Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Reading and Knitting Shetland
These days I have been reading a series of mystery novels set in the Shetland Islands, The Shetland Quartet by Ann Cleeves.
They are fascinating for a number of reasons. First of all they are very well-written and evoke the landscape and culture of the Shetland Islands so accurately. One can almost feel the cold wind and the North Sea waves lashing the deep cliffs. And that special northern light.
Somehow it seems proper for me to be reading these books while I am in the midst of my Far North Collection.
Secondly, there are references to knitting throughout them all. References to people making a living from knitting, usually with a knitting machine these days. References to the economy and how knitting had always been a part of it. References to clothing that the characters are wearing, often a handknitted sweater, showing wear.
Cleeves knows enough about knitting, too, to be able to identify stitchwork and give authentic descriptions of these garments.
In Red Bones, one of the characters--in fact, one of the suspects--is a knitter from England who has married a Shetland Islander and come to the Islands to set up a business teaching workshops and selling yarn and locally-made items. Sound familiar?
You'll have to read it yourself to find out if she did it.
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