Shetland Autumn 2023 Day 1: 2nd September 2023

After much thought we decided we were, just about up to (health wise) going  up to Shetland this September and overlapping with the beginning of wool week as we did in 2022. Michael has had problems with his mobility all year but we thought he could manage the motorhome and we would have everything with us that we needed. So on September 2nd, a Saturday, we finally left after what has seemed like checking lists for days and days. The motorhome was packed with  lots of wool and dyeing related things, including the digital microscope, electric spinner, hand dyed balls of coordinating pink/purple Shetland yarn I had dyed as well as more natural dyeing, weaving and some (possibly) Mesolithic flints from the garden and some lead spinning whorls found in the village. All part of the sharing that is part of wool week and the weeks surrounding it. 

We decided we would only drive  a short distance for the first day as we would be up early and however well organised we were, there would be last minute packing! So we booked Clumber Park, in Sherwood Forest a Caravan and Motorhome site which we really like. 

We left at 10.00 and then took a detour to our nearest town to buy Kwells from  a decent sized Pharmacy. These are my insurance in case the ferry is choppy. We couldn’t get any yesterday anywhere! We have always been fine on the boat but not having any of these with me seemed like asking for trouble! 

So by the time we reached Suffolk, Elevdon, it was time for coffee in the courtyard Farm Shop. This is the first eating place I can remember seeing a notice saying they were completely cashless. There was waitress service and the food and drink were good too. We made a purchase or two and Michael was treated to a new case for his tablets. 

The journey north up the east coast is so much easier now the A14 improvements have been done and the parking better sorted at Cambridge Services, Today we made our own lunch, one of the bonuses of travelling in the motorhome. (1) The service station was not particularly busy which was nice. 

One more stop needed before we reached Clumber Park. We usually stop at North Grantham, parking is easy and we have never found it busy. This could be because the services are limited. We decided we would go in to Costa, really to have a break away from the motorhome. As I was studying the food offering I noticed our last female Prime Minister was also in the building too! I now eat much more savoury food and yet why is it that the offering to go with tea  is predominantly cake or in this case solely cake, cake and more cake! I decided I would therefore boycott Costa for eating and instead just had a drink but we were able to sit down in a quiet place. As we left Michael confirmed what I had observed in terms of seeing ‘famous’ people as she sat behind me. She was accompanied by a couple of bodyguards and I guess like us had to stop somewhere. I do wonder why service stations on the whole are such joyless places, those that do it well are really pleasant places to stop awhile. 

We were glad to arrive at Clumber Park. We like this stop a lot, we back onto woodland and could easily stay here more than a night. It was 25 C when we arrived and it seemed incongruous that in a few days we would be wearing full winter gear. 

So lovely to be in the forest 

The bonus this year was that there was the chance to have a wood fired sourdough Pizza for supper. These were super. Many of the larger camping sites have ‘street food’ visits at weekends and our experience of these entrepreneurs has been entirely positive. Great food, lovingly cooked at a great price. 

The nearest I got to  wool and textiles was thinking about them! 

1. Some of you will know that a regular health check went badly wrong for me last summer (2022). I had a week of daily contact from the surgery as I was found to be pre- diabetic, have high cholesterol and high blood pressure. I had already joined the waiting list to take part in the Zoe Personal Nutrition Programme as an attempt to  check up on and improve my gut health which was better but not perfect following the very bad food poisoning  I suffered from in 2011. Following this programme since last November has significantly improved those 3 issues. Eating my own food is the easiest but I can still eat out and pretty much anything I like. I will be referring to eating during the journal of this trip to Shetland. 

Fethaland Shawl

When I saw this pattern, by Anne Eunson in the Shetland Wool Week Annual 2021 I knew I just had to knit this.

I had been doing a series of in person ( luckily) classes with Elizabeth Williamson (1). My usual shape for Shetland lace knitting was a rectangle! I liked how the Unst (2) ones were constructed and I could by now follow the techniques and use my own motifs, proportions etc and have some items I really loved. With Elizabeth I had been exploring a variety of different shapes as we knit mini versions - the idea being we could scale up. I had cheated for the first one, ie not designed my own,  and knitted Elizabeth’s Fladda/Alchemilla and used Jamieson and Smith supreme 2 ply that I had naturally dyed. (3) 

The one Anne had designed was this same crescent shape, although the construction was different which was great for me, the more ways I know how to do a shape the better! 

What I also liked about Anne’s design was the fact that she had taken inspiration for the main motif from the Lace Assessment project she had been working on at Shetland Museum and Archives with her sister Kathleen Anderson. What to me was even better- the fact that she had ‘combined aspects of different motifs found among the collection, creating something new yet still rooted in tradition’. This I am sure is what Shetland Knitters from Shetland have been doing for generations, not just trying to copy a motif exactly but making a motif of one’s own. 

I liked the colour Anne had chosen and this sparked in me an idea. I had bought a ‘poncho’ in a similar colour from a local machine knitter. However I loved the colour but every time I put the poncho on I moved it around and ended up taking it off and wearing something else. The poncho was I guessed in Yeoman’s 50/50, not a yarn I normally use as it was 50% wool and 50% acrylic. However, I guessed it might work for this. So I pulled out the poncho, and washed the yarn. Then I set about working out the length I had (I used the weight of my blue yarn to work out the length from the manufacturer’s yarn details  and used this to cross check the length I had in my skeins. 

By looking at the information Anne gave in the pattern I would see the length she had allowed. I would have a bit of yarn spare but not as much as I would have liked. 

The next thing was to knit a tension square. I did as Anne suggested and knitted the tension swatch  using the same needle size she suggested. I stopped myself memorising  the numbers for the tension swatch and blocked this as I usually do on my sample blocking board. 

When dry and left on the blocking board and the pins removed, I was pleasantly pleased with the fact that the measurements were as near as would make no difference to the pattern tension, as it was a shawl. 

Tension sample. 

I liked how the main motif looked and decided that even though there was acrylic in the yarn besides wool it would be worth knitting using this yarn. 

So I set about casting on. I like to knit with double pointed needles and a knitting belt as I know it gives me better tension. The edging went well, but then I needed to  pick up stitches from this and had 509 sts to juggle with. Several of the dpns had to be employed with rubber bands on the ends until I got the stitch count down a bit. I was using 40 cm long needles and soon got so I could have all the stitches on 2 needles. I had done this before and the resulting shawl worked out fine (a pattern from Donna Smith.) Checking the pattern as I was going along  was tricky but as it is so important I made sure I did keep checking on progress. The only tweaking I did was at the very end where I did an invisible grafting that I have been learning from Joni Coniglio’s methods and this worked very well. 

The final graft

From the grafting, there was  not a raised area in the middle or a noticeable dip where the two joined. I hoped  for this and managed to avoid either happening. A previous shawl I knitted many years ago, before I learnt how to avoid it, still bothers me as it is not flat and forms a V at this join. 

Blocking was tricky as my door sized blocking board was not big enough! I added my sample board next to it and that worked ‘well enough’. I could not tell which end of the shawl had gone off the edge when it was finished. 

Dressing 

I started this in November and the final dressing was done in April, however, this wasn’t my sole knitting and turned into my TV knitting as I became familiar with the pattern. 

So this is the finished shawl ( see initial photo) and a far, far superior use of the yarn than as a poncho! 

Some details: 

Size 135cm x 48 cm approx, as pattern

116 g of yarn used

Yarn Yeoman’s 50/50 as mentioned above. It gave a lovely soft finish! 

Plyed  the yarn was 20 wpi ….not a good way to measure yarn as wpi means the single in the yarn usually,  but it does give an indication of the diameter. I would call this a ‘3ply’ in vintage knitting terms.

Needles used 2.75 mm dpns with a knitting belt 

Notes: 

1. Elizabeth’s website shows her work and workshops

https://www.elizabethwilliamsonknitting.co.uk

1. Unst lace is some of the finest, if you get to Shetland  do try and get there to see it. Some more details here http://www.unstheritage.com/web/unst-heritage-centre/unst-lace/
2. Details and photos of Fladda can be found in this blog post of 14 Sept 21 

Lockdown day 18: Appreciating the Skill of Fair Isle Glove Design

I knitted the Hoosiefield gloves designed by Hazel Tindall from the Shetland Wool Week Annual 2019 as soon as it was out. I used a mixture of Shetland yarn, some natural dyed yarns and some purchased colours and  included  the purple to enable the gloves to coordinate with more of my outdoor winter wear. I love them. The fingers are fair isle and super snug by being double thickness  but time consuming for me to knit.

My much worn gloves

Michael (husband) asked me if I could knit him a pair of Fair Isle gloves that would match the colours in his red based Katie’s Kep, Shetland Wool Week annual 2020.

M’s Katie’s Kep

As he could try on my Hoosiefield gloves and I could judge the size I decided on this pattern. I spent some time playing with the colours.I decided to stick to reds,and black, as I had plenty of these in stock too and these would look good. The purple and blue of his hat were too distracting to my eye in this planned glove colour set. 

On trying on the smaller size that I had knitted, he needed a longer rib, longer hand, longer fingers and wider.

I checked my tension, which was fine for the pattern and decided to lengthen the bigger size of the pattern a bit more. I could lengthen the fingers when the time came.

I helped myself time wise by knitting 2 ribs with the knitting machine and both longer cuffs were completed in 15 minutes. He preferred a plain single rib as he choose for the hat too.

All was good and so I started the glove and convinced myself although a little loose in the width all would be good.

So I got as far as this and decided they were too big. I had a hunch they were too wide.

So I got him to put on my gloves again and could see his hands although longer were very little wider than mine.

Back to the drawing board and a couple of days were taken up with planning a size intermediate between the two given sizes.

Decision 1 - base the custom pair on the larger glove pattern.

Decision 2 - I did not need to add length to the palm

Decision 3 - I needed to remove 6 stitches from the width

Then I began to really appreciate the skill of a Fair Isle glove designer. Finding out how to remove the 6 width stitches and keep the integrity of the pattern took me on a great journey. I appreciated how all the elements fitted together to make the perfect glove pattern. It is far more complex than a fair isle cardigan even with fitted sleeves!

It is all working so far and I am confident he will have gloves that both look good and fit his hands well. The bonus to me has been understanding what is needed in Fair Isle glove design. I will look at Fair Isle fingered gloves with even more admiration now. (There is still another change I would make if he asked for another pair!) 

The custom glove so far.

Glove Pattern: Hoosiefield Shetland Wool Week Annual 2019, a great design by Hazel Tindall 

Extremely useful video: Shetland Wool Week 2020 video Elizabeth Johnston ‘How to Knit Perfect Fingers’. 

Shetland Wool Week 19: 9, The Heritage Centre

Fri Sept  27 Day 12 

This day is always a bittersweet day for me. The ‘bitter’  bit being that this is our last full day in Unst for the year and the ‘sweet’ bit being it is the ‘Have a go day’ at the Heritage Centre. This is when at least one of the knitting and spinning group will be there with an additional display of items and encouraging visitors to have a go with a spinning wheel and with a knitting belt. 

We were up early, it was unnervingly calm and still, so unlike yesterday. We were at the Health Centre for 9.00 for the latest INR test for M. I opted to not go into the Health Centre. It was what I would call and an atmospheric day and I wanted to explore a bit with the camera. 

M was back quickly, the news being he needed to phone our home surgery to have his medication confirmed and to book another test when we were back on Shetland mainland next week! He got through to the surgery and we now need to phone later to get the dosage! He decided he would take the binoculars into the garden at the back of the Health  Centre and was delighted to see a Red-breasted Flycatcher. We drove to Baltasound and I decided to have a wool session whilst he walked to Haligarth Wood from there. We were booked into a window seat for 12.00 at Victoria’s Tea Room and were back there in good time. Although the table was reserved,with a big sign on it, it took some negotiating from the staff for the couple to move! 

Wool week attendees were obviously arriving on mainland and the adventurous had travelled up to Unst - the wool week hat is a wonderful introduction to a conversation. There was a group over from America and they were planning to go to the Heritage  Centre to take in the ‘Have a go session’ too. 

Once I got there, it was great to see a Hazel  Laurenson (1) was going to organise the session for the afternoon. She was happy that I had my wheel with me to spin as well and it was great to see Kate, from East Anglia, who was back with her wheel too. 

Hazel produced books, her file of recent lace knitting samples and other examples of what she (and possibly others) had been knitting recently. 

Before we started I took the opportunity to go into the room where the majority of the historical lace knitting is on display. I was particularly interested in the mitre of any shawls on display. It was the mitres that I was homing in on this year.(2) I showed my embarrassing little sample to Hazel and was keen to get her expertise on ‘mitres’, having tried different versions of the ‘knitting on’ type in my sample. It was a useful discussion, although in Unst the traditional shawls  they knitted avoided a mitre completely. I had avoided the mitre in my cobweb shawl mentioned in the previous post. 

It was a great afternoon, spinning and chatting. One of the American ladies, Inga, who actually lives in London, had a tiny nano wheel (3)  in her bag and it was great to see this in operation. What was even more surprising was that she had got some extra bits and refinements for the wheel from a spinning friend from back home  in Norfolk. Wool, spinning and knitting are international and it is joyous to have such friendships. 

A general view of the room where we did the dyeing a couple of days ago

The afternoon ended all too soon and 16.00 saw M there ready to pick me up and for us to return to base for our last night. 

We had treated ourselves to a Lasagne meal from the Final Checkout, made in Scalloway. It was excellent, full of meat and much better than ‘bought’ meals back home. 

There was good news to end the week, the Youth Hostel had won one of the Community Grants for £500 so could have new flooring in the conservatory and I hoped I played some small part in this happening.  New people had arrived at the Hostel for bird watching and it seems that the following week there were to be to even more arriving which is all good for keeping the hostel going. 

Fortunately there would be very little packing up, one of the big advantages of the camper van. We were booked on the 9.45 ferry in the morning. Kate, the friend from back home, was going via Ollaberry so we would catch up on things once we both arrived at the campsite (for the next week plus) on Saturday evening. I had plans for shopping in Lerwick on the way through. 

1. Hazel Laurenson is, IMO, a real expert in Unst Lace. I was very fortunate to have an all day class with 3 others, with her in my first Shetland Wool Week in 2014. She has the ability, that I have yet to gain, of being able to look at a lace motif and translate it into knitting and to design an overall item with a very balanced set of motifs. She has translated patterns from the collection found in a case, in Unst, some years ago. Some of these are in the booklet ‘Recreating Vintage Shetland Lace’ and others are in separate patterns. These are available to buy from the Heritage Centre and contribute to funds to keep it going. 
2. Previous posts in this Shetland Wool Week 19 series have included my attempts at getting a knit on mitre that I am happy with in a small sample hap. 
3. This nano electric wheel is called ‘the electric wheel nano’ and is by Maurice Ribble. It was initially funded by a Kickstarter campaign and as I write this is between $80-$110. Postage and customs duty to the UK needs adding. There is a FB page devoted to this with over 4,000 members. 

Shetland Wool Week 19: 8, wind, lace knitting and birds

Thurs Sept 26 Day 11

A windy day had been forecast and it was windy in the night but we had experienced much worse during earlier stays. The good news was that high tide was at 9.00 this morning and not during the night. We do worry about a High Tide when there are high winds as we are very close to the beach. I did give a thought to those on the ferry last night, as I know several ‘wool weekers’ do come over a few days early. We know there had been lots of rain in Scotland and further south and thought we were on the edge of the bad storm that was the heavy and persistent rain on the mainland. It was very mild for the time of year and we thought we would probably rest here and in the hostel for much of  today. I had spinning and many photos that were still in the camera. I like to have them in at least two places as an insurance. When it was light M drove the van up behind the hostel, the rain started and it was likely the wind would get up to 54 mph during the day (1) 

However, we did need to get out as M had to make another appointment for an INR test at the Health Centre, this was made for tomorrow at 9.30. We decided it was definitely a day for a bacon bap at The Final Checkout (2). I thought I recognised the man sitting there drinking a hot drink, and I quickly realised it was Michael who, with his wife Dot, lives at the Zero Carbon House which they run as a B and B. Dot was part of the dyeing group at the Heritage a Centre last year and kindly asked us round for tea. (3). We chatted for quite a time and then left to go to the Viking Longhouse as I was determined to take some photos of the shawl(4).  I had knitted it many years ago and there was also the Dunella scarf that I had completed earlier in the year. It was going to be dark in there but not wet and hopefully not windy. In fact it was windy, but I had taken pegs and string and would be using the tripod so could use a long exposure if I could keep the lace knitting still. One or two visitors turned up as I was doing this and clearly thought I was crazy. 

These are a couple of my shots. 

                         

I had spent a long time on the Dunella Shawl and got thoroughly frozen. I really need to take the bigger shawl back next year and spend quality photography time on this to get a sharper image. 

It had been very cold in there so then needed coffee, we made a quick visit  to Victoria’s and met a Swedish lady who was over early for wool week.

The it was onto Norwick, as we were so close and we made an early lunch of soup. 

It was great to look at the Turnstones, turning over the masses of seaweed that had been brought in. They are very well camouflaged. 

The Unst  Partnership shop was open from 14.00-16.00 and it would be good to look round a local ‘secondhand shop’. This proved a great place for me. I bought some dpns, some machine knitting cones of yarn (but not all) and some machine knitting patterns that were definitely in the category of vintage and I had never seen any like them before. M got some novels and we decided we would go back to the hostel and warm up and have our afternoon tea there. Yes, this was a day of sitting and relaxing and having drinks and cake. The Swedish lady, Helen, was staying at the hostel for the night and as I chatted to her, as she was here for wool week, I was very envious. She had done 5 day courses in Sweden last year, one on designing and Knitting a yoke for a jumper (that I think was taught by Hazel Tindall) and the second was learning to use 5 spindles for spinning in 5 days. We realised we were both doing Elizabeth Johnson’s ‘Spinning for Fair Isle’ workshop. 

After dinner we moved the van down by the sea, it was getting much windier and was wet, M sloped the van into the wind. 

So now I could semi organise my photos from the week. 

M has written the following about his ‘birding’ when we are in Shetland during this trip. There was little birdwatching today, other than of the gannets plummeting into the rough sea at Norwick. 

From Michael 

People often ask me when on Shetland what do I do while Janet is taking part in  Wool Week.  Well I do have an interest though I have never even learnt to knit.  My Father, like my Grandfather before him worked as a tackler (5) in a Cotton Mill near Wigan in Lancashire.  My Dad in fact was more interested in the engineering side and went to night school in Bolton to get his qualifications.  The mills were closing down and he managed to get a job in Manchester as a journalist on a specialist magazine before being taken on by the Civil Service to work for the Cotton Control during the 2nd World War.  He then became the editor of a magazine for the Textile Industry (The Textile Recorder) until he retired.  I remember as a Chemistry student he would recruit me to read some of the articles on Dyeing  to make sure the Chemistry was correct!

However what I really come to Shetland for are the birds.  I am not an expert or a very experienced birdwatcher but it does give me a chance to see birds that I would not normally encounter.   We always spend our first week on Unst, during which I will go to Norwick or Skaw, my two favourite places, as often as possible while making sure I check out some of the other good spots for example I always visit Halligarth Wood to see what might be there.  This year we were lucky to find the American Golden Plover right by the Uyeasound turn off the main road.  I found a red breasted flycatcher in the Health Centre garden, saw a redstart at Valyie and also at  Skaw as well as a Whinchat and another flycatcher.  I also picked up another bird I have not seen before in the Geo on the other side of the headland to Norwick, an Iceland Gull.  Going back to Valyie later in the week I had my best ever view of a yellow browed warbler.  There is often not much more that a glimpse of one in a bush but this one came out and let me watch it at close quarters for about ten minutes while it moved around feeding.   It is experiences like this when I find a bird by myself and can observe it properly that bring me back to birding again and again.  On getting back to Mainland I heard about a Bee-eater  at Ollaberry.  After dropping Janet at Hoswick for a class I headed North and found the Bee-eater happily using the gardens there to catch insects.  There I  joined about 20 birdwatchers and was able to watch the bird for 30 + minutes.  As I drove a 90 mile round trip to see this bird I am told I was behaving like a twitcher, not really my normal style!

Michael 

Back to Janet......

 ...and so to bed 

I was glad our bed was at the back of the van. The wind calmed down considerably about midnight but it was another night I would not have wanted to be crossing from Aberdeen. 

1. I have the Unst app on my iPad and we have found this accurate for the imminent weather. 
2. Victoria’s tea room does not open until 11.00, and the bacon bap at The Final Checkout is very good. 
3. Post of 4 Nov 18 gives details of this.
4. This was my first fine hand-spun (88wpi) it is Shetland fleece with some Crookabeck Angora from the side of Ullswater in the Lake  District  added to give lustre. It was knitted in 2003/04.(I first started spinning after a trip to Shetland in 2000). The yarn is 2ply. The shawl weighs 88g, size 100cm x 50cm) and goes through a wedding ring. I combined motifs from Sharon Miller’s first Heirloom Knitting book (pub.02) and knitted this, in the Unst traditional way. It is not very fine compared to my spinning now! 
5. A tackler was someone who could tackle anything.  When the looms broke down, as they often did, it was his job to get them going again.  With the weavers on piece work it was important to be able to get each loom back working as quickly as possible.

Shetland Wool Week 19: 7, Birds, photography and natural dyeing

Wed 25 Sept: Day 10

Today started with a visit to the Health Centre where M had an appointment for his INR test at Baltasound. It was a glorious sunrise. (The square building on the right is the ruined Greenwell’s Bod, see post 27 May 18 for links to the Hanseatic League in Unst and Norfolk and more about it) 

The blood test indicated his INR  level was not within his given range. This had two immediate implications - the need to ring the surgery at home for them to adjust his medication and also we needed to book another appointment in a few days. The phone call was made and we needed to make another after 16.00 to be given the medication dosage. Fortunately M had a new mobile phone which made this relatively straightforward. The mobile signal was good, the most frustrating thing was trying to get through to our home surgery which is always very busy and can take around half an hour! 

Today we decided we needed  a second breakfast at The Final Checkout. We met a couple in a large rented motorhome, who were also not aware of Wool Week. They had flown up from London  and were enjoying a few days away from it all. They were becoming increasingly concerned about the weather forecast for Thursday and were deciding to drive back to Mainland today to be sure they got back for their flight home on Friday. It seems 50mph winds are forecast for Shetland and there was torrential rain in the north  west of England and Scotland. (It seems from contact with family at home East Anglia was pretty wet too!) The bacon bap was great, but soya cappuccino was not available so I collected lactofree  milk from the van and had a different sort of coffee for a change. 

Today we were driving along the road  to Skaw, the most northerly beach in Unst. We stopped along the way and M walked along the road to Lamba Ness to look for a Short-toed Lark. It had temporarily moved on somewhere and could not be found. I played with my graduated filter taking photos of the breathtaking scenery. It was a great day to be out in this wild place. 

We then drove onto Skaw and walked on the beach, where again I took more photos, this time of seaweed. This beach is great for getting a variety of seaweed. We had another good beach view for lunch and as a bonus we saw a Redstart and Winchat as we sat eating. 

M went on a walk round the headland and saw more birds (he’ll write about this in a day or so) and I stayed in the van checking I had everything ready for the evening. 

That evening  I was running an indigo dyeing workshop for the Knitting and Spinning ladies at the Heritage Centre. Last year we had dyed with madder and this year  it would be more hands on, with everyone able to have their own indigo vat. I had all my fingers crossed as clearly I could not bring all the dyeing equipment with me. Normally I would have varying with me if I was running a workshop at home. We had been in correspondence before the trip and we were all looking forward to the session. M had weighed out the ingredients, we had a couple of hours and I hoped everyone there would get some strong blue and also feel confident  to repeat the dyeing at home on their own. 

The mixed yarns and fibres I had dyed whilst trialling the method before travelling

We went back to the Hostel, cooked an early dinner then drove to the Heritage  Centre to prepare. The ladies were extremely well prepared and all had insulation for their dye baths sorted out as well as plenty of yarn and items to dye. I demonstrated setting up the indigo dye bath and  whilst waiting for this to be ready the ladies were able to get set up. 

All went very well indeed and the colours achieved were superb, I got so involved I forgot to take photos but this one sums it up. 

One of the ladies, Helen who lives in Yell, dyed a white linen top which she had  already tied up. She added this photo a few days later to her iG thread ( hart_of_shetland ) 

What a wonderful evening, I was paranoid about the clearing up as I knew on Friday the room would  be used to show fine lace and be the venue for the Knitting and Spinning ‘have a go’ session. Clearing up was a case of ‘many hands make light work’ ! 

It was a very rewarding evening for me and a delight to see everyone get great results. On the way back to the Hostel my head was already hatching embryonic plans for what we might do next year! 

Shetland Wool Week 19:5 Checking up on Unst after a year’s absence

Monday 23 Sept: Day 8 

It was a grey morning but we were very snug due to the  van’s central heating.(1)

Today we planned to visit some of the shops in Unst. Given that the population in the 2011 Census was 632 there is a good range of shops. 

These are: 

Skiboul Stores (and bakery and small self service cafe and petrol station) 

Henderson’s - probably the largest and more varied of the three general shops, selling nearly anything we have ever wanted. 

(There is another great store and cafe - The Final Checkout - which is also a petrol station and where last year I bought sandpaper needed for my spinning wheel! ( Discussion of visiting this later along with the other ‘shops’ in Unst).

We would also visit the Heritage Centre which has a shop related to items in the Museum. 

I also had a plan to take a photo of my Dunella Shawl (post of 14April19) through  a window of an abandoned croft. However the shawl is very fine weighing just over 25g and today the wind, although light by Shetland comparisons, would be too much and blow the shawl horizontal. However I had a fallback plan for this photography too. 

The day started with a wonderful surprise, I was now the proud and very grateful owner of an Unst Shetland fleece. I was over the moon. I am going to knit a wool week 19 hat for the donor of this. However, from my previous ‘knitting a hat for another person’ I was definitely going to get the head measurement first. (Post of 29May19). M provided his hat, to be tried on, and I feel confident I can knit one now to fit. 

M’s INR was not stable when we left home so we needed to go to the Health Centre to arrange a blood test.(2) This involved registering as a temporary resident and making an appointment. He noted the ease of doing this and the fact that the waiting room was empty, unlike at home. 

Next it was on to Henderson’s, which is a great shop, and a real joy to spend time looking around. Besides the fan heater, for which we had a choice of two, we bought a couple of sharp knives, we seem to need 4 when we are away  and only had 2 with us,  and a lovely little bamboo and silicon spatula for getting the last bit of froth from the coffee machine froth maker. Then to Skiboul Stores where we got a homemade pie for lunch. 

Next we drove up to Haroldswick and could not go through the village without going into the Heritage Centre. I bought a great locally authored booklet on the History of Unst, looked at the patterns which were newly available so I could decide which I would buy. 

I was pleased to see Frances so we could chat about what had happened to us both during the year. I was very glad to hear that  the Heritage Centre had been very busy. It is hard work for the small band of volunteers that keep it going. They were trying to build up energy for the numbers that they knew would come up during wool week. 

Norwick beach, one of our favourites was designated lunch spot . 

Before we left home I looked in Sarah Don’s book, ‘The Art of Shetland Lace’ which I have had for an age. As I look at more lace I see more and more. I liked some of the ‘patterns’ as they would be called in Shetland, but I am more likely to call them motifs. I decide it would be a good discipline if I turned the text of of how she describes them into charts. I had brought plenty of graph paper with me for the job and this afternoon sitting with a cup of tea in the snug of the van seemed like a very good place to get started on it. I knew I was going to get my knitting fix later. I did not finish but had made a good start and could already see how much help this was being to me. 

Stage one of charting a tree and wave

M walked up the road away from the beach to Valyie, one of his favourite  birdwatching spots in Unst. 

After an early dinner I was in for a lovely treat. I had been invited to the knitting group that meets at the Youth Hostel on Monday evenings.  I took my sample lace shawl. I had knitted the lace edging and had picked up stitches and knitted one of the wedges which I worked out had to have loops on both ends of the wedge. I would attempt to knit and join on the second wedge during the evening. It was rather a silly thought as it needed full concentration and although there were brief periods of silence, there was knitting chat too. It was lovely to meet the ladies again and talk about their latest and current knitting. One lady was also a machine knitter but always hand knitted her Fair isle yokes. This is my feeling too, I can’t imagine wanting too, or actually knitting the yoke on the machine- who wants seams in a yoke? 

The Youth Hostel works on a tight budget, so does the Community Hall at Uyeasound and from the meeting I understood that voluntary organisations were able to bid for a grant and that the whole community were invited to a meeting the Thursday of Wool Week to vote for who was to get the money. I was happy to write a couple of lines about why I thought the Youth Hostel was a deserving case (3)

I did manage to do a couple of the wedges with the joining on but I wasn’t really liking the look of this method much in this yarn with this pattern but I would finish it. 

We live, at home, in an area where we have no street lights but as I sat there I realised I had to negotiate going across the lawn and finding the correct place to step down to reach the van afterwards. What a relief to see DH waiting for  for me with a torch when I tore myself away from the knitting. 

Another great day. 

1. Our motorhome is a Wildax, one of it’s many brilliant features is that it is fully insulated to the highest standard. It also uses LPG which we use for cooking and can choose to use for heating and the fridge. This enables us to ‘wild camp’ something we have only done occasionally. I prefer to be on a recognised camp site, partially because I believe strongly in supporting the local communities we visit while enjoying their local scenery. 
2. He takes warfarin daily as he has had 2 major heart operations and now has a mechanical mitral valve. 
3. Back at home, this would be decided by the village or town council. Here each group was to have a table at the voting evening and my understanding was that a representative or two of each group was to be there to explain their case and answer any questions members of the community might have. Although, this is quite a burden on each voluntary group it did seem to be a way  of really involving the community in decisions. I am happy to say the Youth  Hostel were successful in being awarded the £500 they had asked for, this will now go towards reflooring one of the public rooms of the  hostel that is in poor condition. By having a successful hostel, there is somewhere for people to stay, at low cost, on the island which has to help bring in more money to the local economy. Uyeasound Hall was also was successful in its bid. 

Shetland Wool Week 19: 4 A rest day in Unst

Sun  Sept 22 Day 7 

We had come up to Unst for a week’s relaxation before wool week. We love the people, the landscape, the knitting and the birds, particularly at this time of year when there might just be some early migrants as well. Today was deemed a real rest day as we had been travelling and busy for 6 days. 

Another view from the van

We woke to a blustery and grey morning but the temperature outside was 10 and inside the van first thing it was 13, much warmer than it had been in Perth. 

We had a good start with birds, spotting a redshank, ringed plover and turnstone on the beach right by us. 

The hostel was very much as it was last year but with an important new addition. There is a new ‘cleaner/ essential job man’ (but that does not do justice to his impact), who is also a crofter  with lots of Shetland Sheep. The downside is that the fleece had gone off to Jamieson and Smith already. He is a delight to talk to and this is an extra treat for our time in Unst. 

M stayed chatting in the hostel and I walked down to the van to make a coffee using our new mini  Nespresso machine, it was delightful. I had turned the fan heater on and at the same times flames shot out from the wire at the back. Having removed the plug  and dealt with the flames I was quite shaky! We were going to buy a new fan heater anyway, hopefully tomorrow.

It was a day to do some laundry and we deemed it a ‘4 peg day’ , that is per item. As I left the linen line the washing was horizontal, as long as it doesn’t rain it would be dry in no time and by lunch time it was much brighter. 

I had planned a knitting afternoon. I wanted to have a look at Hazel and Elizabeth’s DVD (1) I was keen to remind myself what this showed about making a loop at the start of a row, that would then be knitted into later. I wanted to refine what I was doing and realised that the tension of this first stitch would be very important. 4 ways were shown, with 3 being suitable for lace and then ways for joining in lace were given. This was comprehensive and I decided I would join my 4 wedges using different joining methods selected from combinations of these. 

As I started the knitting the wedges in the hap, I realised I had already been inconsistent  as there was a different number of loops on each right edge of the  wedge. As I pulled out the wedge I realised this was as important as the openness of the loop. What a good job I rather like doing samples and trial knits. 

In this  diagram I am showing what I am attempting to do. It is an ‘outside in’ shawl which I am told is the traditional Shetland method. 

When I was knitting M walked up to the main road and back down past the lochs behind the sea. He amassed a list of seventeen birds, including snipe and red breasted merganser but nothing at all that was unusual for Shetland at that time. There will be more about birds in a later post. 

We had brought lamb with us to roast and decided to stick with this even though Uyeasound Hall had a Chinese Night. I had only had one Chinese meal since I had my severe food poisoning 13 years ago and I did not want to risk being ill for our week in Unst. Perhaps next time I will be up to a meal at the hall.

(1) 50 tips from Shetland  Knitters : Hazel Tindall and Elizabeth Johnston. 2 DVDs with over 3 hours of great advice. For many techniques more than one way is shown. These are based on many years of experience perfected by generations of Shetlanders. In my mind it is brilliant and is my go to guide.