The Journey to Shetland

Over the next several posts I will summarise some my fantastic experiences at Shetland Wool Week 2014. I will try and add to this every other day, but life is hectic at the moment so please forgive me if it doesn't quite happen that often. It was the 5 th Shetland Wool Week(www.shetlandwoolweek.com)  and took place from 4^th  to 12^th October. I had my tickets booked for several months  and been part of a dedicated facebook group. We had been to Shetland twice before and love the place. I had been wanting to go to Wool Week for several years and finally managed it this year. We were travelling and staying in our new WildAx Motorhome which was a fantastic success. We only got this at the beginning of September so had only been way for one weekend to Bala to try it out!
We decided to be in Shetland for 2 weeks so that we could visit more of our favourite spots so were there nearly a week before it started and left a day for 'wool shopping' after the events finished before catching the ferry back.
We drove from Cheshire to Perth the first day - glorious sunshine and  quiet roads. I managed a photo opportunity with textiles in mind at Perth campsite then onto to Aberdeen to the ferry.

Once on the ferry as we went to dinner we literally bumped into Barbara Ridland from Shetland who I first met while she taught me so much about machine knitting ( to experiment more for one!) ......so the best start possible to our Shetland holiday catching up like this.
It was a lovely calm crossing and we arrived in Lerwick having had our breakfast at ready to go to the only Tesco in Shetland to top up supplies before driving up to Unst.
The ferry to Shetland is big. It leaves Aberdeen at 19.00 and arrives at Lerwick at 7.30. You can sit up all night or have all sorts of sleeping arrangements but we have an outer ensuite cabin, you even get tea included.

Barbara was returning from an exhibition she is part of: ‘This Beloved Earth’ Basketry at www.craftownscotland.org It is open until November 23^rd 2014.