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!