USEFUL fidgeting is how June Hall describes her passion for handknitting. That passion led the former Wensleydale woman to compile an exhibition which contrasts the traditions of the craft in the Yorkshire Dales and in Lithuania.
Mrs Hall, who left North Yorkshire three years ago to live in Cumbria's Eden Valley, has collected a library of knitting patterns and items from both countries which form the Hand in Glove exhibition at the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, until Wednesday. Items from the museum's collection are also on show.
"The two stories are very different," she says. "Here in the Dales, handknitting was done on an industrial scale and highly organised, while in Lithuania it was always just for family and a few pairs of gloves for the local market.
"People there didn't keep sheep on the scale that Dales people did, perhaps only two or three sheep on each peasant farm. The landscape there is very like England must have been before the Enclosures Act, 250 years ago."
That landscape is set to change following EU plans to introduce more sheep to Lithuania, which will see flocks, leading to more fencing across land.
Mrs Hall's interest in yarn and knitting grew from childhood visits to her grandparents' shop in Cheshire, which stood next to a wool shop.
"I can't remember actually being taught to knit, so I must have been very young, but I saved up pocket money to buy wool and knitted things."
She studied textiles as part of an art qualification and, as local studies adviser for North Yorkshire's education department, she encouraged schools to undertake practical history projects.
"For example, they would learn about sheep and wool, spinning, weaving and so on," she says. "I then joined a spinning group in the Dales and kept Soay sheep."
The flock was culled during the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak - "for no reason, they were completely healthy" - and Mrs Hall moved to Cumbria in 2002, where she is a member of the Eden Valley Guild of Weavers and of the Wool Clip co-operative.
Mrs Hall visited Lithuania - from which her family believes one of their ancestors hailed - as part of a voluntary project two years ago to look at social and environmental issues.
"I investigated their wool and sheep past, present and future and got involved with some wonderful people, including old village women miles from anywhere who knit the most beautiful and exquisite items."
She also linked with national organisations such as the Lithuanian Art Academy, and hopes to take the exhibition east when the text has been translated.
Textile artists from the academy visit the Hawes exhibition on Tuesday and give a talk at 2pm.
The exhibition also features editions of Wensleydale writer Marie Hartley's book, The Handknitters of the Dales, collected by Mrs Hall's late husband, David, a local historian.
Contemporary knitting from commercial enterprises such as Swaledale Woollens, at Muker, the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop, at Garriston, near Leyburn, and Sophie's Wild Woollens, in Dent, also feature.
Visitors can have a go at knitting a square or a bookworm for charity.
"There is an enormous resurgence of interest in hand knitting," says Mrs Hall. "A lot of young people are finding it very satisfying to create something themselves that is not like anyone else's.
"It is a skill which anyone can acquire, including men, who knitted on an industrial scale in the Dales a century ago.
"Knitting is very portable and very sociable and can be picked up in spare minutes amongst other activities. I find it very difficult to keep still, so I refer to knitting as useful fidgeting."
* Woolfest, the first ever festival of British wool, organised by the Wool Clip, is at Cockermouth on June 24 and 25.
The event celebrates natural fibres, and exhibitors include rug maker Heather Ritchie, from Reeth. See www.woolfest.co.uk for more details.
* National Knitting Week runs from October 10 to 16, with events across the UK; see www.nationalknittingweek.co.uk.
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