The pub is owned by Mary Rudkin (along with her friend Julie) who is a lecturer at my University. We met when I was presenting at the university's annual research conference, she asked if I could come and talk to her monthly knitting group and I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some interviews and get some practice. I had such an amazing time while I was there, they kept me very well fed with the lovely pub food and let me try some of the specialist real ales they served. They are still renovating some areas of the pub but they managed to make me feel very much at home, here is a picture of the pub from the outside.
I wanted to chat to her group and ask questions about how new technologies may have assisted them when being in a fairly remote location; but instead the majority of the data that I ended up getting heavily focused on the concept and benefits of community, which is also primary focus of my research. Mary wanted me to introduce the concept of guerilla knitting/yarn bombing into her group, as a suggestion of an activity they could participate in together and brighten up some parts of the Island and the neighbouring town of Barrow in Furness. I really didn't expect the suggestion that I made to be so well received but all of the ladies in the group seemed really excited and all suggested places and ways to yarn bomb.
I added these two slides to my original presentation, there isn't a lot of information on them as I merely wanted to introduce the some of the ideas and inspire them to do their own thing. I actually really enjoyed adding these slides as I got to look at some of the fabulous different ways people choose to yarn bomb.
They were all so friendly that I urge you to try and visit them at some point. Mary very kindly gave me a present for my knitting group as a thanks for coming down. These amazing knitting needles, which are size 35! I can't wait to try different types and sizes of yarn on these and experiment with all the interesting textures they might produce.
Mary also painted this card of neighbouring island of Piel and got all the group to sign it with lovely messages about how they enjoyed my talk.
Here is a picture of Mary spinning some fleece she had from some of the local alpacas that also live on the island. Thanks again so much for having me and introducing me to your fantastic group, I can't wait to hear how you all get on with your future projects and guerilla knitting, good luck! x
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