Gremista Bod & Shetland Textile Working Museum

Saturday was the day we said our farewells to Unst (until next year?) and moved to the Nesting area of mainland for a week.
It was a beautiful morning and during a morning in Lerwick I managed to visit the Shetland Times bookshop again buying ‘The Art of Fair Isle’ Ann Feitelson as essential reading matter for the week. *

After an early lunch I went to visit Gremista Bod in the north of Lerwick while Michael continued to stock us up on provisions for the week.
The Bod was built in 1780 and started life as a storage booth for dried fish and boat gear. The Bod building  itself is interesting as it was also  the home of Arthur Anderson the founder of P & O Ferries.

The Bod houses the exhibition of Shetland Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. On Wednesday and Saturday volunteer members were demonstrating and talking to visitors.

This jumper on on a stretcher frame outside the building signalled I was in the right place!

Downstairs was a marvellous display of a wide range of work (mainly for sale) from the Guild. Also downstairs was a donated floor loom that once had been used at Adies of Voe,  a Guild member was getting this going and we chatted. Accompanying this was a display of fine woven cloth from the loom.
One of the two upstairs rooms contained a display of organic wool, spun, knitted and woven by members of Shetland Croft Knits - this was very interesting.
The other room contained a small display of artefacts from Arthur Anderson and a display of fine knitted lace. fair isle items &  photos from the Shetland Museum collection as well as some associated accessories such as a quill knitting sheath.
I highly recommend a visit (or visits) to the Bod - even the postcards for sale were excellent.
It was excellent value my £2 ticket also giving me entry for the rest of the year.

Then it was onto our chalet for the week - on a working croft and this meant sheep - an 'old' type of Shetland and the owner is a member of Shetland Guild too!

* The author of the book seems to be based in USA, the book covers history, technique and colour (about half the book) as well as patterns. I particularly like the section on colour.