Learn to Knit at the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation

Family and Friends Learn to Knit participants!

I went to the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation last week to check out the Family and Friends Learn to Knit program run by the City of St. John's. It ran for four weeks on Sundays in January. The program is offered to anyone who wants to learn to knit.

Participants learned how to cast on, knit, purl, decrease and increase stitches as well as how to knit their own dishcloth. For the last class, participants chose their own projects and started on them. Some of the participant chosen projects were wrist warmers, scarves, and a baby blanket.

The first project knitted by participants

One participant stated she joined the program because knitting was something nice to do in the winter months and was a good way for her to hang out with her friends. She said she really wanted to learn to make socks and this workshop was a great way to learn the basics.

I asked someone else what their favourite part of the workshop was. She said she enjoyed learning new stitches and actually creating something herself.

If you ever wanted to learn to knit this is the perfect opportunity. The instructors are excited to teach and if you're willing to learn you'll be knitting and purling in no time! Luckily, there is another four week program you can register for just like this.


Date: Sundays, Feb. 7 to 28, 2016 (4 weeks)
Time: 2 to 4 p.m.
Location: Quidi Vidi Village Plantation, 10 Maple View Road
Ages: 10+ years
Cost: $28 per person
Click here to register for this course.

Plus, who can deny this view?

View from the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation

Thank you to the lovely group of knitters who allowed me to chat with them and take photos.

Happy knitting everyone,

Stephanie

Learn another traditional skill! We are offering a free traditional darning workshop February 16th. 

Tuesday's Folklore Photo: A darning what?

Today's Folklore Photo comes to us from Lloyd Kane! These darning tools are family heirlooms from his wife, Linda's, grandmother’s sewing box.

Both seem to be commercially manufactured. The darning tool on the right has a removable handle which may be used to store darning needle(s). There are markings that say “Made in Germany”. The other one has embossed ‘FOOT FOR’ ‘PATENDED’.

These darning tools were called the "darner" or "darning mushroom" writes Lloyd. I have heard people call them darning eggs as well. There are also stories of people using door handles or just their fist to mend socks. 

Do you have any stories about darning eggs/mushrooms/darners or any photos? Please share them with us. Contact stephanie@heritagefoundation.ca!

Thank you Lloyd for sending this photo in!

Want to learn to darn? We are offering a free traditional darning workshop February 16th. 

Registration Open for Traditional Darning Workshop

Do you have holes in your socks that you'd like to fix but don't know where to start? Come to our free traditional darning workshop with instructor Christine LeGrow! It is on Tuesday, February 16th at the A.C. Hunter Children's Library at the Arts & Culture Centre, 125 Allandale Road.

Click below for materials list and registration! Hope to see you there!

Living Heritage Podcast Ep028 Multi-ethnic food, music, and festivals, with Zainab Jerrett

Zainab Jerrett is the Executive Director of Tombolo Multicultural Festival Newfoundland and Labrador. She is also the Coordinator for International Food and Craft Expo and owner and operator of Multi Ethnic Food Kitchen. She obtained her PhD in Folklore at Memorial University in 1998. We discuss her move to Newfoundland, her PhD work on folk songs in Nigeria, her start at food and craft fairs, starting her business, and her work with the Tombolo Multicultural Festival and the International Food and Craft Expo.

 

The Memory Store: Craft can connect any two communities...

The Memory Store post this week was filmed inside Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Annex Gallery. Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador's executive director Anne Manuel describes the Craft Council's exhibition Spirit of the Caribou and how craft can connect any two communities.

Watch the video below or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Click here for more information about the building's history and architectural style.

If you missed our initial post explaining the concept of the Memory Store clip here to go back to our first blog post with the introduction video or check out our YouTube channel at ICH NL.

Stay tuned for more short stories about historic places in the province, in the form of short oral history interviews conducted with the people who care about those places and if you have a personal memory about a historic place in Newfoundland and Labrador, and want to add your voice to the Memory Store project, let us know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

-Terra

Job Posting - Short Term Contract: Intangible Cultural Heritage Intern

Job Posting - Short Term Contract: Intangible Cultural Heritage Intern
This is a position with Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, with a salary of $15/hour for 35 hours/week. The position will require a candidate with strong writing and speaking skills in English, with a degree in folklore, public history, anthropology, or related discipline. Excellent organizational skills are a must, and experience working on phone/internet surveys a bonus.

The ICH Intern will work with staff helping to identify aspects or themes of intangible cultural heritage under threat. This will involve creating an online survey, conducting phone interviews, organizing one stakeholder's meeting, and compiling a final report.

The ICH Intern will also work on the digitization of audio oral history recordings, creating metadata and descriptive logs for those recordings.

The job will also include some blog and report writing, taking minutes of committee meetings, assisting with intangible cultural heritage workshops, and other duties as required. The position will end March 31st, 2016.

Application Deadline: Monday, January 25, 2016

Send resume, cover letter, and list of 3 references to:
Dale Jarvis, ICH Development Officer
Heritage Foundation of NL
ich@heritagefoundation.ca 

Living Heritage Podcast Ep027 Cod Liver Oil and Mobile Apps.

Gail Everson, formerly a Hudson, she is a lifetime resident of Pouch Cove. Her family owned and operated 3 Cod Liver Oil factories in Pouch Cove, Bauline and Cape St. Francis from the late 1800s until the mid 1960s. Dr. Margot Duley is a graduate of MUN and the University of London where she received a PhD in history. She currently lives in Pouch Cove, a community that she loves and where she finds inspiration for her ongoing writing in Newfoundland history. The Pouch Cove Heritage Society is a non-profit community association founded in 2009 to assist residents of Pouch Cove identify and protect local heritage. Some of the community activities to date include commemorations of the Waterwitch shipwreck and rescue, Pouch Cove Heritage Days, a heritage night with storytelling, a kitchen party, and events to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1914 Sealing Disaster. The committee has conducted many interviews with local seniors, which form the basis of a book on local history. We discuss the work of Pouch Cove Heritage Society including the background history of the community, their oral history interviews, the development of a Smartphone App walking tour of the community, and the community’s book “Home by the Sea”.

A Call Out: Your memories and photos of Darning Eggs

Source: Artefacts Canada

Nice knit socks were and still are required for a warm, dry foot! There is nothing worse than a big hole that your toe sticks out of or one on your heel. In the past, people would not throw away their socks and waste materials, instead they would fix them.

A darning egg is a hard, round object that is inserted into a sock while repairing a hole. The darning egg makes it easier to stitch so it's not too tight or too loose. It prevents the sock from losing its shape while you repair and prevents you from accidentally stitching two sides of the sock together.

We are very interested in collecting photos or reminiscence of darning eggs. If you have any memories or even a photo or two of your darning egg please e-mail me at stephanie@heritagefoundation.ca or call 709-739-1892 ext. 3  or toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 3. I would love to hear from you!

Learn More About the Women's Patriotic Association

As promised, here is a bibliography with original documents such as Evening Telegram articles, the WPA's published magazine called The Distaff  and photos. Also included are books and articles. I hope this compilation quenches your interest!

Archive and library collections:
At The Rooms:
Patriotic Association of the Women of Newfoundland (W.P.A.) fonds.MG 635, 1914-1921, 1939-1948, predominant 1939-1945.

Walter Edward Davidson fonds.

At Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador:
Archives and Special Collections - Mary Southcott Collection, Queen Elizabeth II Library.

Digital Archive Initiative (DAI):
Newfoundland Quarterly -
Volume 16: Number 1, July 1916, “Outlook Beyond the War,” p. 3, 10. http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/quarterly/NQ_Volume16_Number1.pdf.

Volume 17: Number 1, July 1917, “Newfoundland and the War - Patriotic Work,” p. 4.
Number 4: April 1918, “Empire Honours - Newfoundland List,” p. 5.
http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/quarterly/NQ_Volume17_Number4.pdf.

Volume 18: Number 1, July 1918, “Empire Honours - Newfoundland,” p. 5-6. http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/quarterly/NQ_Volume18_Number1.pdf.

Evening Telegram -
“Ladies’ Patriotic Movement: Women’s Association Formed - Address of Lady Davidson,” September 1, 1914, p. 8.
http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/telegram19/id/2340/rec/4.

“Women’s Patriotic Association,” September 15, 1914, p. 5.
http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/telegram19/id/2458/rec/6.

“For Our Soldiers,” September 24,1914, p. 7. http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/telegram19/id/2810/rec/19.

“W.P.A. Second Shipment,” December 14, 1914, p. 7.

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/telegram19/id/3251/rec/29.

“Women’s Patriotic Association Meeting,” October 1, 1917, p. 3.
http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/telegram19/id/12117/rec/126.

** These are of particular interest but there are other volumes mentioning the WPA.

Centre for Newfoundland Studies
The Distaff 1916. St. John’s: The Royal Gazette, 1916. http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/Distaff1916.pdf.

The Distaff 1917. St. John’s: The Royal Gazette, 1917. http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/Distaff1917.pdf.


Books and articles:
Bishop Stirling, Terry. “Women's Mobilization for War (Newfoundland).” In 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2015-09-30. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15463/ie1418.10736.

Duley Margot I. “The Unquiet Knitters of Newfoundland: from Mothers of the Regiment to Mothers of the Nation.” In A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War, edited by Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw, 51-75.Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012.
Part online at: https://goo.gl/158i0T.

Duley, Margot I. Where Once Our Mothers Stood We Stand: Women's Suffrage in Newfoundland, 1890-1925. Charlottetown: Gynergy, 1993.

Duley, Tryphena. A pair of grey socks: facts and fancies. St. John’s, 1916. http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns_wom_lit/PairOfGreySocks.pdf.

Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador. “Women’s Patriotic Association.” Last modified April 2015. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/first-world-war/articles/womens-patriotic-association-en.php.

Thanks to Terry Bishop Stirling for providing sources to this bibliography.