I am a creature of slight build

I am a creature of slight build and enormous heart. I was born in a house with a red roof. My swain is bearded. I steep in the tidewater where the Old Country meets America. I play mute or I am wound up. I raise hems, drop hints, slip plots, hoard memories. My notebook is a festering shipyard. I don't write, I collect. Mine is a work apart, a knee unstrung.