When Ellen of Mrs Lam Yarns applied to my Indie Dyer’s opportunity this summer, her yarn and it’s story were so amazing that they just had to have their own design! Ellen’s yarns celebrate her Chinese heritage and narrate her experiences as a British Born Chinese woman.
Her submitted hand-dyed yarn told the story of the Dragon Boat Festival which in history would take place superstitiously during an unlucky month on the lunar calendar in terms of disasters and illnesses. Therefore, the competitors’ boats would have poisonous animal-shaped items to chase away the evil spirits by the sea or river.
I wanted to create a design showing the Dragon Boats racing along a river, closely following by the river spirits represented by ripples at the boats’ stern. To achieve an appearance of swiftly moving boats, the design had to be machine knit upside down, then sewn sideways! It’s amazing what you can do with a v-shaped stitch! And Sigita did a fantastic job of working out the correct sizes of Woolly fabric needed!
Ellen’s beautiful Dragon Boat Festival yarn represents both the boats and the chasing evil spirits whilst the background river is knit in Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift in Moorgrass. The lining and handle fabric is part of a series of dragon prints from Fabric Focus in Edinburgh. The project bags will be available in Medium, Small and Tool Case sizes, from Friday 27th November. Ellen’s yarns are available from her website, KalokshekEllen.
