“‘My stockings there I often knit,‘My’kerchief there I hem; ‘And there upon the ground I sit - ‘I sit and sing to them…’”WE ARE SEVEN, WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, 1798 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) was the most prominent of Britain’s Lake Poets, who were known for their romantic, simple, direct poems about the natural world. This knitted quilt, in naturally dyed colours, was an apt gift for a man who believed, according to his sister, Dorothy, in “plain living and high thinking”.
Wordsworth’s lap rug is no longer on display at Dove Cottage, his former Lake District home and now a museum, because it needs protection from sunlight. So I went along to the archives at The Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere to document it for The Knitter. I was also lucky enough to…
