The second word I drew from the words suggested on Patreon last month is Hiraeth, suggested by Smart Mouth’d, a Patreon supporter. Hiraeth is a word I’ve loved for a while, though as I understand it it’s one of those words that’s hard to translate well from the original language, in this case Welsh.
Here’s what Wikipedia says: “Hiraeth is a Welsh concept of longing for home. ‘Hiraeth’ is a word which cannot be completely translated, meaning more than solely ‘missing something’ or ‘missing home.’ It implies the meaning of missing a time, an era, or a person – including homesickness for what may not exist any longer. It is associated with the bittersweet memory of missing something or someone, while being grateful of that/ their existence. It can also be used to describe a longing for a homeland, potentially of your ancestors, where you may have never been.”
I like the way this has umbels (seen from the side) scattered throughout, like umbrellas or fennel flowers. (Umbel umbel umbel. It’s a good word.)
Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make three of these into knitting stitches each month: the second and third (posted on the first day of the next month) are drawn from the collection of new words; the first is drawn from the collection of unused words. A random number generator helps me choose these, and then I get to work, first turning the letters into numbers, then charting the numbers onto grids in various ways. Finally, when I make the chart into lace, I turn the marked squares into yarnovers and work out where to place the corresponding decreases. (I usually make lace; occasionally I make cables instead.) I also make a chart for any craft that uses a square grid for designing; this goes in a separate post.
The stitch patterns are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.
Follow link for charts and instructionsLike this:
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