Wednesday October 8 th Lace Knitting Workshop Unst

I was so lucky to be on this workshop as there were only 4 places available. This was the first workshop we booked up for wool week and arranged the rest of my wool week experience around it! So the 4 of us were Dorothy ( from Alaska I think), Marie ( from Yorkshire), who is big into Ravelry , Netta ( from Israel who I had met at the hub and lent my spinning wheel to o she could learn spinning ) and myself. Hazel was to be our Tutor we were using one of the amazing display rooms in the Heritage Museum at Unst - but it was a bit chilly. This was improved when Rhoda turned up with the key to the room with extra heating. There was another larger class taking place doing a cockleshell scarf but this class was starting later than ours – not such a complicated day!

It was a very intense day and quite hard for me - usually I need a day to recover from such a bad migraine so I was a bit slow to get going - but I kept plodding on and was not going to be defeated! Hazel began by showing us a selection of her amazing scarves, all neatly rolled to preserve them. Different sections of the scarves were discussed with pointers to designs. This led to how to read charts, planning designs, sample knitting, grafting and dressing the scarf. Then it was our turn to do it! Much concentration and with grateful thanks to Hazel we all went home delighted that we had learnt so much in the day. This post cannot convey the pleasure I personally had on that day, we had a choice of yarn, design and all the help we could possibly have wanted from one of the very best designers and knitters of Unst lace there is.
My lace edging from the day

I needed a fairly swift turn round as Michael and I had another event that day! At 7.30 there was a talk at Belmont House which we were looking forward to. Belmont House is a sumptuous place and if you ever get to Unst and want to stay somewhere super this would be it! As it turned out the talk was by Minnie Mouat with an addition by Rhona (both were at the Heritage Centre during the day and Minnie and I correspond! ) It was fascinating. Minnie talked about the History of sheep, wool and products in Unst and Rhona talked about her mother's collection of fair isle knitting and particular a Fair Isle cardigan that she has replicated. This is absolutely stunning and the actual fair isle section, which is rather usual is available on a card at the Heritage Centre.
This Wednesday goes down as one of the all time great days in my life!
A beautiful sunset to round off the day (about 4pm.)