The Willow Shrug: Tree Collection

This is the blog post and inspiration for the first pattern of the year long Tree Collection by The Queen Stitch and LoveCrafts. Read More about the Tree Collection here.

Anne [A-NN]

Anne and I met in London in 2011. We were studying abroad in the same program, and I’d arrived over a week late because my flight out of NYC had been cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. She was in my elective “Theater of London” class—which was totally outside my interests and I am so glad I did it. I remember she was wearing a vintage tweed blazer and I loved how “on theme” she was. We were supposed to go to a play as a class that first week and so, like a lonely toddler at a playground, I walked up to her and essentially said, “Hi, do you want to be my friend?”

Anne, being a true good samaritan, said “of course!”, complimented my hair, and from then on almost every day we would walk around London, have scones, venture to the library and go to the theater. Anne is one of those people who is down for any adventure, always assumes others’ best intentions, and will try anything once. It is these qualities that make her such a popular friend...but also get her into insane situations. Luckily she’s a great storyteller, so I live for these stories. Not all of them are bad — like she got into New York Fashion Week while we were still in college, and later brought me in to collaborate on a sweater design for her first runway collection!

Her brand is called Anne James New York. We’ve collaborated a few times before and she is the inspiration for this shrug.

Omg we were so young please don’t judge.

Wayzata, Minnesota

Anne grew up in a town outside of Minneapolis, MN called Wayzata. In her own words…

“It was idyllic…but also conventional and sometimes stifling. I had close neighbors in a cul de sac, a lot of nature; I had everything I needed re: infrastructure and people who cared about me. Honestly, I grew up very privileged. But as I got older I realized the town was very... small… I love it, but I felt a lack of diversity and creativity and that grittiness that, for me, fuels and excites life, and so I went in search of it. Very cliché art person story. [Anne lives in New York City now].

“By stifling, I mean how you’re expected to do everything in the way that everything is laid out and is the societal expectation. Conservative preppy was, and still is, the vibe. There’s a church, a country club, boats everywhere, super safe. But I’m the only person I know in my entire hometown that likes abstract art, for example. When I could finally drive I spent a lot of time in Uptown, Minneapolis. Artsier cafés and the vintage stores. I spent a lot of time trying to fit in with school. I had so much math tutoring, trying to keep up with everyone else. I wish I had just committed to getting C’s in math and unapologetically spending all of my tutoring time on the literary magazine or taking more art classes.

“Luckily my school fostered artistic exploration... I went to a ‘progressive’ private high school, very blah blah ‘high end’, one of the best in the state. And I owe all of my awareness of non-laketown life to that institution. Unusual, perhaps, for an exclusive private school whose reputation precedes them, mine did do its due diligence to try to teach us about institutional inequality, which the school itself was, in part, an example of. We were taught about the system of unfairness, and from a young age learned extensively about slavery, racism, the civil war, civil rights. Every single week, we did community service. All our extracurriculars were on social justice and civil rights. There were lots of initiatives. We did have diverse students, whom the school brought in on scholarship, (which is what I mean about being its own example if institutional inequality), but as a result my personal friendship group and perspectives are more diverse than they could have been.”

Salix babylonica, or, the weeping willow — *Salix babylonica,* or, the weeping willow

A willow leaf with the willow shrug motif

Why the willow

“I had to choose the willow!… Growing up, I spent a lot of time outdoors, and am really grateful that technology wasn’t really a thing until we were like 13 and then got dial up AOL or whatever. My parents also didn’t have cable. I read a lot of books, drew, wrote poems, practiced piano, played with Barbies until I was way too old (what! She’s FABULOUS!) but mostly, I played outside. Not sports. I’d make up stories and go live them out.

“There was one willow tree in my neighbors yard that I would go talk to. (I had seen Pocahontas and I thought maybe at some point it would talk back, like in the movie.) I’d tell the willow these untrue, dramatic stories about like, a made-up boyfriend or being orphaned… it never talked back so actually maybe it knew I was lying - and that’s why it wouldn’t answer! [she laughs] I didn’t have a boyfriend, or drama, or anything really happening… as a 9 or 10 year old… But I felt really comforted by telling my story to something that just peacefully accepted my feelings and stories without feedback. Especially because that’s all I got everywhere else. Feedback and advice on how to be better, or someone saying ‘don’t be ridiculous’, or how to be more like this and that, according to the norm… the willow just let me dream and imagine. A place to spill all kinds of secret stories.

“Now, I feel like willow trees resonate (trees can resonate, right?) with me as an adult because they flow with the wind. They seem so stoic and firmly planted but their leaves also seem to just be lifted by the wind and always just go, dance, with it. I like to think I also ride the wave and go with the flow.

“There’s something nurturing about willows. Have you gone underneath a willow? They hug you. Their leaves go totally over you and no one can see you. It’s almost like a sanctuary that you can be safe under. I aim to be able to give that sort of respite to my friends and family. I am not sure I do a good job of it, but it’s something I strive towards.”

The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse 1888

Facts and Folklore

There are four native willow species to Minnesota: the white willow, the weeping willow, the laurel willow and the corkscrew willow. Anne’s willow is likely the weeping willow, Salix babylonica, - which is pretty easily recognizable. Willows enjoy wet soil and are often found near fresh bodies of water, streams, and riverbeds.

Twisting, tangled, light gray limbs with criss-crossing ridges across its bark, and hanging branches with long, glossy and light green tapering leaves are the trademarks of the willow. More than just the feeling of shelter it provides with its branches, the willows roots prevent erosion along riverbeds and provide shelter for aquatic ecosystems.

Willows are also incredibly useful to human beings for more than just shelter and building material. The bark of willow trees can be used to reduce and treat fever, and has been used thus since the Ancient Egyptians, additionally, the same chemical can help mitigate pain. It was used through Greek and Roman times and is now sold in pill form by the name of “aspirin”.

The weeping willow’s name actually comes from the mistranslated Psalm 137 in the Christian Bible. The tree in this verse was likely a poplar, not a willow, but the connotation around sadness stuck, and the willow has been used in many sorrowful practices throughout history since then - such as wearing a sprig when a person is in mourning. It is also used many times in literature to amplify grief, such as the doom of the Lady of Shalott from Tennyson, or the bereft Queen Dido in Virgil’s Aeneid.

But the name ‘willow’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘welig’ which meant pliancy or willingness. It is this characteristic of the trees that made it such a great commodity for weaving and building - art, furniture, baskets, since Neolithic times.

Footnotes and References:

Drori, Jonathan Around the World in 80 Trees (2018) London, UK p.28-29

Woolf, Jo Britain’s Trees A Treasure of Traditions, Superstitions, Remedies and Literature (2020) UK p.222

Pattern Proceeds

25% of the proceeds for this pattern will go to the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation department which oversees a few programs to protect heritage trees, and plant more in the urban area of Minneapolis.

The Pattern

This feather-light dancer’s shrug is a willowy garment that looks great over tank tops and slip dresses. The shrug features crochet puff stitches and front-post ridges to create the willow leaf inlay. The mohair and lace-weight yarn combination creates a cozy cloud to dance away into the day. This is the March 2021 pattern from the Tree Collection and is based on my friend Anne.

It features the the silky deliciousness of Debbie Bliss Yarns Rialto Lace weight, and Angel Mohair held double to create a soft as air texture.

Katie MooreMarch 12, 2021