
Today we released the Evendoon Cardigan – the third pattern in our 10 Years in the Making Club (come and join us for three months of knitting fun!)

I really enjoyed styling this cardigan with my beautiful Mull Bag, which was made for me a wee while ago by Colin Campbell of McRostie: one of the amazing Glasgow makers we had the privilege of working with on People MAKE Glasgow

The skilled work that Colin does with leather – hand-crafting beautiful bags and belts and sporrans – has its origins in saddlery – an industry once very prevalent in and around Glasgow due to the important work of heavy horses, like our local Clydesales.

I found myself thinking about heavy horses and their work a lot while I was working on People MAKE Glasgow, especially when looking at Glasgow’s early photography and film – such as this incredible footage, shot on Jamaica Street, in 1901 (from the BFI)
I found it very moving, watching this footage, thinking of all the work that went into crafting the bridles, harnesses, and saddles of the horses that were, a century ago, so integral to the life of the city. Glasgow’s thoroughfares are no longer full of heavy horses, but the dedicated work of making businesses like McRostie ensure that heritage crafts like leatherwork retain their context in our contemporary city streets. Here’s what I wrote about McRostie for People MAKE Glasgow

When Peter McRostie came down from Crieff to set up business in Glasgow in the 1880s, there was said to be a saddlers on every street corner. For this was the era of the draught horse: the years in which large equine breeds like local Clydesdales dragged the nineteenth century to its close through their tough work among the mines, canals and thoroughfares of Scotland’s central belt.

McRostie specialised in creating Scotch cart harnesses from leather that was flexible and durable enough to bear both the weight of heavy horses and the laden carts they drew behind them. With the rise of the combustion engine, the next fifty years saw the rapid disappearance of heavy horses alongside the local artisanal leather industry that had long supported their hard work. While the number of Glasgow’s skilled saddlers dwindled, McRostie’s workshop remained: the name becoming, over the years that followed, a watchword for quality hand-made goods produced from the best bridle leather.

Colin Campbell, and his wife Kareen, took over the company in the early 1980s and, some forty years later, retain a committed, completely hands-on approach to artisanal leatherwork. Watching Colin at his bench is a lesson in the quiet assurance that’s acquired through long years of expert making, while Kareen’s clearly an example of the strong work ethic she suggests is key to Scotland’s continued strength in traditional heritage crafts.

With a range of challenging commissions for corporate clients and public institutions to manage alongside the company’s retail and wholesale provision, no two weeks at McRostie are the same.

Colin might be tasked with producing historic heavy-horse harnesses for museum display, a set of sporrans for the Scottish Rugby World Cup Team or a range of bespoke luggage pieces as props for popular TV series, Outlander.

With a beautiful website and online shop confirming their contemporary digital presence, McRostie are a brand with their eye on the future, yet their enduringly popular products – such as the artisan “Clyde belt” that Colin designed, inspired by the breeching strap of a single driving harness – sums up the creative ethos of a company that’s proud of its long local history.

Thanks for making me my forever bag, Colin and Kareen! It is full of happy memories of working on the People MAKE Glasgow project, and I absolutely love it.

I remember from childhood – while walking from Balmaha to Buchanan School, and back in the afternoon, seeing the beautiful Clydesdales of the Duke of Montroses stud, but also the ones owned by the farmers ploughing the fields with the gulls wheeling overhead. I am not sure if this is still the case? Given I am now 12,000 miles away.
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Thank you for introducing us to McRostie’s. Long may they thrive!
I have a small package coming my way; I’m sure many of your readers are now their customers. Hopefully, some day I will visit.
I live on the central coast of California, in horse ranch territory. Our Western cowboy heritage is different, but the same. Thanks again for sharing a bit of your world.
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Beautiful bag and interesting video thank you
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I love this cardigan. Sometimes it’s easy to be attracted to something new – an unusual twist or swirl – but actually, the things that last and last are the plain beautiful. I nearly looked past it but then realised I can see me knitting/wearing this for years. I have to finish Strodie first – gorgeous but inexplicably time consuming. Thank you (and don’t you look gorgeous in your stripes?).
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I really enjoyed this. My husband was a skilled leather worker and the bags he made for me are my most prized possessions. They will be around long after I am gone.
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Thank you so much for sharing this film footage. It actually brought a tear to my eye as my great grandfather was responsible for looking after the horses which were used for the horse drawn tramcars at the “Glasgow Corporation” tram depot at Dalmarnock. Who knows perhaps he was among the walkers in the parade.
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Lovely bag, decent size..!👍👍
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That was just wonderful, not only the sweater (of course) but the story behind the bag and the film! sending it on to my sister who has Clydesdales. Thank you.
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Enjoyed the film. I was struck by the number of pedestrians who looked away or shielded their faces from the camera. It shows that even 100 years ago, people wanted to protect their privacy.
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What a wonderful video. There is even a fiddle player walking along the street with his instrument.
Thank you!
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Love love love this story. And that cardi is going on my to do list!
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This film is a heartworn story of the incredible people of Glasgow. It makes me wonder where all these massive horses ended up. Hopefully, at a place where they were loved and taken care of. What a talent to make these harnesses so that the horses were not injured.
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This is a gorgeous bag, made even more so by knowing the story behind it. Such fine craftsmanship is a treasure.
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Love the video, all those horses. And horse drawn omnibuses! I used to go and have tea with an ancient aunt in the 1960s in Knightsbridge, who told me that when she was young (I think it was Kensington High Street) when the omnibus had to go uphill, passengers would have to descend from the bus while another horse was attached.
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So pleased you did a blog entry for the lovely bag Kate, I spotted & admired it on the release email this morning. I’m so proud of the many skilled individual’s across the UK and always inspired & fascinated by the history. Thank you for sharing 👍❤
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