Meitheal Headband inspiration
Living in rural Ireland, between farms and wilderness, I feel close to nature and the changing seasons. I run a smallholding where I grow organic vegetables and keep chickens, and so I wanted to design something I could wear while working in the garden — headwear that would be both comfortable and beautiful, and small enough to fit into my pocket.
Meitheal, pronounced as meh-hill in Irish literally means “gang”, “team”, a “work party”. It refers to an ancient tradition of cooperative labour where groups of neighbours would help each other with heavy seasonal tasks. In the past, in rural Ireland, heavy seasonal tasks such as seed and potato sowing, or turf cutting were done by a group of friends or neighbours.
Meitheal tradition is still alive in Connemara during the turf cutting season, and my local community garden organises a spring clean Meitheal. Coming from Russia, the idea of cooperative labour is familiar to me. As a child I spent summers with my granny who lived in a small house in rural Siberia. She often had women folk gather at her house to sort through fleece and spin wool. In spring, they also helped each other with seasonal tasks and run a vegetable seed barter system.
I think Meitheal is such a beautiful way to celebrate the arrival of Spring — to fight off the winter blues and to revive the land. And this is how the Meitheal Headband was born.
I am very happy with the earthy colour combination I came up for this design — it screams “Spring” to me. The soft yellows are like the light that seeps through my window and fuels my seedlings on the windowsill, and the dark purples feel like the damp soil beneath.
The yarn I used to knit the sample is the Softwool from the Apple Oak Fibre Works in County Clare, Ireland. I really enjoyed working with this yarn, the colours are just so Irish, they are perfect for translating nature around me into designs. I will blog about their wonderful yarn in the coming days, so watch this space.
What I love about this design too is that it uses very little yarn, so if you are thinking about spring cleaning your yarn stash, then this is a great little project for that.
The digital pattern of Meitheal Headband is available through my shop, on Ravelry, and you can purchase kits soon from Apple Oak Fibre Works. If you happen to be at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London this week, then do check out the Apple Oak Fibre Works stand, they will have the Meitheal Headband knitted sample there - you can try it on, and I promise it’s so soft, you won’t want to take it off.
Spring is such a beautiful time in rural Ireland, the lambs and calves are being born, and tractors are dashing around delivering hay here and there. After long months of darkness, there is a returning sense of activity and purposefulness, and I too feel restless whenever I hear a tractor outside. In fact, I can hear one now, I better put on my wellies and do some gardening!
Happy spring!