| The Hirsel Collection is a collaboration between myself and several fantastic local makers. I have been planning this collection for quite some time as I’m keen to showcase some of the superb local talent and to share their work with you. The collection will launch at 5.30pm BST on Tuesday 13th September. The sets are a pre-order and won’t be posted until mid-January. The main reason for this long lead-in time is so that we all have time to make our items for each of the sets (there is an upper limit on numbers but I hope there will be enough to go around). Also, although Alex’s design is well under-way we need to ensure that the design isn’t rushed and that Steph has time to tech-edit it fully. But, I also feel that January can be quite a long, dark month and that Hirsel arriving, as a gift to yourself or to a special person, will really be something to look forward to. Each set will contain – A yarn set by me (approximately 90g Auchen Sport in 3 mini skeins) A specially commissioned mittens pattern by Alex of Hen In A Glen A candle by Morn of MO[r]N Candles A purse by Rowena of Red Ruby Rose A herbal tea by Cornelia of Panacea A porcelain stoneware bud vase by Sally of Sally Knight Ceramics The mittens pattern will be tech edited by the eagle-eyed Steph Boardman My hope is that Hirsel will bring some beauty and joy to those days, early in the new year, which can be so short and dark. Alex’s colourwork mitten design is inspired by the special nature of gatherings with friends or family or, even, of setting aside the time to remember a loved one. The yarn, Auchen Sport, is woollen-spun, light and airy and will form a cosy, snug fabric when knit in Alex’s lovely design – the set of three mini skeins will be dyed in colours which bring to mind those fresh, crisp winter days when it is a joy to spend time outside. How better to bring some light and a homely feel, when you come back inside, than to light one of Morn’s beautifully, and very carefully, scented, vegan friendly candles? Sally’s vase will be perfect for bringing inside an evergreen twig or two, or seed heads with a particularly beautiful silhouette and then, later in the year, for holding those precious first signs of spring. Cornelia’s tea is perfectly warming and can be enjoyed with friends or sipped slowly and peacefully in a quiet moment. Rowena’s special purse is as tactile as it is lovely – perhaps it will be used to hold treasures, favourite knitting or sewing notions, or for storing special finds from the beach or woods? The sets will be beautifully presented in a box with recycled and plastic free packaging. A digital copy of the pattern will be sent by email and a paper copy included within the set. Contents of each box will vary slightly: Rowena will use a selection of her beautiful images for the printed velvet front of the purses and will match them with a variety of plant-dyed linens, for the back, and dupion silks, for the lining Sally’s ceramics are made in her home studio and each vase will vary subtly in dimensions and colour Julie will dye the yarn sets in small batches and, as is the way with natural dyeing, there will be slight variations between batches. For those of you who didn’t receive my last newsletter Hirsel is primarily a Scottish and northern word meaning ‘the entire stock of sheep on a farm or under the charge of a shepherd’; it is related to “herd” (though borrowed from Old Norse hirzla, from hirtha ‘to herd, tend’)’. The same source adds, from “The Ecology of Medieval English Monasteries” by Austin Mardon of Greenwich University (I can’t find a working link to the article unfortunately)’: ‘Several of the herds that roam the Yorkshire dales today have existed continuously since the 13th century. It is worth noting that it is illegal to sell off a complete hirsel from any mountain because it takes several generations of sheep to learn their individual “sheep-walk” and some of the older, experienced sheep must be left to guide the young, who would otherwise starve.’ This law makes sense given that hill sheep ‘heft’ to an area. Each ewe, and then the following generations of lambs, will have her own particular heft (which can vary with season and weather) where she is familiar with the terrain, shelter and most importantly the available grazing. The Collins English Dictionary definition is: ”Scottish and Northern England dialect NOUN 1. a group of sheep of the same kind VERB (transitive) 2. to sort (sheep) into groups of different kinds” |
(colours intentionally washed out!)