“I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore”- The Lake Isle of Innisfree, W B Yeats
Introducing Innisfree, the latest collection from The Fibre. Co. Inspired by the reflective mood of the William Butler Yeats’ poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, this six-piece collection is for those whose feet must travel and whose soul is filled with memories of home. The collection features designs created in Arranmore, our yarn developed and spun in Donegal, Ireland.
The collection contains layers to embrace the cooler months ahead with two women’s sweaters, a tunic, poncho, capelet and sleeveless coat. This is a collection born from friendship and mutual appreciation. Daphne Marinopoulos, the creator and founder of The Fibre Co. collaborated with Maggi Toner-Edgar, a stylist and fashion designer whose influence you may have seen in previous collections, Fell Garth and The Zen Variations. Together, these friends have collaborated to capture the reflective calm of water and Yeat’s poem through design, styling and photography.
Yeats’s poem is about an uninhabited lake island within Lough Gill in County Sligo, Ireland. Innisfree also happens to be the name of Maggi’s childhood beach house. The layers of connection to Ireland, to each other, to the water and beauty all around us drove our team to push to find the best locations and create stories to support every stitch in these designs. Pattern images are once again created by Tommy Martin at Ullswater Lake, Cumbria, a special place very close to our headquarters. Kate O’Sullivan, moved by the idea of a path that is well-travelled, loved and memorised, has created studio images and video that help the story and all our layers of connections unfold.
We present it to you, with our yarn and patterns, hoping you too love the joy in a story well told.
The collection features Arranmore, which itself drew inspiration from the breathtaking scenery of Ireland’s Northern Headlands. Arranmore is spun in a mill that traces its roots to the homespun tweed industry of 19th century County Donegal. The connection to water and the power of nature ties both the story of Innisfree and Arranmore together. Water surfaces and island surroundings were a direct source of inspiration for the shapes used within the collection – taking advantage of the rich hues of the Arranmore yarn range, with a nod towards the traditional, but using the yarn in a simple way to show off the tweedy quality of the beautiful silk neps.
All six patterns are available for download now via Ravelry. To find your nearest stockist of Arranmore, please check our retailers listed on our website here.