Hûrd – A KNITSONIK™ PRODUKTION

This is the full soundpiece which I created in conjunction with my Knitted Speakers, detailed here: http://www.felicityford.co.uk/hurd-a-knitsonik-produktion/

The soundpiece contains the following recordings:

Wind blowing in the chimney, Windermere
The black Hebridean sheep grazing near Windermere
Brenda Dayne spinning
John Coombe at the Wordsworth Trust, reading from Wordsworth’s guide to the Lake District
Brian Knowles, Hilary Wilson, Gerald Wm. Hayes calling to their sheep and shaking feed buckets
Rough Fell sheep from Jane and Brian Knowles’ flock, blaring
Amy’s (granddaughter of Clara Black) Rough Fell flock in Kentmere
Margaret and Clara Black talking about growing up on a farm
George Harryman talking about being a shepherd
Margaret and Clara Black talking about the Rough Fell wool
Wind on the hill and feeding the sheep at Hilary Wilson’s farm
Jackie Sedgewick describing the place where he farmed for 43 years
Diane, Jim and Richard talking about how the wool check used to pay the rent on the farm
Jane Knowles talking about the Rough Fell Breed
Brian Knowles explains Hogg hole
Jim and Richard discuss sheep terminology
George Harryman explains the difference between a cast ewe and a draft ewe
Margaret shows me some of Amy’s sheep and we talk about tupping
Herdwicks galloping at Fornside Farm
Chris Benson talking about Herdwicks, Swaledales and bracken
Pam talking about her Herdwick Hoggs at Fornside Farm
Candida Hodgson describing the shepherd’s year
George Harryman talks about the heft
Tup blaring at Fornside Farm

The speaker system was knit with yarn from local Hebridean and Herdwick sheep, plus some Bluefaced Leicester spun at The Natural Fibre Company in Cornwall. Yarns spun from British Romney and Swaledale flocks at Diamond Fibres in Sussex were also included in The Knitted Speakers, as was some of the Excelana produced from flocks of Exmoor Blueface sheep in Exmoor, and spun at Coldharbour Mill. Some handspun yarn from Hilary Wilson's Rough Fell Flock was also included in The Knitted Speakers, and the sounds + wool premiered at the opening of the Wonder of Wool exhibition at Rheged, Cumbria.