Meeting other members

The best way of meeting other members is to join one or more Branches.

What interests our members?

We know that our members are passionate about their crafts and take an interest in knitting and crochet techniques, as well historic items and the social history of these crafts.

At the 2015 Knitting History Forum Conference, Lesley O’Connell-Edwards presented her study of the publications of the Hopes of Ramsgate in the 1840’s, and her article on George Curling Hope was published in the Jan/Feb 2016 edition of Piecework available from Longthread Media

Lesley was also awarded the Pasold/Museum of London Fellowship in 2015 and looked at their 16th century knitting in detail.

Lesley also has an article in the March/April 2018 edition of Piecework on a project recreating Miss H.P. Ryder’s Richmond Gloves available now from Longthread media.

The Britannia Mills Team

Some of those members who volunteer to work on the Guild’s collections have written about their experiences and how they have been able to further their interests using this material. From time to time we will include information about what they are doing on this website. For Guild members there will also be regular articles in the Guild’s journal, SlipKnot.

Articles inspired by items and documents in the Guild’s collection

  • Angharad Thomas, Textile Archivist. Angharad has written many papers, including Sanquhar Gloves: An Exemplification of Deep Local to Pan Global? published in Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings and available online from Digital Commons @ University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Read more in Angharad’s blog.
  • Barbara Smith, Pattern Archivist. Barbara’s publications include The History of Crochet article in issue 5 of Simply Crochet
    This article mentions several First World War items in the Guild collection. Images of the items can be found on Barbara Smith’s blog. An interview with Barbara Smith about Knitting & Crochet during WWI appears on the blog of “Let’s Get Crafting”

Other members’ blogs

Active member of our London branch, Emma Vining blogs about events, knitwear, inspiration and her designs.