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My Weekend with Alice Starmore
Since I first fell hard for fiber arts in the 1970s, the name Alice Starmore carried a strong mystique for me. I never imagined I’d spend a few magical days with her.
Britain in the seventies may have been a tumultuous time politically and economically, but up in a quiet northwest corner of Scotland, on the Isle of Lewis, artist Alice Starmore was beginning her storied design career. Fifty years later, she is still there. The author of numerous knitting design and instruction books, Starmore is perhaps best known for her intricate colorwork knitting designs, inspired by the rugged land- and seascapes that surround her. She grew up in a traditional Gaelic-speaking Hebridean household, where crofting, raising sheep, spinning, dyeing, and knitting were necessities, not hobbies. Starmore’s forefathers were fishermen, and generations of women in the family knit the woolen “fisher gansies” that protected the seafarers from the harsh weather conditions of the north Atlantic Ocean.
The Lewis moorland in winter sunshine.
Starmore shares on her personal website, AliceStarmore.com: “From my grandparents’ and my parents’ generations I learned about crofting, cutting peat for fuel, and which plants to use for medicinal and dyeing purposes. From my aunts I learned how to make fisher gansies. But my mother was the biggest influence on my early creativity—she taught me to knit and to sew at a very early age and she had a keen eye for fashion. I learned how to drape fabric and how to tailor a fine coat, but above all she passed on to me her enthusiasm and her imaginative approach to everything she made. My first commercial knitting collection, which I produced in 1975, is very strongly based on techniques that I learned from my mother; its colours and patterns were based on the shoreline of the Eye Peninsula, where I lived at the time.”
The Polaris cardigan, Briodag Hat Set and Sulaire shawl patterncard kit designs by Alice Starmore for Virtual Yarns, worn with the Persian Tiles wrap from the book A Collector's Item. Modelled by Iona Mairead Davidson.
Both an artist and naturalist at heart, it was childhood summers spent on the Lewis moor that first inspired her passion for the geology, plant matter, and sea life which still provide Starmore with the unending source of visual
Britain in the seventies may have been a tumultuous time politically and economically, but up in a quiet northwest corner of Scotland, on the Isle of Lewis, artist Alice Starmore was beginning her storied design career. Fifty years later, she is still there. The author of numerous knitting design and instruction books, Starmore is perhaps best known for her intricate colorwork knitting designs, inspired by the rugged land- and seascapes that surround her. She grew up in a traditional Gaelic-speaking Hebridean household, where crofting, raising sheep, spinning, dyeing, and knitting were necessities, not hobbies. Starmore’s forefathers were fishermen, and generations of women in the family knit the woolen “fisher gansies” that protected the seafarers from the harsh weather conditions of the north Atlantic Ocean.
The Lewis moorland in winter sunshine.
Starmore shares on her personal website, AliceStarmore.com: “From my grandparents’ and my parents’ generations I learned about crofting, cutting peat for fuel, and which plants to use for medicinal and dyeing purposes. From my aunts I learned how to make fisher gansies. But my mother was the biggest influence on my early creativity—she taught me to knit and to sew at a very early age and she had a keen eye for fashion. I learned how to drape fabric and how to tailor a fine coat, but above all she passed on to me her enthusiasm and her imaginative approach to everything she made. My first commercial knitting collection, which I produced in 1975, is very strongly based on techniques that I learned from my mother; its colours and patterns were based on the shoreline of the Eye Peninsula, where I lived at the time.”
The Polaris cardigan, Briodag Hat Set and Sulaire shawl patterncard kit designs by Alice Starmore for Virtual Yarns, worn with the Persian Tiles wrap from the book A Collector's Item. Modelled by Iona Mairead Davidson.
Both an artist and naturalist at heart, it was childhood summers spent on the Lewis moor that first inspired her passion for the geology, plant matter, and sea life which still provide Starmore with the unending source of visual[PAYWALL] material she applies to her creations. The interplay of yarn colors, the intricate surface patterns, and flora-and-fauna-inspired silhouettes are all informed by the rich natural resources she observes each day. “Though textile art and design took over my life, I have never lost of my interest in all aspects of zoology and botany.”
Go Ask Alice
In 2011, I was involved in organizing the first Interweave Yarn Fest, which was held in Sacramento, California. Interweave founder and Long Thread Media partner Linda Ligon had the wild idea of inviting Alice Starmore to be the keynote speaker at the inaugural event. Linda had gotten to know Alice when Interweave Press published the now-classic Aran Knitting in 1997. To our surprise and delight, Alice accepted.
Karin cherishes her autographed copy of Aran Knitting. Photo by Karin Strom
Since we were bringing our guest from such a distance, Linda thought it would be only right to invite her old friend to spend a couple of days together after the event. I was invited as the designated driver. How could I refuse? Linda rented a house in Sea Ranch, a unique planned community about 100 miles north of San Francisco in the rugged seaside region called the Lost Coast. Sea Ranch was conceived of in the 1960s as a utopian enclave for nature lovers and intellectuals wanting to escape the urban fray. Weathered-wood homes are nestled into the landscape as if they’ve always been there. It’s easy to see why this area is called the Lost Coast—it’s remote and not easy to get to. Let’s just say driving there from either direction on California Highway One is almost as challenging as knitting an Alice Starmore pattern.
Alice recalls: “Though thirteen years have passed, I can recall our happy adventure along the California highways and byways in great detail. This is no doubt due to your own and Linda’s highly entertaining company and also to the memorable beauty of the land, shores, and oceanscapes, not to mention the very cool towns, stores, and restaurants we visited en route to the heavenly Sea Ranch area.”
Sea Ranch, along the California coastline. Photo courtesy of Pixabay
“I first got to know Alice through her books,” Linda recently told me. “There was the Alice of exciting, impeccable, and exquisitely photographed knitwear design books. They evoked special places, special times, and told special stories. Then there was the Alice of Road Movies [2008]—a highly personal, picaresque narrative of that time she spent months looping around the U.S., first by Greyhound bus, then by sleek rented Thunderbird.”
Linda describes our adventure on the Lost Coast as our own Road Movie. “What I remember best is her fascination with the geology of the area, most especially the blue schist which cropped up in unusual spots—a special elusive color. Her close attention to nature has always been there in her writing, her designing, and her lifestyle.”
We spent a few glorious days wandering the rocky beaches, wading in the shallow coastal waters, and watching Alice climb the steep cliffs like a mountain goat—and watching how she observes nature, extracting color combinations from what already exists. Evenings began with a shot of Scottish whiskey—Sheep Dip, to be precise—and conversation.
“Sitting on the hearth watching a group of pelicans majestically skimming over the Pacific waves during a rose-pink sunset is an image that will always stay with me,” Alice remembers. “It was like an opposing bookend to sitting at my own Hebridean window watching a flight of Solan Geese battling through every shade of blustery gray sea and sky.”
Alice extends an invitation to Karin: “Come and explore the Lewis Moor one day.” Photo by Karin Strom
My own takeaways from our Lost Coast weekend are a reminder that Mother Nature chooses what colors go together—we just have pay close attention—and an invitation to visit the Outer Hebrides. I will go, someday.
Read about Alice’s unique powers of observation and how they inform her work—in her own words—in the premier issue of Farm & Fiber Knits magazine.
Alice’s designs that were inspired by her travels in the U.S. include Abalone and Oregon (top row, left to right), and Canyonville and Fern (bottom row). All patterncard kits from Virtual Yarns. Modelled by Beth, Yasmin, Doris, and Lucy.
As an aside. . .
Alice Starmore was acquainted with California Highway One from her Road Movies days, and several of her still-popular designs were inspired by her travels through the States. “Abalone was inspired by a beautiful shell I picked up in Point Arena, California. My Oregon was based on a journey through its forests in springtime. The idea for Canyonville came from the pattern on the bark of an immense tree in that town, whilst Fern was inspired by reading a poem written about the gentle, pastoral landscapes of New Jersey where I spent a good deal of time.” Coincidentally, those New Jersey visits were spent not 10 miles from my home, in the beautiful New Jersey hamlet of Stillwater.
