Last summer went by in a flash of so many good things squeezed in among the unrelenting heat. The intensity may have been a little difficult to process at the time but those special times really left their mark and have been shaping my creative life and work in the subsequent months. I’m now in a position to share some of this with you.
Over the next few months I’ll be releasing a series of sock patterns in collaboration with my long time friend and creative inspiration, Susan Crawford. Each design will feature Susan’s gorgeous sock yarns hand dyed by Charlie at their Lake District Studio, and are a response to one of my favourite novels, from one of my favourite writers, in whose footstep I was able to walk last summer.
In July I attended Susan’s ‘Echoes and Inspiration’ retreat which drew on Susan’s book of that name published by Laine, which was itself shaped around a series of Inspirational women who have influenced Susan’s own work. In the heart of Sussex with just the South Downs separating us from the sea, we explored the creative legacy of the Bloomsbury group, with a particular focus on leading lights of the group, sisters Vanessa Bell (left, painted by Duncan Grant) and Virgina Woolf (right, painted by Vanessa Bell).
Today I want to share with you that retreat as an introduction to the sock designs to come over the next few months.
We stayed at Woodfire Camping on the Firle Estate in Sussex. Among our bell tents at the heart of our camp was a large open fronted marquee where we sat, knitted, chatted, took workshops and worked on our lovely bespoke retreat project.
I had forgotten just how wonderful food that you haven’t thought about, let alone cooked, actually tastes. Certainly the food was objectively good and plentiful too, and the company no doubt made it even better.
We were a short walk from Charleston Farmhouse, one time home of Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and rural hub of the Bloomsbury group.
We walked along lanes in the the shadow of the downs and through the fields the men would have worked during the first war as conscientious objectors (still a working farm) to the house itself, now maintained as a cultural centre and for visitors by the Charleston Trust.
One thing that really struck me at Charleston was the relationship between house and garden, inside and out, between a human created environment and nature as fluid and co-constitutive.
The gardens at Charleston are beautiful, and in July were in full bloom. The hollyhocks seemed to be trying to steal the show but the roses climbing up the side of the house intermingled with cherry, the fruits of which were being eaten by a very determined blackbird were diverting too.
There is something very special about Charleston. The bold creativity of each element of the house, every detail and surface considered and adorned, seemed to create a very special energy.
This was not limited to painted surface or Vanessa’s use of mosaic, but also to fabrics. Vanessa had sewn strips of fabrics to make curtains and many chairs were covered in fabrics she and Duncan had designed in the 1930s.
There were even a couple rag rugs, which if you’ve read my Dove Cottage post you’ll know I have a soft spot for.
The tour concluded at the studio a striking light space that really is a leitmotif for the Bloomsbury style:
Our group found great joy in being at Charleston and were certainly energised by the creative example and freedom it exemplified. We came away buzzing with ideas, and rather large quantities of fabric with which to realise them. I think most of us came away with a some of the Clouds fabric designed by Duncan Grant in 1931.
This fabric was Susan’s inspiration for the retreat project, the Clouds neckerchief. The neckerchief combines various colour work techniques including stranded colour work, intarsia and surface embroidery in a lovely and eminently wearable project.
Our workshop not only took us through the techniques, but the inspiration and how to turn inspiration into design. We had a choice of yarn, Susan’s Lock base which is white and dyes vibrant shades, and barn a grey base that produces more muted colours. This layering of colour onto a grey base is something Vanessa did with her paintings because she too liked the quality of colour produced on a grey canvas.
Our second visit of the retreat was to Monk’s House in the village of Rodmell, country cottage and refuge of Virginia and Leonard Woolf. They bought the cottage in 1919 attracted by the ‘shape and fertility and wildness of the garden’.
Leonard, a keen gardener, designed the garden and the structure of his planting largely remains although the trees including ginkgo, magnolia, walnut and elm now loom incredibly large over the beds, ponds, and the smaller well tended trees of the orchard.
We picnicked and read and knitted and chatted and some of us played bowls as the Woolfs and their guests would have in the garden with its wonderful view of the downs. This gave us the time to really soak in the contribution of this unassuming cottage and gardens on the development of modern literature and the place of women in it.
Virginia worked on many of her most loved works here. I’m not sure I can find the words to describe just how affecting being there in the rooms they called home and among the everyday objects of their lives was, but it was incredibly special.
The cottage itself is very small and does speak to a need for privacy and a space to work.
The garden studio built for Virginia facing the downs is preserved much as she would have left it and to be able to sit outside reading the words she would have written inside was an incredible experience.
Virginia lived between London and Monk’s House until her death in 1941. Her last months on the south coast were partly forced by the bombing of their London House in Meckenburgh Square and they were witness to active preparations for a German invasion and watching German planes fly over the south downs on their way to bomb London.
Last year was the 100th anniversary of the publication of Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, a novel I have read, and re-read, and absolutely adore. It is also the inspiration for an upcoming design collaboration with Susan.
To be able to visit at this time was just so special as it also coincided with many online events to mark the anniversary, many set in June, as was Clarissa’s party in the novel. This meant the summer as a whole was quite an immersive Woolfian one, and I loved it.
At the end of our retreat on our way home some of us were able to to visit the Vanessa Bell exhibition at the @Charlestontrust in Lewes. What an incredible body of work they had brought together.
It was wonderful to see Mrs Dalloway’s Party by Vanessa:
But there so many other wonderful paintings all together in this one exhibition:
The exhibition allowed the work to largely speak for itself, but I especially liked both the painting and story of a work commissioned and then rejected by Cunard for the Queen Mary cruise liner. Deemed not suitable the contract was cancelled until friend and fellow member of the Bloomsbury group, John Maynard Keynes, intervened and won both financial compensation and a further commission. Sometimes among our pre-occupation with the Bloomsbury lifestyle it’s easy to forget that many were working creatives earning a living.
Perhaps unsurprisingly I was also drawn to the book jacket illustrations which Virginia commissioned from Vanessa:
This was a wonderful finale and gentle re-entry to the world outside of our wonderful retreat. It was hard to leave our hosts, Susan, Gavin and Charlie, everyone at Woodfire Camping that made our stay such a pleasure, and the group of wonderfully interesting and inspiring women whose company was so restorative and created bonds that I cherish. Thanks to one and all.
Until Friday when I will be introducing my Virginia Woolf inspired pattern release I hope you have enjoyed this introduction.
All the best, and Happy knitting,
Tess xxx
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