Catherine and her family moved from England to Old Greenwich, Connecticut and her shawl “Greenwich” is inspired by her time spent on the Connecticut shore. She says, “I grew up with tales of Indians, Pilgrims, sailing and the beach. The Greenwich shawl has all the symbols of a very happy childhood.” As a low-vision child, Catherine used books on tape and large print for school, but in spite of the limited sight, she developed a love of needlework. She credits her mother with encouraging her art by compelling her to complete a traditional cross-stitch sampler which took her three years to put the last touches on. She went on to crewel embroidery and needlepoint using large canvases and thick yarn. She even made one of those popular, windowpane crocheted vests of the ‘70s. Catherine left Greenwich to attend Princeton where she taught herself to knit. She says she did it to stay awake while books were read to her, but we all know it was to fidget without anyone being the wiser. After several false starts in the engineering school, She settled on Historical Linguistics; “a completely useless and antiquated subject” according to some relatives. It was there that she fell in love with the history and the romance of the United Kingdom and its people—especially the Celts. “I’m one-quarter Irish,” she explains. “It was the symbolism found in Celtic Art that entranced me. I was naturally drawn to the Aran patterns and the never-ending, twining cables from those isles. They also offered me a completely textural form of expression.” Catherine had cataract surgery following graduation and enjoyed ten years of sight afterwards. She married and had three daughters, Michele, Jeanne-Marie, and Marguerite (the older girls are modeling her sweaters.) Catherine lost her battle against blindness due to glaucoma in 1989 shortly after the youngest was born. Her love of the Aran patterns allowed her to continue knitting because of the highly embossed effect of the cables and cross-overs. “I designed the first trio of holiday stockings in 1993. I was truly surprised at how well they were received. They are so much fun to do and they will keep an experienced knitter interested. Since then I have designed more stockings and several shawls, some of which can be seen in the Gallery. Tidewater is from our stay in Chincoteague one summer and the Shenandoah shows the beautiful river and its pasture lands where we lived for over ten years.” Tragedy hit Catherine’s life in 2001 when her husband of 23 years died suddenly. This gave her the incentive to develop a plan for Tangleweave. Concentrating on the Celtic fiber arts, she added Shetland lace to her repertoire Catherine and her daughters were at the Shaker Forest Festival in 2002 when they met Frank, a volunteer firefighter who was providing EMS services for the show. Over some mild objections from one or two children (both his and hers), Frank became a permanent partner in 2003 upon wedding the beautiful widow. Frank is now the weaver of the tartans, and Catherine focuses on the design and knitting of the Shetland Lace and the Aran (Irish Fisherman) patterns. When asked how she manages to design and knit she says, “It is as though the fiber, yarn or maybe just the color speaks to me. When I have the right imagery, as in the stitch patterns, or the correct combination, the spirit moves and my fingers just fly…it’s like magic, it flows from my hands and the needles; I don’t even drop a stitch.” Frank and Catherine can be seen in their Colonial garb at the Shaker Forest Festival in September and at the Wearable Arts show in normal attire at the Kentlands mansion in November. Or they can be glimpsed just wandering around the Maryland Renaissance Festival in more somber attire. “Come in and visit. Let us welcome you to the world of the Celts. |
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Catherine
was born very young and moved to England shortly thereafter. It was
there that she began to lose her eyesight from cataracts. Her stay at
London’s famous Moorsfield Eye Hospital sparked her designs for
the Rose and Thistle series of patterns, but not in the way one might
think. As an ambulatory patient, she was allowed to go into the beautiful
formal gardens of Moorsfield’s and it was there that her mother
would read to her from Mary Cicely Tyson’s A Year of Flower Fairies.
She remembers, “My favorites are the Wild Rose and the Thistle
Fairies. I loved the poetry with each but I especially loved the beautiful
pictures. The Thistle Fairy, dressed in leafy green hose and a purple
doublet, brandished a sword and looked as though he could take on the
whole world. The Rose Fairy sat amid a thorny bower of flowers wearing
the most beautiful gown of rose pink. The book is no longer in print
and my copy fell apart from use long ago.”