Sticks and Pricks!

In Dent, knitting needles were called ‘pricks’, so it has been reported that at the beginning of services the parson used to tell the industrious knitters, who knitted everywhere, ‘Put down your pricks, we’re going to pray’.

Tuesday of my Yorkshire knitting tour included a trip to Dent and Hawes, following a morning presentation about Yorkshire knitting sheaths, of which the wooden varieties are known as ‘knitting sticks’.  So by the time we got to the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, the group were familiar with the characteristics of Dales gloves (from the Monday evening presentation), and the many varieties of knitting sheath that were used in Yorkshire up until the early 20th century. As the museum has a very large collection of knitting sheaths, and several pairs of Yorkshire Dales gloves, they were then able to see these artefacts with an appreciation born of knowledge.

The knitting and spinning display at the Dales countryside museum has changed a lot since the last time I was there. I particularly love the double-sided glass cabinet they have installed for displaying many of their knitting sheaths, hanging in there at many different levels so that the whole display appears like a piece of art. It was wonderful to look at each stick in turn, and using the knowledge I have recently acquired, identify the part of Yorkshire or adjacent county it came from. Swaledale, Wensleydale, Clapdale, Dentdale, Airedale, Teesdale, Eden Valley, and Durham were all represented.

By arrangement the museum had extra items on display for the group to enjoy, and had some volunteers spinning and knitting in the textile gallery, plus a lady making Yorkshire buttons. It was wonderful to sit and chat with them. Alas, we had to keep our visit brief as I had somewhat ambitiously planned to also visit Dent in the same afternoon (next year we are devoting separate afternoons to these two destinations). So, after the group had enjoyed a little shopping in the museum shop we set off to remote Dentdale, a somewhat windy and bumpy ride through beautiful countryside.

In Dent we first visited the Dentdale Heritage Centre, which also has a few knitting sheaths on display, though nowhere near as many as the Hawes museum. It does however have two lovely, albeit somewhat cluttered room settings, depicting 19th century life in a Dent home.

After this we wandered around the very picturesque village; cobbled hilly lanes crowded with white-painted stone houses. Marie and I visited the church, where we found E. Curwen’s name on a wooden plaque that listed the church’s vicars. The Hawes museum has several pairs of Dales gloves that were knitted for his family.

We also spontaneously did a little historical re-enactment there, which was lots of fun. I stood in the pulpit and read a little account from Old Handknitters of the Dales, ending with the wonderful quote from the beginning of this post:

The George and Dragon Inn is opposite the church. Hearing much laughter from within, and by now needing to visit a loo, I wandered in. The noise, it turned out, was all being made by a modern-day group of knitters, some of the ladies on my Yorkshire Knitting Tour! After visiting the ‘rest room’ (they taught me some new vocabulary), I sat with them enjoying a lovely glass of rosé. The bar staff were clearly bemused by our raucous throng, and kindly offered to photograph us together. So, a wonderful moment was captured for posterity on many different phones: