Prestongrange Knitting Group

Prestongrange knitting group is held at Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum in East Lothian Scotland.The museum is run by East Lothian Council and opens between April and October each year and it is was here that a group of mums rediscovered their love of knitting, during the "Long Hot Summer" of 2005!! It all happened by accident really, as after school a few mums would pick up the kids and head off down here for coffee, chat and peace. Peace because there is room for the kids to roam around within sight of the visitor centre, where the mums enjoyed some time to catch up on each others news over a cup of tea or coffee. The founder members, or the people to blame for this group are Spinningfishwife and myself. It all begun when she asked for my help to wind a skene of yarn and that is how our group was formed. The next time we were down out came my knitting and a few other mums joined in, we taught a few more to knit and basically the rest is history! We decided to meet there every Monday afternoon since that seemed to be the best day for all concerned as it fitted round other family commitments. However a few of us spent most of the summer there!! Roll on April when the Museum re-opens and we can get back to our regular meetings and the kids can burn off their excess energy. Believe you me, its not just the mums who are going stir crazy, the kids are missing it too.

As you can see by this photo the kids are all dressed up and having fun. This happens on most occassions that they are out at Prestongrange. Over the summer there is little room in the back of our cars for the various dressing up costumes and a huge arsenal of weapons. Here you see them dressed up as characters from "Lord of the Rings", but they can just as easily be characters from "Star Wars" or what ever happens to be THE action movie at the time. They tend to re-enact their "battles" on the expanse of open ground between the visitor centre and the woods at the back of the site. Spinningfishwife and myself have knitted some of the costumes to look like chain mail, and we have scoured the charity shops far and near for various items that the kids can use.

Come rain or shine the kids just love to come out here and if it is raining it certainly does not seem to dampen their spirits or prevent the planned visits as there is a childrens area within the visitor centre, where they can draw or play board games or read books. Over the summer there are various workshops help within the complex that the kids can attend. In fact next summer Spinningfishwife and I have been appeoached to carry out a few knitting workshops for the kids.

Within the visitor centre/museum there is an exhibition about the history of Prestongrange and it houses various artifacts from the site.
More about Prestongrange and its history at a later date!