Neeps! A celebration of the Doric dialect

Fit's a neep?  You might well ask.  In my part of North East Scotland, those born and bred here speak a particular dialect known as Doric.  I am not native to Aberdeenshire, hailing originally from Ayr on the other side of the country, but my husband was born and brought up a few miles from where we live now.  Even after spending the last 37 years together, he can still surprise me by using Doric words I've never heard uttered before.  Skittery hippit vratch being one such phrase describing an unruly (young cow) with questionable hygiene in its hind quarters!  How could I not know that?

When I spied this request on Facebook to contribute to Kate Wilson's degree show piece by crafting something incorporating Doric heritage, I knew at once just what I wanted to make.  Drawing on my family's delight in story telling, and their lapse into Doric when they're all together, I focused on a tale told my father-in-law, Bill, involving his Dad, a German prisoner of war called Walter and some turnips (or neeps in Doric).

Bill was brought up on a farm in Banffshire during World War II.  Walter, who was billeted nearby, was assigned to help out with farm labour over the many months of war.  Bill's dad never moderated his native dialect for Walter and one day Bill heard his dad telling Walter to pu' neeps in twa rows.  Bill was sure Walter, who spoke Polish, would be bamboozled with this instruction but, a while later, found that the turnips had indeed been pulled up and laid out in two neat rows.  Doric, it would appear, is a universal language, if you're around Doric speakers long enough that is!

So I began my contribution to Kate's project by crocheting  my first neep following a free pattern I found on the Hobbycraft  website for a spring wreath.  To be honest, the pattern is for a radish and it turned out a bit big so I located some finer fibres in my yarn stash and used a smaller hook to create a rather daintier turnip lookalike.

Kate, the student who'd requested the textile samples for her final year art project, provided clear specifications whilst encouraging her contributor's personal creativity.  3D elements, such as my wee neeps, could be included so I needed a flat panel on which to display them.

When I was a student I had a penchant for knitting picture jumpers.  I didn't know the technique was called intarsia or even how to do it properly.  As a nod to my own student days, I decide to knit an intarsia background for my panel.  That required creating a pattern for my pastoral scene - time to crack out the coloured pencils and graph paper.

Never throwing away any wool from past projects has its advantages.  I used mostly Scottish yarns (as that is what I like to knit with nowadays) including Shetland's Jamieson and Smith for the peaty brown earth, Balnahard natural dyed yarn from Colonsay for land and hills and hand dyed sky blues from Assynt-based Ripples Crafts.  Further embroidery embellishment included a flock of  fluffy sheep, a post and wire fence and some additional green shrubbery, all in wool and threads I've already used in my own personal crafting life.   

Finally I stitched on the Doric words which inspired me in the first place in a giant sunny circle attached using tiny appliqué stitches.

Once I'd attached the neeps, in two neat rows of course, my piece was ready to post to Kate in Dundee in time for the 24th March deadline. 

Then it was up to Kate, an Art and Philosophy graduand at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, to weave her magic - quite literally.  

Unveiled online on Friday 11th June at the 2021 Graduate Showcase, her artwork is entitled "Wyvin' Wyes" (or Weaving Ways) and is described by Kate herself as 'a beautiful big lampshade'!

Here's Kate with 'Wyvin' Wyes'

The craft contributions received from me, and many others throughout Aberdeenshire, have been intricately woven by Kate into a veritable sound and light show.  Recordings of Doric voices place the dialect at the heart of her creation.  It celebrates Doric now, as well as in the past, and nods to the future evolution of language. 

To learn more, Aberdeen's Press and Journal newspaper published an online article all about Kate's work here.

I'm so pleased to have been part of this project and I'm fair tricket for Kate - and that means I'm just delighted!