Interview with Pauline McLynn

Firstly, why teacosies?
I guess it goes back to Father Ted. Mrs Doyle used to peddle tea to everyone, so I thought to myself, ‘well, why not knit teacosies, and call them the Go Ons because they go on your teapot?’ I think as well, we drink a lot of tea in this country – it’s one of the little pleasures that you can have for yourself. Its inexpensive, I think people are taking time now to just sit down and make themselves a pot of tea. It’s just lovely really. 

When and how did you begin knitting?
Well, when I was a kid my mum taught me how to cast on and do a bit of knitting and at school. My grandmother knitted as well, she was great fun knitting little Aran bobble hats which are now of course back with a vengeance, and she could knock one of those up in an afternoon it was brilliant. It was almost like a calling, I just got the urge to knit again! And I lived in a smaller house then in Dublin with several cats - I only have two now, but I was up to five at one stage and I’d knit things, but the problem was that the cats I had at the time used to love to sleep in the boxes where I kept my yarn, so I’d have a hat that would be half-hat, half-cat. So I sort of stopped knitting again, and then just a few years ago again I got this urge to knit.

What is it you enjoy most about knitting?
I guess I love that I can knit and, say, watch a football match at the same time, I really do like that. It means now that I have no down-time, there is never a time when I’ll be sitting around not doing something. I get great pleasure from having something to show from my few hours each day, and I find it enormously relaxing. I’m kind of bad at following patterns, so I don’t really do that so much. I have lots of books with patterns in them and I’ll have a sleeve from one, and a hood from another and just try to join them all up, so I guess that’s a bit of an adventure as well because I’m never quite sure how its going to turn out.

Do you have a large stash of yarns?
Yes, I’m afraid so, I have a very bad yarn habit now. It used to be handbags, but those days are gone – now its all about yarn and I find I cant pass a yarn shop by, I have to go in and see what’s in there. I tend to stash yarn and think ‘oh, I’m gonna knit something with that’, and then years later I can be looking at it thinking ‘well, I never did do anything with that, I must!’ I’m a yarn eccentric now, and everything revolves around that.

Where does your inspiration come from?
Nearly always the yarn is where it starts, the colours, the textures, they just kind of suggest themselves to me. I sit around looking at my shelves and I’m thinking ‘oh, I wonder if that will go with this?’ I cannot sit still when I’m close to yarns, I’m always holding them against one another wondering what can be done with them.

Aside from teacosies, what else do you enjoy knitting?
I started a little red jumper in an angora mix, and I was going great guns at it - I’m still only on the back though. I will be gutted if doesn’t turn out the way I want it to be. It’s sort of based on a lovely red jumper that a friend of mine bought which is some designer-type arrangement, and I thought, ‘oh I could knit myself one of those.’ But I have a feeling maybe it’s not going to be quite like that when I’m done with it, so we’ll see.

Do you knit a lot of gifts for people?
People’s hearts are probably going cold this year because they know that I’ll probably be gifting them knits! I’ve made a lot of handwarmer mittens, and they’re really lovely. I love the knitting of all those things, and the knitting of the teacosies and all that, but I hate finishing them. I hope that people don’t automatically think that they’ll be getting something handmade from now on, but… they probably will!

Have you ever had a huge knitting disaster?
Oh, have I? I tell you what I’ve tried a few times but I can’t get it, is circular knitting. I’ve realised that one of the reasons is that I’m using circular needles that have a fixed, very long thing, and that’s no good, I need to get the ones that detach and that you can put your own length of cord on them.

Does knitting help with your acting at all?
To be honest with you it’s one of those things where, it’s like when somebody uses an inhaler in a play or on the telly. If they don’t know how to do it, you can tell straight off. So, sometimes when I’m watching people knitting on stage I think, ‘oh you’re not a knitter – I’d be flying through it!’ But I’m waiting for somebody now to cast me as a knitter, that would be great – and then, you can make things as well as doing the acting.

Would you say that Mrs Doyle is a knitter?
I’d say she can, but she’s very busy it might be too gentle a sport for her – if you know what I mean? I’d say she could whizz up some class of a tragic jumper. I think we all had the idea that she’s very very enthusiastic about everything, but maybe not great at any of it. She wasn’t that great at making sandwiches, or indeed housework. She flings herself into everything but possibly not really any good at any of it. I’m not sure that you’d want to wear anything that she made!

If you had to choose, knitting or acting?
Oh, well, I don’t think I’d ever be able to quit the acting. It might quit me, but that’s a different thing. It’s that old thing – if you live from hand to mouth you’d better be ambidextrous – I think that’s just the way with acting as well. You can have down times, where you’re not doing much, and that’s where it’s great that there would be something else. I write books as well, and now I’ve got the knitting. You’ve got to have a whole load of things on the go so that the bills can be paid, simple as that. So, no I hope I would never have to choose.

To learn more about Pauline and the Go Ons, visit www.paulinemclynn.com. You can find the full feature in our February issue - on sale Friday 17th January 2014.