When we launched our “Knitting the Herring” project back in the autumn we invited our network of knitting and gansey enthusiasts as well as the wider public to “pick up sticks” and collaborate with us on the creation of a knitted Shoal of herring which would expand into the space of our exhibition gallery but also be captured in photography and shared online with our scattered diaspora of friends and followers.
As the country entered the dark and cold months of winter with weeks of uncertainty ahead of us, we were genuinely buoyed up to receive little parcels of wooly goodness from other parts of Scotland, the UK and Europe. Our contributors were modest and sometimes shy about their work but we hope they can now see how all these small and seemingly isolated crafty endeavours have come together to create something beautiful which represents unity and symbolises the anticipation with which we look forward to being together again.