Monday 6th October: A leisurely day?

The gap in posting has been much longer than I ever planned. We are now safely relocated to Norfolk. My textile resources are mainly still packed but secure in one of their two fantastic new workspaces. The real bugbear is that I have been struck by this pesky virus/ chest infection that had a go at me before we moved and has just come back for the third time - this time putting me in bed for a full week. So everything here is slow. Enough of that, I am now attempting to finish the Shetland Wool Week Journal!

I had planned for a leisurely day during the Monday of Wool Week (October 6^th) as I had managed to fix up a late booking for a workshop for the evening. I started off by going into Joanna Hunter's shop (Ninian, 80 Commercial St) in Lerwick and into her back room and seeing where she designs her jumpers etc. She has a couple of electronic Brothers for doing samples etc and had a wonderful array of coloured cones. It was great to see some of her design boards and hear how her work is knitted at the college, being transferred on disc. Joanne highly recommended a visit to the college.
On next to the Hub, to be accosted by a lady (Lucy) saying "I met you a couple of years ago when my boat broke down in Unst and we knitted together " this just sums up Wool Week. Lucy was now back with a whole group from Kent.
I was keen to see Margaret Peterson. When I was last in Shetland, she had kindly given me a lesson to help improve my fine spinning. She was finishing a lesson at the Museum after lunch and I thought she would like to see how I had progressed. It was lovely to see her again - and yes she was very complimentary about my progress and was keen for her current class to see what they could aspire too.

Some of my fine Shetland spinning-

The yarn is about 1/6mm diameter - I cannot find my accurate micrometer scale to measure it at the moment - apologies in a box somewhere (it is finer than Gutermann Polyester sewing thread!)

In the afternoon I took the Textile Tour at the Shetland Museum led by the very talented Kathy. If you ever get a chance to visit the museum do try and take this tour - it is superb. Kathy brought some of her own exceptional knitting with her to supplement and explain finer points – this  was much appreciated by those of us on the tour.
During the tour the weather had 'come in' ! The ferry was leaving 2 hours early and there was a great swell in the harbour. No ferry was coming from Aberdeen so there were some disappointed Wool Weekers who could not arrive!
We drove back to our campsite at Levenwick, and then on to Hoswick  so I could go to my Understanding Shetland Lace Course with Elizabeth Johnson. This was going to be very special for me. It was Elizabeth that had first taught me to spin, with a drop spindle, in 2001 and really began my spinning, weaving and dyeing life! I have kept in touch with Elizabeth since but we hadn't managed to meet up so tonight was going to be special. It was a great course, a group of us concentrating on designing lace in Hoswick Visitor Centre while we could hear the weather outside! Long periods of silence as we were thinking so hard! The time went quickly.

This is a photo of Elizabeth and I after all these years!

The weather seemed to calm a bit but M was worried about the roads. We were not near the sea but had to drive along a high road with a cliff! We were told boulders were falling off it in the torrential rain and waterfalls that were resulting! The drive back was hairy but it all worked out. The heavy rain stopped about 1am Michael tells me! I seem to have packed a lot into me first day!