From Marsha White:

Dear fellow members,

As Shirley Scott so eloquently said, January 16, 2001 at the DKC meeting in Toronto, "a light has gone out in the knitting world". Annabelle Dawson, known to many for her teaching, and passion about knitting, passed away on January 15, 2002.

Annabelle was a founding member of the CKDA and past president of the Downtown Knit Collective in Toronto. She taught widely, and enthusiastically shared her knowledge, inspiring knitters with her passion for knitting and for colour. She will be remembered with love and affection by all who knew her, and was often called the "Queen of Entrelac" - she created many designs using this technique and taught entrelac to many knitters.

This past fall Lucy Neatby initiated a special booklet of hat patterns as a tribute to Annabelle, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in the summer. The book of hats and chemo hats includes designs contributed by knitters around the world. For more info about the booklet please visit the DKC website or our CKDA Charity
section.

Marsha White - CKDA Treasurer
The Needle Arts Book Shop

From Marg Yamanaka:

It is with deep regret that I announce the passing of teacher and knitter extraordinaire, Annabelle Dawson of Toronto Canada. Annabelle was skilled at all the needle arts, from embroidery to crochet, but knitting was her primary passion. Her knitting has appeared in several movies and TV shows and she organized production knitting for major companies such as the Hudson Bay department store.

She wrote designs for many magazines over the years and her designs are still available from companies such as Shelridge Farms, Canaan Mohair, Belle Vallee and others. We in Toronto called her the Queen of Entrelac for good reason and many of you have seen her spectacular outfits at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair and at Stitches East.

Annabelle gave generously of her knowledge to others, teaching courses at the Toronto Downtown Knit Collective, the Creative Needlework Show, Get-Away Weekend, and many Canadian Guilds.

At her express wish, the knitters who attended her funeral on Friday, January 18, 2001 at St John's Anglican Church in Toronto, dressed in their brightest sweaters and shawls and we KIPPed throughout her funeral.

Two years ago, Annabelle wrote, "{...} I am just beginning to get it right. It is wonderful at an age when most people are retiring that I am busier than ever. I do not plan on giving up until the undertaker pries the needles from my hands. But it is good to know that my legacy will go on in the form of those I have taught,- my daughters and the many others
who have learned from me, and that many more people will learn the joyful song of wool moving over needles from them. God bless all knitters, may we go on forever! "

When she learned that she would be facing several weeks of radiation therapy, Annabelle wanted to wear something more colourful than the chemo caps that were available at the hospital. As a tribute to her, many of the foremost Canadian and American knitwear designers designed and made hats for her. The designs for these hats have been collected by Lucy Neatby into a book, "Annabelle's Caps" . This book will shortly be available at the Downtown Knit Collective website http://www.rosecom.ca/~dkc/mspevent.html . Scroll about half-way down the page for further information. Profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the Cancer Society. The first edition of this book has already raised $4,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

Marg Yamanaka
Downtown Knit Collective

From Ruth Humphreys:

It was a shock to turn on the e-mail and find that our old friend Annabelle Dawson had passed away. We will all miss her.

It made me think, how I remembered Annabelle. The first time I met her, that I remember, was at the store on Mount Pleasent, the Celtic Fox. She introduced herself as the entrelac queen and I thought who is this! ! I hardly even knew how to do entrelac and here was someone who said she was the "queen of entrelac". She gave me her card and I was polite, but not really impressed. I had just bought Imagiknit mail order and was kind of in shock at what I had done and
what was expected of me.

The next time I met her was at Waterloo and she had a booth and was wearing a sweater that was entrelac (of course). It had a different colour in each square and more colours in one sweater than I had ever seen, even if I was fan of KF.
I admired the sweater and thought that looks good. I guess she is the "queen of entrelac".

I knew what Entralac was by then, and I had even designed a sweater for Imagiknit 2000 using entralac. We talked about our transplanted knees. She was about to have hers and I was getting over mine. She realized that I could not walk very well and we sat and talked and talked and watched the world go by until I am sure Dana Gibbons and Anne Russell wondered why I was not coming back to the booth we had.

Then Annabelle started teaching at spring fling and I started going up there with all of you to take classes. I never took any of Annabelle's classes because naive as I was I thought I knew all there was to know about entrelac. For by then I had designed a sweater and I had bought a book. My daughter Beth always says I never read the books I buy, but I had read that one.

About 2 years ago as I was cleaning up in order to move west I found an old Teacher's college book and there was Annabelle. She and I had gone to teacher's college the same year and did not know we had that in common. So
now, I not only knew how to knit entrelac, we had once been teachers and we had the same fascination for knitting, (Oh yes I realized we were the same age), and the most important thing was that we both had bad knees.

Last Spring I took one of Annabelle's classes and do you know what, she was "the queen of entrelac". She was a great teacher. I do not know why I did not take classes long ago from her. Last Spring I will always treasure the Sat night when Annabelle and I kept everyone entertained, and ourselves, by telling jokes. Annabelle was about to get her other knee done and of course she was encouraging me to go for it and get the other one done too. (I am going to by the way, some day!). We had so much fun and that night will always be a wonderful memory for me. I never met Charlie but we all heard so much about him. I think he must have the best equipped work shop in all of Toronto because according to Annabelle she always added to her stash of yarn whenever he bought a new tool, and she had a lot of yarn.

So tonight as I sit here remembering Annabelle I am glad that I met and knew the "queen of entrelac" and I will miss her. I will have to find someone else to trade jokes with this spring at Muskoka sands.

Annabelle, all the best, may you keep on knitting wherever you are.

Love,

Ruth Humphreys
Long View Designs