Alice Starmore

Alice Starmore (née Alice Matheson) is a professional needleworker, photographer and author of books on needlework, born in Stornoway, Western Isles, Scotland. As an author she is best known for her widely-read Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting, a guide to the complex technique of knitting pullovers and other items using a palette of five colours, on which she is an acknowledged expert. Her photographic work is devoted to the natural world, especially birds and insects.

Growing up in a traditional Scottish fishing community with Gaelic as her native language, Starmore learned knitting and created her own designs by the age of five. In 1975 she produced a knitwear collection which was sold in London boutiques.

In 1978, Starmore was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship, under which she travelled to Norway, Sweden and Finland to study their textile traditions. She is an authority on Celtic and Fair Isle design and technique through her books, as well as articles for Threads and Vogue Knitting magazines. She markets her own lines of threads and yarn.

In 1991 Starmore founded Windfall Press, which began with knitting titles and moved to Scottish Gaelic.

Starmore put on an art exhibition called "Mamba" at An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis during Summer 2008. She has appeared at a number of textile and knitting events, including the Dutch Stitch 'n' Bitch Day (Rotterdam, 2006) and I Knit London's Weekender (September 2009).

Starmore photographs the natural world, particularly birds and insects, and she contributes to publications of the British Dragonfly Society. She is regarded as an authority on Scottish moorland habitats, and is employed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) as their Education Officer for the Isles of Lewis and Harris.

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