Friday October 10 th Another Leisurely Day

This is my second attempt at having a leisurely day. We were very late back last night but unfortunately my body doesn't 'do' lie ins! Without food in the system I have a migraine which is not good news for anybody.
The plan for today was to look round the Textile Unit at the college in the morning and go to Oliver's talk on Fleece Grading in the afternoon at Jamieson and Smith. Wool and fleece buying will take place on Monday not today.
So after as leisurely start as we dared we stopped at Tesco and what a surprise I am on the front page of the Shetland Times (small photo) and inside ( bigger photo) going into the opening ceremony for Wool Week. What a treat!
You can just spot my hat - right in the middle - see my blog post of Sept 24th 2014 to see the completed hat and earlier posts  to see the story of the hat from the spinning, through the dyeing!

So on to the textile unit (actually called the Textile Facilitation Unit).  Wow this is something special. I had a detailed tour by Eric Stewart the technician who runs it showing me the different gauge machines ( 5,7 and 12 gauge Shima Seiki) and the linkers. Even washing and drying can be performed. He explained how the service is used by students, by graduates as they leave and also by many knitters on the islands and how when space permits by machine knitters elsewhere. I met the new assistant ( Roisin Mcatamney) and there is now a Facebook page for the unit. It was very interesting. I was also able to have a tour of the facilities available to students at the college, imagine  having your own knitting machine and looms during your degree, complexity depending on the year of your course- in such an amazing setting on such an amazing island...... envy! I was so glad I got to  I get to look round this unit.

Then it was back to the Hub and a chance to work out exactly where the Sunday tea & exhibition with Shetland Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers was on Sunday and then onto to Hay's Dock Restaurant and a bowl of delightful soup for lunch.

Jane (Ennis) was travelling up from London, we'd not met but been in touch via fb for some time over coming to Wool Week. She'd had a number of misfortunes and was only able to make a flying visit, spending more time travelling then being here virtually! We will try and meet while she is at Wool Week! She was now on her journey.

So off to Oliver's grading and sorting fleece talk. This talk is worthy of a post of its own! If you are into fleece then this talk should be on your must do list! It has to be experienced and can't really be described. It was a brilliant way to spend an afternoon and Oliver is a true professional and at the very top of his game. I count myself very fortunate as I was one of the 'artisans' who has also been round the plant and spent a day listening to Martin Curtis and his passion for wool in Bradford. I am a Real Shetland person! The talk was well attended and there was much buying of wool and fleece to be taken home around the world which was great, my treat will come on Monday when M and I return to stock up before we catch the ferry back. It was very hard not to join in the buying though.

Oliver grading the fleece, in one of the 'sheds', the one nearer to me is the better grade fleece.

Then we felt we needed a cup of tea before returning back to our base and we just happened to bump into Barbara Ridland again which was super as we wanted a real chat before leaving Shetland. So we managed a second cup of tea and more cake at Mareel the fantastic home of film on the waterfront and were able to have a leisurely catch up with Barbara who hinted that Elizabeth would like a similar chat before I left too. That would be nice as Monday's workshop was too intense for a real chat, so thinking caps were put on of how to achieve this in the remaining days! I am beginning to feel sad all this talk about last meetings reminds us that we will soon be leaving this beautiful place. However, we hope to return possibly for longer in 2015.

Wednesday 1st October A Day on Unst

Apologies for the change of text (font and size ) in the previous post – it must be user error but no idea how it happened. I will try harder with this one!

Although the night was windy and damp the morning was bright so I managed an hour on the shore with my camera - bliss! Lots of great macro photos of seaweed and photos from a deserted cottage to be used in textile designing later. Following an early lunch at the hostel we travelled north on the island. We had to make the customary stop at the stores in Baltasound and treated ourselves to another pair of mugs for the van : the new ones read ' Unst the Isle above all others'- just great, and post a card at the post office which will be stamped as coming from Britain's most northerly post office. The post office also sells knitwear made by the ladies of Unst. Then in glorious sunshine we drove on to Norwick beach where the waves were getting pretty choppy. We had only been here in June before so not seen it quite like this.

 

Then it was on the Skaw beach - the most northern beach in Britain and to me very special for its colourful seaweed. It is always an 'interesting' journey by a single track high road with passing places. You really do hope that you don't meet anyone! Also we were in the new motorhome which was a metre longer than the VW too.... Anyway we did not meet anyone. Michael was tasked with taking a photo of me wearing my shwook hat. ( see blog posts of August 19th– Sept 24th 2014 if you have not been following this). Our biggest problem was that the sun was very bright and it was very difficult to get a photo without big shadows or the sea cutting my head from my body.... I really did want a photo as this was the beach where the seaweed came from that inspired the hat, so we spent a while fiddling around and eventually got some photos that filled the bill and then took the following which shows us both. Michael is wearing the practice hat that I knitted to know how much yarn to dye!

Yes, the whole thing was a labour of love but well worth it.
What a wonderful day this had been.

Tuesday 30th Sept Lerwick to Unst

We quickly bought a few provisions in Tesco and parked on the quay. Barbara had warned me that I would have to be careful that one of the accommodation ship might give me a migraine attack - I saw what she meant ! Quite a startling view but also quite beautiful in a way.

We had to visit the tourist information centre, always charming assistants and a trip to the Shetland Times Bookshop ( www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/shop/) where I had only intended to browse today but within an hour of arriving had made my first textile purchase of the holiday Kate Davies' Colours of Shetland. I just loved the patterns but just as much - if not more- I loved the text and photos! I was also tempted by Traditional Nordic Knitting but that must be for a later visit....
We had a coffee in our favourite coffee spot of Hay's Dock cafe/restaurant ( www.haysdock.co.uk) after all where else do you get such a view and textiles inset into the tables and wire lace knit lampshades? Today we sat at a table with beautiful cockleshell lace by Jan Sawford which I posted on my facebook page.
We also had to visit the facilities of the Museum, these must be THE best loos ( loo designers take note) and this year lovely poems on the back of the doors - more about these later. We decided we had to go as we were driving up to our favourite Isle of Unst which meant two ferries!
We made it to the Yell ferry point and made a quick lunch in the van then had a quiet journey over Yell.
We were disappointed not to get on the first ferry to Unst but this was a lesson - all ferries to and from Unst had to be booked.
We arrived at Gardiesfauld youth hostel  on Unst in glorious sunshine where we were having a hook up for the van on the front - what a view. (Youth Hostel is the white building, our van on the front)

 

This is an independent youth hostel which is brilliant and to be recommended. Besides us there was one other 'resident' who like us was not actually saying in the hostel - he was camping in a small tent and bird watching, being resident there for several weeks. We were very envious but it was great company, especially for my husband who is a keen birdwatcher.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful view for our 'bedroom' tonight.