Knitting pros push traditional Newfoundland patterns

Two women in the province are keeping culture alive by recreating and sharing rare Newfoundland knitting patterns.

Christine LeGrow, the ownerof Spindrift Handknits, and Shirley "Shirl the Purl" Scott have assembled patterns for hand-knit items such as trigger mitts, flap caps and scarves.

Scott, originally from New Brunswick, said Newfoundland has long been knownfor its variety of knitting patterns more intricate than the popular diamond pattern of today.

"When I first came here in 1979, I saw them and I knew they were special," said Scott.

"I never knew that I would live here [one day], and I started buying them up. Over the years, I collected 30 different pairs with different patterns [from] all over Newfoundland. I've got mittens I found in Hibbs Cove, all kinds of places."

Last year, Scott passed those traditionalpatterns on to Sprindrift Handknits. According to Scott, the company is committed to keeping traditional Newfoundland knitting alive.

"People should be knitting these again," Scott said.

"But, of course, they were never written down. They were passed from one knitter to another."

Recording the patterns wasn't easy for Scott.

"These are quite sophisticated;I was very amazed by that," she said.

"I have great, great praise for the old girls who used to knit them believe me, they knew a lot of tricks."

Perfect partnership

For LeGrow, preserving this part of the province's culture is especially significant.

"I've always admired a lady, Anna Templeton, who made it her life's work to preserve and promote craft in Newfoundland and Labrador,"LeGrowsaid.

LeGrow came across Templeton's pattern for traditional trigger mitts 20 years ago, andsaid, at the time, no one else was sharing the uniquely Newfoundland pattern.

"Most women, back when the trigger mitts were really popular and everybody knew how to knit them, a lot of those ladies didn't know how to read and write, so they had to have a grandmother, or an aunt, or a mom, or a neighbour show them how to do that," LeGrow said.

LeGrow, who's along-time partner with the province's craft council,sells her Newfoundland knitwear at craft shows across the island.

"Every fall craft fair, there's always a group of gentlemen [who] come into my booth and it's just like they've got a magnet on the trigger mitts," she said.

"They pick them up in their hands, they get nostalgic and water-eyed and they go, 'I remember when my nan used to knit me these mitts, and she's gone now and boy did I love those mitts,' and it's very emotional for them."

LeGrowsaid she hopes the revived patterns will inspire a new generation of knitters to pick up a pair of needles.

"I want the children of those ladies and gentleman to be able to say when they grow up that they had a nan that used to knit them those trigger mitts also."