Fair Isle OXO motifs and 12 peerie motifs into any of your own projects and use any colours that you have or even just use 2 colours.

The 190 row pattern charts, knitted in multiples of 24 stitch repeats, included in this work sheet, is not a jumper pattern, nor a vest pattern. What I have produced is a worksheet including the entire range of Fair Isle OXO
motif bands that I have knitted. I have built them into 2 large full charts with a clear centre stitch line marked so that you too, can either replicate my jumper entirely, or move the patterns and colours around to your own taste. One sleeve of my project is knitted in traditional OXO Fair Isle patterns – the other is
knitted using Aran twisting, following how I sometimes braid in my hair in French plaits. I have been asked many times, why I knitted an aran sleeve – why not? and people often have their opions on this sleeve, which is fine, but it is my knit and anyone can knit however they choose to – You don’t have to stick to EVERY rule. I have not included the Aran sleeve charts in this worksheet but the neck aran pattern is included.

The motifs and colours within this worksheet, are a treasure trove of endless possibilities for you to be creative and make your own vest or pullover by incorporating them into your own favourite vest or jumper pattern. Use any colours that you have, use any wool that you have, use 2 colours, or like me, use over 90 colours in your jumper. In the vest I used 9 colours. I am giving you a recipe for you to enjoy and work with in whatever way you want. I am giving you the tools and the freedom to make your own design. This is more than a pattern bank, I lay out how the patterns are aligned. I also explain the importance of a centre alignment.

Recently, I have been reminded of how Kaffe Fassett, in the 80’s made beautiful patterns in books and wrote, ‘ choose 9 balls of varied light colours and 9 balls of dark colours’ and people ran with that, me included. Sometimes, he would write – use double knitting yarn, sometimes he listed the yarn and the
exact colours. This worksheet is similar. It gives you all of the tools to knit your own beautiful projects and to be free with your own decisions. It gives you the chance to grow in your own understanding of your knitted projects.

I would love to see them on Instagram.
My jumper is knitted in Jamieson’s of Shetland spindrift using – some small lengths, some longer. These colours I have had left over from previous projects or workshops or designs. I just worked them together and alongside each other. I did swatch some colours to check how they worked, and I do recommend that
you do that too. As my colour choices are not often repeated in this project, not great lengths of yarn for each motif are required. But you can knit your own project differently.

Use your stash or buy just 4 colours or even 2. The choices and permutations are endless but this relies on you. It relies on being excited to try this idea and to develop your ideas. The project requires you to use your own favourite
jumper or vest pattern and figure out the centre front (which in my case, mirrored my centre back) and I knitted multiples of 24 stitch pattern to fit my size. Make sure that your motif bands align with the centre front. I have
made this easy for you by outlining the centre front line. Developing your sense of colour is achieved by enjoying colour, swatching to experiment for colour combinations.

It took me nearly one year to design and make this jumper – it took me 3 full days to map out all of pattern repeats in the motif bands and to chart every stitch used in the body and in the sleeve of my own knitting project that so many people wanted a pattern for. It has taken 2 more days to pull it together here. It took me a lot less time to knit the vest.

I knitted my jumper and the vest, in the round up until the arm holes, then I split it and worked on the front and back separately but at the same time so that I used the same colours. Make sure that the centre front stitch is the right one so that the motifs bands align above each other. In the chart, stitch 12 (out of the 24) is the centre stitch of the first large OXO motif. The charts are in multiples of 24 stitches.

The worksheet is a roadmap for you to experiment and live freely within your own colour / motif / pattern choices. I would love to see any projects that have been knitted using the worksheet which is here

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fair-isle-chart-2

lots more photos on instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/traceydoxey/

Knitting by the millstones, Stanage.

This morning, a couple of my favourite things collided to make me being in the right place at the right time on a beautiful sun sparkling morning. I walked to a favourite spot to knit at sunrise.

About 5 miles and 10 minutes from home, lies Burbage car park and bridge. From there, you can walk across the moor to Stanage Edge, which overlooks the back of Hathersage and North Lees wood and far into the distance, Hope Valley.

I’ve been coming here for years and years, to walk, sit, eat breakfast on Stanage Edge, chase fog, climb, or to knit during the golden hour of sunrise. Today, was the first frost of the year and in my tiny flat in Sheffield, I knew that the moor would sparkle. It is so close that I can walk it, cycle it but today, took the car to Burbage and walked the short distance to a trig point high above old millstones, which date back to the 18^th and 19^th century, used to grind grain into flour, left discarded in some once used quarry area. I love it in this place. Everyone who lives within a 50 mile radius knows of these stones, though many lie buried under grass and moss.

These few that lie just below Stanage, beside an old water trough are my favourites and I often visit, sitting on the same rock with my same thermos, to knit and take in the splendour of this small valley next to a city.

Anyway, last night, I grafted the shoulders of my latest Fair Isle Pullover and took it to the millstones to start knitting the neck. It was such a beautiful morning at golden hour where every rock was casting its own shadow from the rising sun. The short grass glistened with crystalised frost. I knitted for some time then went to Hathersage for a cheeky breakfast at Outside Hathersage café, which was full of climbers talking of their chosen climbing routes.

It’s a lovely place to be, to knit, to see the world. Stanage Edge, bordering Sheffield and Derbyshire. Come visit. Bring your knitting.

And take your tea. xxx

Fair Isle chart pattern here

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fair-isle-chart-2

Fair Isle Pullover – Two Sisters

In these beautiful crisp Autumn mornings slowly opening up to warm, sweet afternoons, clear sunsets and most recently the large orb of the super moon rising, I have once again, picked up my second Fair Isle pullover which I am knitting with my sister in mind. It started off in the colours that she loves – black, grey, with highlights of navy, mustard and dark red but I was slowly sinking in the monochrome of it all. Without thinking too much, the colours have become richer, using darkest navy as a full-bodied colour rather than a highlight.

The pullover is, as usual with my knitting – a passion project with a story. If you haven’t read the beginning – it is here.

The most resent result is an overall slightly mismatched look, which I am completely aware of – a little like the character of a person, moving through moods. But, on a practical level, the colour change has meant that I am now back in love with this time-consuming knit.

I have packed this project in my backpack and unfurled it at cafes, and on Stanage Edge to watch sunsets, at Chatsworth – sitting below all the ballons taking off, and anywhere calm that I might knit and take in the surroundings and the work through my hands and fingers. The jumper takes on the environment within which I knit.

I am still working on the Japanese concept of Ma – the space and silence between all things and this pullover embodies that considering the space between my sister and me. It taking shape into something just as abundant as the first one but a very different visual character / experience.

I am using my Fair Isle Pullover chart to complete the jumper in exactly the same way that I did the first – the images show the results so far. Let me know your thoughts on colour.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fair-isle-chart-2

instagram show many more images – here

my places to knit – below a sunset, a rising moon, beside the river, or on my little patio. xx

Wallpaper

In 2023, when I stayed in Japan for 3 weeks, I viewed exquisite screens in Zen temples in Kyoto, and found that in a world filled with noise and speed, the Japanese concept of ‘Ma’ offered me a new perspective. ‘Ma,’ represents the space, gap, or pause between objects, sounds, or moments. It is not about negative space, but a presence of emptiness that enhances harmony and aesthetics. I am now constantly considering the concept of Ma, I have since resumed my craft and technical skills of wallpaper printing from my time as Artist in Residence at Sheffield Institute of Art (2019). My current body of work is delicately pressed flower botanical prints and encompasses hand-printed wallpaper, cyanotype botanical prints and the concept of Ma. I am working with my own pressed flowers which at first, I rushed to position in fear of losing the sun process to develop the print, but now I am considering, ‘Ma’ within how I work.

Here I am, on a Saturday, in searing heat, down in my little studio in Sheffield.

I am excited to share the new panels of botanical cyanotype prints that are full of risk and joy. Firstly, I spend hours finding flowers then pressing them. They’re pressed under all manner of heaps of cardboard and wood until they emerge, almost flat. I say almost because I am choosing very chunky buds and flowers like the long tall stem of a Hollyhock with varying depths of bud, seed head and stem and slim leaves – which causes issues with pressing different depths of flower. And then there are the wonderful huge fluffy yellow daisy flowers which, when pressed, and gently removed from the paper that they have stuck to, they disintegrate. I have one long stemmed small sunflower that I hardly dare look at, squashed between paper and wood.

The African Lilies didn’t fair well either, when I lifted them from pressing, their petals fell off, so I printed them with falling petals, like tears.

My flower cyanotypes are subject to risk and mishaps and then there is the sun. The sun is vital in the developing process of the sheet and when breeze joins in, my carefully pressed flowers blow across the yard of Bloc Studios and I don’t know whether to collect the hard earned flowers or pick up the half baked cyanotype.

I have been in a wonderful development phase which has opened ideas to working at Carousel Studio here in the city, with their UV light box, because the sun won’t be strong enough to process the development of colour in a month or so. And, it will be out when I am at work – I cannot turn the sun on 🙂 The strength of the sun and the length of time of shine on the developing cyanotype, all make a difference. Here, you can see details of sections that worked through lengthy sunshine exposure.

below, the print is slightly lost through less exposure, but I also like the ghost like finish

I am excited by the results and my process and new ideas from my cyanotype prints. If you have been following me for some time, you may remember my first wallpaper prints which were Shetland lace patterns, and are here in 2019, when I wallpapered the inside of an abandoned croft house in Bressay as a testament to the women knitters who one lived there.

I planning further development of my process in printed wallpaper to include lino cuts and silk screen printing and gold leaf. Maybe even golden petal tears. And I will be showing the panels in Flower shop and concept shop windows.

Let me know your thoughts 😊

One hundred colours, or just ten?

One hundred colours, or just ten in your Fair Isle projects?

I am knitting in preparation for the workshop on Friday – to show how alternative colours will look to my normal many many colours that I normally choose for a project.

This time, I am working with the colours that my sister likes but she doesn’t know that I asked her her favourite colours just so that I could knit them for her.

My pullover – the workings you can find in the rich tapestry of resources in the Fair Isle Pullover chart worksheet, is made up of about one hundred colours.

My next pullover, knitted to the same charts as the first, will use about ten colours – with variations of greys, shetland black, madder, navy, mustard and a cyclamen colour. I’m already enjoying how it is turning out. – my sister has far more subtle choices in colour.

If you would still like to join me at my free online workshop on Saturday 22^nd Just 3-4pm UK time, then buy the worksheet and I will be sending emails with joining instructions up until Weds 18^th June.

Let me know what you think to just the black and grey version of this project.

Also – access to online facebook group for everyone who has bought the pattern too.

Here is the fb group.

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Much love. Tracey

Four New online knitting workshops

New online workshops.

I live in Sheffield. Whilst I was sorting out yarn this afternoon for my 2^nd Fair Isle Pullover, Richard Hawley’s ‘People’, was playing on Six radio. I stopped to listen. Sheffield, is, I have realised my home – I have lived here since 1998 but honestly, I didn’t realise until a conversation with my son last week, that ‘I live in Sheffield’ . I may sound odd to you but to me, I have always been looking to other places, mostly far away.

_{Saturday 8th June, my bike outside the beautiful Three Tunns pub, Sheffield}

I have got on a train and got off and lived and worked in China, I’ve lived in Salzburg, London, and of course, Shetland. I have been a traveller for some years and travel is part of my art but, honestly, I have only just realised that, Sheffield is where I live, where I want to live; it is my home. And then, Richard sings, ‘People’ and I could understand every word – every place mentioned and how people are called, ‘Love’ it is a colloquialism – People in this city, call us ‘Luv’ – On the bus, at work, at the fruit and veg markets stall, at the chip shop, about town, not always, but a certain generation, it is often.

I love Sheffield, the city centre is a bit broken, the SHU university is financially on its financial knees, and there isn’t much here but there is also everything here. Art, music, friends, cinema days, festivals, history, vintage shops, people – ‘who fight for every breath’ and so much more. I am proud of this gritty city.

Anyway, I digress, whilst I was setting up my little video of my swatch book for my new Swatch workshop on 5^th July, Richard’s new song – ‘People’ came on the radio. I found it quite haunting. It is love of a city and a life and people. So, I recorded the video with Richard singing in the background. It seemed quite fitting.

I am not sure how the swatch workshop on 5th July, will pan out yet but I am asking for registrations of interest.

I am also doing a one off special FREE online zoom workshop for everyone who has bought the Fair Isle Pullover worksheet. The session will help anyone who has bought the worksheet, to develop ideas of colour, alignment of Fair Isle motifs in your project and ideas to help you get the best out of the worksheet to make a great project – it could be a hat, scarf, jumper of vest. This session is on 22^nd June at 3-4pm UK time. You don’t have to register for this one – I will email everyone who bought the pattern with zoom joining instructions on 19^th June – so you still have time to buy the worksheet, if you have been thinking about it. It is here.

If I was still living in Shetland, my workshops were sold out within 30 minutes of advertising them. Now they take time because I live in a city far away from Shetland. But, I am still the same person, and my workshops have developed into much better experiences than when I was in Shetland. Come and join me.

TWO NEW DATES FOR MY ONLINE COLOUR BLENDING WORKSHOP IN JULY

DATES AND INFORMATION on all workshops in this link HERE

PS, if you don’t follow me on instagram – there are lots more images in updates there – https://www.instagram.com/traceydoxey/

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. See you soon.

Tracey 🙂