My Year of Making and Healing: POST 2: I AM A TEST KNITTER

(In case you missed it, I introduce this series here.)

This is a post full of stories…

I first heard about Debbie Zawinski when I read this article by her in Spin Off magazine back in 2014. I was totally fascinated. She combined my love of spinning, knitting and walking. I knew I had to meet this woman someday! I immediately ordered a copy of her book, In the Footsteps of Sheep.

In the book, she narrates her walking journeys around Scotland investigating the native sheep breeds. Dedicating a chapter for each breed and location, she included a knitted sock pattern to highlight the quality of the breed. It is a beautifully crafted book with images of breathtaking Scottish landscapes and the people and sheep she met along the way. 

When I first approached Debbie near her home east of Edinburgh, I was somewhat starstruck and nervous about our meeting. But no worries…Debbie is about the warmest and sweetest person you have ever met. Over the years, with the help of modern technology, we became great friends. We were even guest artists together at the Roscommon Lamb Festival (in Ireland) in 2018. 

Debbie and I knitting and spinning in front of the Scottish Parliament building for International Women’s Day in 2018. Commemorating and celebrating the contribution of “women’s work” throughout history. We were accompanied by other members of the Haddington Knitters and Spinners group. 

Last year when I was in Scotland, we were reunited again, and my daughter and I spent a few days at her home celebrating her birthday. While I was there, she told me she was working on another book, also with knitting patterns. Would I like to be one of her test knitters, she asked?  I had never been a test knitter before, but she assured me the pattern was simple, and a small one, but it did have “short rows” (a knitting method). I had quite a bit of experience knitting short rows, so I agreed. After I returned home, she sent me the initial pattern instructions and I got busy. 

Here are the the “Herbedacious Wristies” that I test-knitted for Debbie—modeled by my son, Benjamin Fulton. We call them “handwarmers” in the US, but it is “wristies” in the UK. These will appear in Debbie’s upcoming book. Each of the fibers that I included in the wristies has its own story. 

The dark brown is some handspun that Irish spinner Brigid Banham gave me when we were guest artists at the Roscommon (Ireland) Lamb Festival. Bridgid was demonstrating handspinning at the festival.  

While in Roscommon, my friend and host, Caitlin Browne presented me with a bag of handspun white Angora (rabbit). A friend of hers had given it to her to pass on to me. It was hand spun in South Africa about 30 years ago!

The green is from Targhee sheep—an American breed. It was recommended to me when I was first learning to spin on a hand spindle because it is easy to draft. So this was in my very first spinning project.

The gray is from a Lincoln Longwool sheep raised on Vashon Island, Washington. It is very coarse and mostly is used for carpets. But the complete fleece was given to me and I used it in a “sheep-to-sweater” project—the first time I took a fleece from raw wool to finished sweater.

 “Stories in Stitches” is Debbie’s upcoming book in which the pattern for these wristies will be published. Look for it to be released this coming fall!