Rachel breeds her pure Shetland sheep on a 25-acre croft with 40 sheep in the most remote inhabited island in the UK, Fair Isle, before their fleeces into her own wool which she uses in her knitwear and wool business - Bee Croft. Rachel participated in the Northword project, choosing a story of the Brora Coalfield, honouring the links between the mining community in Brora and the Shetland wool.  

During the project, Rachel knitted a wall handing, using her knitting experience and new knitting techniques to blend colours and patterns that tell a story of Brora’s mining community, while also including motifs from the traditional Fair Isle patterns. In the process of knitting, Rachel conducted extensive research into the mining heritage of Brora and its links to Shetland and Fair Isle. She included a variety on new elements in the knitted patters, that are not traditionally used in knitting Fair Isle garments she sells in her shop, like mushrooms and rhubarb, winding gear and figures of people, representing the lives lost during the mining works.

 

Following the completion of the project, Rachel has created a couple of other knitted art pieces, in addition to her traditional knitted garments. The skills she developed during the Northward project have encouraged her to produce more knitted artwork for a variety of exhibitions, such as A Celebration of Textiles in Wooler, Northumberland, and Forgotten Fleece Tales in Langholm, Scotland. 

Read more about Rachel’s work on the Northword and Bee Croft website. 

Image credit: https://www.northwordproject.com/