Unexpected knitting thoughts while out and about?

This time, I was faced with a literary rabbit hole.

The ostensibly calming verse on the bedroom wall at Wightwick Manor came from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, albeit tactfully omitting the opening line about murder!

Act 2, Scene 2

[Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep”,]  the innocent sleep,

Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,

the death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

Chief nourisher in life’s feast

Naturally, this naturally sparked my curiosity – were there any other references to knitting in Shakespeare’s work?

It turns out there are many!

Fortunately for me, the lovely blogger at Dances With Wool had found this particular rabbit hole before me, and has kindly listed a few references to start us off.

She also explains that the old word ‘sleave’ wasn’t a variation of the word ‘sleeve’ – apparently a sleave was a knot or twist of silk fibre.

Thanks to Wightwick Manor for providing this unexpected knitting trail – there’s knitting inspiration everywhere!

What has made you think about knitting while you’ve been out and about this week? I’d love to hear about it!

🙂