Born in 1865 near Diamond, Missouri, George Washington Carver is one of the best known and most respected agricultural scientists in the history of the United States. Before his death in 1943, Carver “created 325 uses for peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes and 75 products derived from pecans. Some of the products he created include chili sauce, meat tenderizer, instant coffee, shaving cream, and Worcestershire sauce,” according to the National Park Service website. Park Ranger Curtis Gregory stewards the scientist’s legacy and shares stories of his life at the George Washington Carver National Monument, which is located at Carver’s birthplace.

Even in his most industrious decades, as Carver obtained a masters degree, taught at the Tuskegee Institute, and worked in a laboratory, he kept his hands busy with needlework. Any crafter today will relate to his recollection in a 1931 letter: “If I had leisure time from roaming the woods and fields, I put it in knitting, crocheting, and other forms of fancy work” (quoted in Kremer, Gary R., ed., George Washington Carver in His Own Words (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1987), 128.)

Carver used uncommon materials and foraged natural dyestuffs in his work, drawing on his childhood love of painting. He designed projects not only to express his own creativity but also to inspire poor tenant farmers and sharecroppers who wanted to improve their homes. Gregory describes a handsewn table mat fashioned from cotton stalks and botanically dyed, a treasured example of a man who saw value where others did not.

Links

George Washington Carver National Monument

George Washington Carver Center at the Tuskegee Institute

“George Washington Carver.” National Park Service

“The Scientist Who Crocheted: George Washington Carver’s Unexpected Legacy” by Nancy Nehring. PieceWork Spring 2021.

“Nature’s Colors in the Hands of George Washington Carver” by Nancy Nehring. Spin Off Spring 2022.

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If you love silk, you'll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Gudrun Johnston has a deep legacy in Shetland knitting: her father’s family comes from the islands, and her mother founded a knitwear company that blended contemporary silhouettes with Fair Isle motifs, a business she called the Shetland Trader. But although Gudrun grew up wearing her mother’s designs, she didn’t learn to knit from her. Growing up largely elsewhere in Scotland, she learned the craft as a child, but it didn’t become central to her life for decades.

She eventually fell in love with knitting, thousands of miles from Shetland. In 2007, she published her first design, a skirt in a hemp-blend yarn for her daughter. From that point, knitting and Shetland drew her back more and more. Developing her own design style, she incorporated stitches and motifs from traditional knitting and found a deep affinity with yarn milled locally from the traditional dual-coated sheep. As generations of local knitters did before her, she draws on elements from elsewhere but gives them a distinctly Shetland flair.

Although knitters worldwide know about haps and Fair Isle knitting today, the island’s knitting tradition has faced economic threats over the years. Many knitters practiced the craft to make a bit of income, and a better-paying option (an oil terminal that opened in the mid-1970s) led to the dwindling of the cottage knitting industry. However, in tandem with the active local guild, Shetland Wool Week, and the new Shetland Organisation of Knitters, local knitters have preserved their traditions and are happy to share their knowledge.

Gudrun unites her own style with her Shetland roots in her designs, most recently the book Grand Shetland Adventure Knits, which she co-authored with her friend Mary Jane Mucklestone. She is at work on a new book exploring colorwork in a collection of knitted vests.

• Grand Shetland Adventure Knits by Gudrun Johnston and Mary Jane Mucklestone
  
• See Gudrun’s tutorials and podcast episodes at her YouTube channel
  
• Find the Identity Cowl in the Farm & Fiber Knits library
  
• [Shetland Wool Week](*https://www.shetlandwoolweek.com/videos/how-to-wool-week/)
  
• Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers
  
• Shetland Organisation of Knitters
  

This episode is brought to you by:

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway’s array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

If you love knitting, quilting, and all things fiber, you have to check out the new Fiber + Fabric Craft Festival. It’s brought to you by the team behind h+h Americas, premier craft trade shows across the U.S. They have something for everyone—from consumers to retailers to manufacturers. Come shop, learn, and get inspired.

Learn more at FiberFabricCraft.com.