Yesterday my lovely wife took me on a very special road trip. As well as me, in the car were the Nevern Throw, the Nevern Lap Blanket and, of course, Ronnie. We went to Nevern in Pembrokeshire.
Nevern is a tiny village, nestling down a very narrow road (single track much of the time, occasional 16 degree incline, and a 60 mile an hour speed limit) with a few buildings and St Brynach’s church. The village hall has two small plaques on the wall celebrating winning Pembrokeshire’s Best Kept Village in 1957 and 1974. In the churchyard are some very old and magnificent yew trees and the Nevern Cross.
Many readers will know that I designed the Nevern Throw for KnitPicks in response to a call out for designs using Celtic knot work and I created all the charts from carvings on the Nevern Cross. It was published in January 2020 as part of the book “Entwined: Celtic Cables Collection”. I had found out about this 11th century, 13-foot high stone cross online and I was mesmerised and fascinated by the carvings that cover every side. Most of the designs came from carvings near the top of the cross and although the book refers to cables, my design used the technique of stranded colourwork. For quite a while Nevern Throw was on the first page of KnitPick’s ‘best sellers’ patterns! It’s currently sitting on page 8 (of 48 pages), with the Nevern Lap Blanket and Leaf & Vine on page 4 and Beanstalk Throw on page 6. In 2022, with the other carvings on the cross calling to me, I designed the Nevern Lap Blanket and this was self-published in December of that year. I used the same size of charts and the same construction as the Nevern Throw intentionally so that the charts from each design could be used together, if desired, in one large blanket.
Perhaps surprising, with all my interest and deep focus on the carvings of this cross I had never actually seen it in person. Yesterday we fixed that. Driving from our corner of North East Wales down to Nevern is a long journey, taking at least three and a half hours without a break, even though it is ‘only’ 130 miles. We were blessed with good weather and made a pitstop at Aberystwyth on the way. Much of our journey down was on roads with only mountains or fields of sheep (and their lambs!) on each side and we got a glimpse of Tal-y-Llyn on the way as well – a lake with a special place in my Mum’s heart.
We took photos. Lots of photos – I think Sue took over 100!
We also looked inside the church and I found some beautiful needlepoint kneelers also using some of the cross’s carvings for their designs. I didn’t photograph them though. We did buy a few postcards and a leaflet with information about St Brynach’s church and the Nevern Cross which I will enjoy reading later on and hopefully learning more about the history of this incredible monument. I can’t tell you how happy I felt to be standing in the sunshine next to this ancient stone cross (and yes, I know it’s not actually cross-shaped) that has helped me create two of my most popular knitting patterns, having been driven there by Sue, my wife and the best person ever. Ronnie loved it too and we got a great shot of him jumping for joy.
We took the journey back gently, stopping at Cardigan for our lunch and a mooch around (and some very good vegan ice-cream), then at Dolgellau for a much needed drink and loo-break. Our last stop was in Betws-y-Coed where we had hoped to have a pizza at Hangin’ Pizzeria, but we hadn’t realised how busy they would be on a bank holiday evening so, rather than wait for a table and then get home very late, we had some quick chips then hopped back in the car for the final leg of the journey home. We’ll be back to Betws-y-Coed before too long and pizza will happen then!
I hope you have managed to find some joy in the week just gone and that you get to do something that makes you happy this week. K x
