Shetland Day 3: Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers

I belong to Shetland Guild and a guild back home, Norfolk and Suffolk Guild of weavers, spinners and dyers. 

I really enjoyed the zoom sessions in particular that Shetland Guild arranged as I couldn’t see Shetland friends in person over covid, I rather miss the sessions now. By going to Shetland early in September I was able to go to an ‘in person’ Guild meeting, this would be a real treat. This Saturday was our fall back day to go to Whalsay and so I was pleased the weather was good yesterday so I could get to this meeting. 

Take a look back at the titles of the Guilds, English guilds tend just to be weavers, spinners and dyers but Shetland, very sensibly in my view, also include knitters. I can’t understand why knitters can’t be included in English Guilds too, certainly where I live in Norfolk knitting can be traced back to at least the 16th century and was a valued ‘industry’ and accounted for much export wealth. Both Norfolk and Shetland have a long tradition of wool being the basis of a living and Norfolk has many of its vast and extensive churches and other grand buildings built on the profits of wool. Perhaps someone can explain the logic of not including knitters in all Guilds to me. 

I keep a detailed person journal, occasionally I miss days, mainly due to illness but somehow I missed today and need to rely on my memory for writing this. 

The Guild meeting was being held at Islesburgh  Community Centre which I knew well as many wool week workshops are held here and we first went to it for an evening of seeing and selling craft when we travelled here in 2000. 

The meeting started at 11.00 which allowed us time to have our first coffee at Mackenzie’s Farm Shop in Cunningsburgh, just off the main road south from Lerwick to the airport. Things had changed slightly as the cafe was now run as a separate enterprise, I guess this allows Hazel and team time to develop and master their wool as Aister Oo. But the ‘feel’ of the place and quality of the food and drink was as high as ever and I was sure this would be the first of many visits. 

The Guild meeting was a good one for me today as it was the day of the challenges for trophies. What amazed me were all the different classes under the overall title of Legs and Feet. 

I have taken this from a Guild email: 

 

The competition is for spinners, weavers, knitters and dyers with 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions awarded in each category as well as a ‘Members Choice’. The trophies available are listed below:

 

Shetland Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Trophy – Best Overall Exhibit

Anna Bell Bray Trophy – Fair Isle Patterning

Devon Trophy – originally for handspun hank – now awarded for handspun hank or item

Best use of Colour Trophy

Lace Trophy

Weaving Shield

Crochet Trophy

Member’s Choice

I thought this was great as it allowed a lot of people to achieve. The Member’s choice was voted on during the meeting. There were far more trophies than I had experienced at a Guild before. 

Th judges this year were Ella and  Sandra from Jamieson and Smith so seriously knowledgeable judges too. Also it was Ella’s birthday so an amazing Chocolate cake arrived while we sang Happy Birthday  to Ella, and pieces were brought round, like at a wedding. For those who don’t know Ella is the one behind the cake and has an amazing collection of vintage knitwear! 

I sat at a table with Suzanne Wilsey, who I met on the ferry and Hazel Tindall and one other, that person varied during the day, for part of the time it was Janette Budge. Hazel and Janette (along with Elizabeth Johnstone and Wilma Malcolmson ) were going to teach  in Denmark at Fano Knitting Festival during the coming week so some last minute planning was in order. It sounded a great trip and break and just what was needed before wool week arrived. No one was very sure how wool week would go, some classes were not booked up and I believe at that stage the Guild Exhibition and tea was not fully booked up. This latter astounded me as it is a place to talk to many of the makers of the pieces on display, see some inspiring work and also have a sit down and this year either morning coffee or afternoon tea on each day. The idea this year was to enable visitors more easily to chat to guild members and so numbers were being limited for both the morning and afternoon session. This is going to be a trial to see ‘how it goes’ and this year it was going to be in Tingwall Hall and was timetabled for the first weekend of wool week rather than being the last Sunday afternoon. 

There was, as at all Guild meetings, some business to attend to, but this did not dominate the meeting, in fact I managed to got both socks started! I like to keep the socks parallel as I knit them, so there is no second sock syndrome. I was starting on my third pair of Elizabeth Montague socks from the Kate Davies club last year, called Bluestockings. The socks are in the accompanying book called by the same name They are knit toe up and this is the finished pair. 

During the meeting it was mentioned that the Guild had been given some books, I noticed one was The Lerwick Lace Shawl by Sharon Miller which was more of a booklet. The cover: 

As I am a member I could borrow this and post it back in 2 months. I was very excited to be able to look at this ‘in the flesh’ so to speak. (In fact I then ordered it as a pdf from Sharon on Etsy as it is not longer available in print. It contains quite a bit of interest to fine lace knitters that is not just the patterns). 

The Elizabeth Williamson, who is chair of Shetland Guild asked for members work for the exhibition to be taken to Tingwall Hall on the Friday evening, and members were invited to help with the set up if possible. It was suggested to me that I could show some of my shawls that I had brought with me to take to show the ladies who spin and knit in Unst. So I double checked this with the Guild Officers as I did not want to intrude. It was agreed it was fine. I had not thought to enter any items for the Guild exhibition, although Suzanne had brought a pair of great socks to enter that she had knitted at home in the States. I worked out I could go at the beginning of the evening to help get out equipment but as I had dinner booked with friends I couldn’t do much of the setting up, although I could help take down on the Sunday afternoon. 

Unfortunately I spent so long in talking to members of the Guild that I did not take photos of all the entries for the competitions and the ones that I did take are not my best photos. But I will include them here. 

Notice the fair isle round the top of the far ones and some fleece too 

..and some more socks 

It was good to see the felt making, the boots looked great and had a fair isle strip knitted as a top to them. They were very popular and won the member’s prize. This section was particularly interesting to me as I used to make a lot of felt items and also run workshops, ranging from fine cobweb and nuno felt to thick felt, such as vessels, hats and slippers. 

This photo is of the products of the  last slipper workshop I ran (for Alsager Guild of weavers, spinners and dyers). If you are interested I have the basic methods for making felt on my website and examples of different items that can be successfully made from felt. I don’t regard myself as artistic  enough to make much by needle felting, so no small animals! 

I was glad I was able to get to Whalsay on Friday , so I could get to this Guild  meeting. Suzanne was even more fortunate than me as she was staying longer in Shetland and I think would get to the October Guild meeting too! I have to admit to having some pangs of jealousy…..

 

In Shetland day 2: Friday 9 Sept 2022

We had decided yesterday that the weather looked settled and we would be able to book the ferry to Whalsay. I had enjoyed exhibitions of knitting in Whalsay Heritage and Community  Centre in previous years and was very much looking forward to seeing this one. This was situated in part of the Georgian Symbister House complex and was open Wed to Sat between 2 to 5 (1). Going on a Friday suited us well. The only downside was that Shoard the community charity shop was not open that day. 

We booked the 11.00am ferry over and would be returning about 16.00. More than once we had experienced choppy conditions on this ferry before, but  today looked calm, for the present! 

Driving to the ferry, looking in the direction of Whalsay. 

The journey is longer than other inter island ferries we use, it takes 25 minutes, but well worth it. 

This is the ferry that we will travel on.

We wanted to see more of the island so did a bit of a drive so drove north towards Brough and had worked out a circular tour! We set about looking for a good spot with a scenic spot for lunch. 

This was where we choose, it was very restful. 

We left so that we were back at the hall for the opening time. We were the only people going in and when  Michael left me to the knitwear exhibition I was the only person. Bliss. The lady who was managing the centre that day said she knitted fair isle but ‘not like this’. I was interested in all the knitting and associated bits on show, but most interested in the lace knitting and even more interested in the knitting of Ina Irvine. I had met and talked to Ina  many times and kept in touch with her, sadly she had died a while ago. She had a broad range of knitting skills and was a superb designer. She was also a spinner as well and spun superbly fine yarn and often choose to spin this using dark fleece. So all this is ‘upping’ the level of expertise in my book. Plus another couple of attributes for Ina, she was a truly lovely lady and she knitted for royalty. So on a quick glance round the room I was delighted to see so much of her work and of course work from other talented knitters and designers from Whalsay. I concentrated on details and include just a few of the photos I took, having checked with the lady that this was OK. 

This is a replica of handspun and knitted by Ina stole for the Queen of Norway on the opening of this ‘new’ museum in 2007. 

This is another of Ina’s and very difficult to photograph, as you can see. This is very finely handspun and is beautiful and so intricate. I was particularly taken by her large areas of faggoting/ ladder/ herringbone stitches which I believe are called steeks in Shetland. This shows real confidence to knit these and showed Ina’s  skill. No room to fail and dropping a stitch would have been a nightmare. 

From other Whalsay knitters

This took my eye for a number of reasons, including the display of it which I will return to later.

Super sleeve join here

This one was knit to sell. Sisters sold goods for the Spider’s Web (no longer with us but I visited in 2000) and Scalloway Museum. The sisters sold their own designs. 

A more recent piece knitted by Joan Poleson and it started life as a half finished 1 ply christening robe. 

There were also many folders related to knitting, about fair isle and about machine knitting on the island, which seems to have started in about 1940,  initially being in a more industrial setting and then the machines got ‘smaller’ so they could be home based. Being a machine knitter I was very interested in this detail. I noted a comment saying that there was probably not a family on the island that was not involved in the knitting economy. 

During my time in the knitting exhibition the lady popped back and I think she said she had Ina’s brother with her. So we talked about Ina and her visits to East Anglia, she and a sister (I believe) had been Herring Girls and visited Gt Yarmouth, bringing their knitting with them. He was keeping an eye on the fishing based exhibition next door and later in the my visit I went and talked about that with him. It was a brilliant afternoon and I hope many who attended for wool week got to see the exhibition too. 

We then visited ‘the shop’ by this I meant the main shop near the ferry  that sells everything you could possibly want and more. 

Time to join the queue to leave the island, we noted that even if it was rougher we had a works van in front of us on the ferry and would not get the spray onto the windscreen which has happened before! 

Notes

1 If you follow this link  https://www.whalsayheritage.co.uk/seasonal  as I write (Nov 22) this there are pictures of this seasonal exhibition on their  website still. 

Arriving in Shetland: Thurs 8 Sept

We had the alarm on in the cabin for 5.30 as we like to get into breakfast and sit by a window as we approach Shetland and travel up the east coast to Lerwick. We were second in to breakfast so we are not the only crazy ones. We had a nice breakfast and were able to wait in our cabin to be called to drive off. We knew we would be off early as we were blocking most of the non freight traffic on that deck in. In fact there were a few motorhomes and not much else other than the big chained containers. If I thought about it I would have been intimidated by it. 

As usual we drove to Tesco to do a decent shop for staples. Usually we are then driving up to Unst for week, but this year we were doing things differently and having a few days on mainland before driving up. This would allow us to meet with Shetland friends before it got busy for wool week. 

We were disappointed in Tesco and felt as a shop it had substantially changed over the two ‘Covid’ years and there seemed aisle upon aisle devoted to packaged and other prepared meals. When we did get to the meat and poultry section the only option was a large packet of chicken joints, fine if we were a family with about 5 children. We have a nearly normal sized fridge with a freezer section in the motorhome but we didn’t want to fill this up just with chicken. However this ‘annoyance’ turned into a positive as we then frequented the Co-op. This had a much better choice, the food looked better and the whole ambience of the shop was more welcoming. That might have been our last visit to Lerwick Tesco. 

Then it was into Lerwick and the customary journey to the wonderfully obliging tourist Information Centre. I bought the Shetland Adventures book 3 as it was focused on Fair Isle and had a section on machine knitting, a craft that is close to my heart. If I am knitting a stocking stitch item, it will be made with the use of my knitting machine unless  this is impossible! (You can knit socks with a knitting machine but I have a sock knitting machine for that, much better and it is a lovely historical item too, more about it on a post here of 10 Jan 2017)

My sock knitting machIne

There were also other articles about knitting and Fair Isle, I follow Rachel at Barkland Croft on IG and it is always interesting to see what she is up to. I already have issues 1 and 2, so now do I need to search out issue 3 ? 

Then, in my world I cannot go into Lerwick for the first time without going into the Shetland Times Bookshop and after a gap of two years this was even more essential. I like to chose a Christmas Present and then hand it over to Michael to put away. This day I was rather stumped, over the years I seem to have collected all the ones I am really interested in that are on the shelves. How can that be? ( I do have over 1000 textile books in my library! ) 

A small part of my Textile Library

I was interested in Susan Crawford’s  Evolution, the book she has written with extra patterns from some of her other books. I particular liked one jacket pattern, but on looking it started at size 38” so that was going to swamp me! So my   head decided I would be better using my jumper/ cardigan knitting block and working out a pattern myself like I usually do. However I knew this would not be my last trip to The Shetland Times Bookshop. 

Then it was back to The Peerie Cafe as it was now nearly coffee time, there was a quick stop to take a photo of Jamieson’s window always such a delight.

Jamieson’s  window

When we went up to Unst this was changed for wool week, so I got to see 2 delightful window displays but it appears I did not photograph the second. 

The Peerie cafe had a new system, one ordered at the door and were then given a table, and the food was delivered. This seemed to work well but I did wonder how it would work in Wool Week and how big the queue might be outside. We both had Bakewell slice and decided we would be going back for more of this, it was very nice indeed. 

We decided we would treat ourselves to a meal at the Dowry tonight, no cooking two nights in a row sounded good. 

We had decided that we could visit the Crofthouse Museum in the afternoon and we booked this before we left Norfolk. In all our visits to Shetland we had never been to this one and were looking forward to it. We had checked exactly where it was at Tourist Information and been told which was the best of 3 roads to take off the main road. 

We met the custodian who like us drove there, he unlocked the museum  and we were the only two being shown around. This was great and we were able to concentrate on things we were interested in. We used to live in a thatched cottage, outside Diss, dated as built during the 1600s. This museum, a traditional 19th century Crofthouse reminded us very much of that, although it was newer than our cottage and had a roof of turf. There were lots of knitting bits in the Museum and all in all it was a great thing to do on our first day. I would recommend it as a visit.

From the Crofthouse museum 

This shows the fireplace, peat was burning and was much appreciated for the smell and warmth 

…and a close up of the boards

Good to see Shetland weaving, even if recreated as well as spinning and knitting items

The meal at the Dowry as always was a quality meal which we very much enjoyed. As we drove home we heard that the Queen had died at Balmoral aged 96 and after reigning for 70 years. It was so good that she had seen how much she was appreciated during the Platinum Jubilee, for so many these kind words are left for the funeral and are not heard by the one person who should hear them. 

The journey to Shetland Sept 2022

During the early summer we decided that we would go to Shetland in the Autumn. We had missed not going there for Wool Week in either 2020 or 2021. Previous to that we always went before wool week and had time to ourselves and actually wanted more of this again. So I decided I would attend some of wool week but with some provisos because of covid. We were fortunate as neither of us had succumbed to Covid, we were still wearing masks when mixing inside and in general just meeting people outside. I was very uncertain about meeting large numbers in an indoor setting and decided I would not go to any evening lectures, much as I really enjoyed them. We did want to meet friends we had made in Shetland and also friends from around the world. Michael  had an additional booster in 2022 but I did not qualify for this due to my younger (?) age. 

(Those that know me well, are aware that this worked until nearly the end of our time away, when I went down with covid and this is partially why I am so late starting to post this journal. I like many others feel fortunate in that I have only suffered from exhaustion, I am much better but still look forward to the day when I can say I am fully recovered. In my book, life is too short to feel tired from even slight ‘overdoing it’! ) 

As always we would take the motorhome and live in that. So we planned to be away for virtually all of September, a longer trip then we had taken before but we were very much looking forward to it and we made arrangements to meet several friends there  before we left. 

We had put in place watering arrangements for the parched garden and crossed our fingers for rain here when  we were away as everything was parched and we didn’t want watering to be too big a task for our team of 3 who were to keep an eye on things. We had bought labels to put in the ground for plants to be watered but the ground was too hard for them to be used. 

So we left home on September 3rd. This was a Saturday and we had especially chosen to do the main travelling at the weekend when we hoped we would miss most of the lorry traffic! We packed up for a month, the first time we were going to be away for that long. It was our first trip to Shetland since 2019 too, so this had meant many lists! The day of leaving East Anglia was about checking the final list and we were pleased to be off for 10.00. It was very hot and even when we got to our stop for the night just off the A1 by Tuxford it was still 26 outside. 

This was a new campsite to us, convenient for the A1 but tired and a bit dated.  It did have some wonderful large colourful flower pots that I thought I had taken a photo of, but it seems I didn’t. We were going to have some hard landscaping done in the garden when we were back with some more shingle and pots but perhaps these are a little too big. They came up to my armpits! (1)

So on Sunday we got up and hoped our hunch that the A1 and A66 going across the top of the Pennines would be quiet. We knew the trick was to get off early and we managed that. The drive was enjoyable but we noted that everywhere, even up north was brown and dry just as at home. It wasn’t until we got beyond Penrith that fields looked green. Then as we drove into Scotland we saw our first rain for what seemed like an age. We drove on to Hoddam Castle by Ecclesfechan where we like to stay. A very spacious and quiet site. We planned to have a complete rest the next day. We were pacing ourselves and wanted to enjoy the journey as much as we could. 

On our day off we had decided to not drive anywhere, the point was to rest. Getting ready for such a big trip always has some stress! I still needed to finish Michael’s modified Wool Week hat so I hoped for time to do that. What we hadn’t envisaged was that we would have extremely heavy rain in the night. This was the first we had seen. We had remarked on how lush everywhere looked and that the summer here north of the border must have been very different from East Anglia, However, the rain cleared up first thing and we had a lovely pottery day and I learnt a new skill, taking a selfie and flipping it so that you can read any writing in the photo! 

So, a quick shot of us, we don’t usually take selfies! 

Michael’s hat is basically a shortened 2022 Wool Week hat designed by this year’s patron Linda Shearer from Whalsay. Michael likes  a hat to be close fitting, I also altered the anchor so I could knit the ‘around the head bit’ on the knitting machine. (2) He likes a plain brim….the actual hat had a very attractive chain in the rib. The colours are to match Michael’s padded gilet which is lime green and royal blue and is usually worn daily in Shetland. In the planning I thought there would be too much black so imported some wave type motifs  from a hat designed by Wilma Malcolmson when she was Wool Week patron for the ‘not in person’ Wool Weeks of  2020 and 2021. I have spared you the many photos of the wool wrapping and the sampling before we got to this stage! 

So after Hoddam Castle  there was one more stop and we had chosen to stay at Scone Palace which is actually at Perth Racecourse. We have found it one of  the best kept campsites we know and it did not disappoint this year. Eg there is no grass in the gravel of the hard standing and  everywhere is immaculate, flowers adorn public areas and the staff are very helpful  and friendly. Scotland is always much quieter on the roads and it was a joy to drive the route again. 

The next  day would be a much shorter drive to Aberdeen. As usual we stopped at Glenfiddick garden centre for coffee in the morning. Covid had changed the system for the better and it is now Waitress service. We then drive on to Crathes Castle to get the van ready for the ferry and check we have everything we need in an overnight bag. This we did and I managed to finish Michael’s modified hat. 

However, now being into Sept Crathes Castle was only open at weekends so no tea in the tea shop as usual (3). The  grounds however are beautiful. 

I took this photo a few years ago but it looked just the same this year, such a wonderful reflection. I struggle to find the water level! 

I managed to finish Michael’s hat there (and thus before we got to Shetland) and had to be inventive taking some photos of this. The main reason being the sun was so bright! I have to look hard to remind myself where the water level is. I just love the colours! 

The finished hat

The crown 

…and wearing it 

I suspect the expression is saying, ‘do I have to try this on again’ and a little advert for our much loved motorhome brand! 

Now I could work on the design that is in my head for another fine lace cowl in cobweb yarn or knit more socks. With me, I had enough yarn to knit a pair from Kate Davies’ book ‘Bluestockings’ for myself and Michael. We both liked the first pattern so these will be pair 3 and 4 from this book and I am using the yarn she recommended (4) 

I usually find someone from Wool Week to talk to in the lounge on the ferry but I was pretty sure I would not know anyone on the ferry this year as we were much earlier in Sept than usual. 

We waited literally hours to get on the boat as more and more freight was loaded, apparently no freight boat was running, not because of the bad weather fortunately. Hence as much freight as possible was being loaded, we were squeezed in and one of the last vehicles on. This would be good news as we would be one of  the first off the next day. 

Unusually I took some photos, I had to buy a new iPad just before we left as my previous one would not hold any charge. I was trying out the improved camera and pleased with the results. We had a nice meal in the lounge and I, for the first time, took some photos of Aberdeen beach from the ferry. Views from the lounge as we had dinner.

All was very calm crossing as we boarded but we were warned it would get fresh and more fresh during the night! 

I was completely wrong about not meeting anyone on the boat, as I sat enjoying my dinner I heard a familiar voice and it was a Wool Week friend, Suzanne from California with her friend! So for us the Shetland Wool Week experience had truly began. 

We slept through any ‘freshness’ ! 

Notes

1.I have now found a firm selling these. Rather out of my price range I think as we would like a few. 

https://bigplantpots.co.uk/products/biggie

2. I mainly use a punchcard machine (I had this from new in about 1976) and it works with a width repeat of 24 sts)

3. We usually cross on the ferry on a Friday night not on Wednesday as this year and see it is only open Thursday to Sunday in winter.

4. Kate Davies website.  https://kddandco.com/  Her books are delightful and far more than just books of patterns. 

East Anglian Churches

Norfolk, and East Anglia, has the most amazing collection of Churches, mainly medieval and mainly built on the wealth of wool. History tells us the merchants felt that giving money to the churches, the merchant would be prayed for and have a better after life. 

I live in a small village mentioned in the Doomsday Book and in 2011 having a population of 785. The village church is grade one listed! Going back Carleton Rode had two Churches, although no one knows exactly where the other one was, it was timber I understand. Today the village also has a Baptist Church which is beautifully ornate on the outside. 

There are over 650 Churches in Norfolk - this is the greatest concentration of churches in the world.  Whatever your beliefs visiting  the churches is a great way to glimpse the best of everyday art and hence life in the past. Many East Anglian Churches that are redundant or at risk structurally are cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust who aim to find novel ways of using the churches so as many people can appreciate them as possible. These churches are often open to the public. (1) 

Following the interest  in Sandringham Church I though I would write about Huntingfield  Church which is in Suffolk. (2) 

This is also in a small village and parking is not great but manageable. It has a remarkable ceiling and I thought I had written a post about it but have looked back through this blog and Facebook to no avail. We visited with friends in October 2017. We were just back from Shetland Wool Week and I would have been trying to write my journal from that, then I guess things like making the Christmas Cake got in the way! 

This ceiling is even more spectacular than the one at Sandringham, but then Sandringham does have the silver pulpit, altar etc and ceremonial cross! 

What is even more remarkable is that the ceiling in Beddingfield was painted by the vicar’s wife laying on her back, between September 1859 - April 1860, yes, just 8 months! Apparently after another three years she painted the nave ceiling. There is no record of her having help with the painting! 

I hope you will agree that this is an amazing ceiling and wel worth finding. The church is open 10-4.30 daily (do try and check before visiting) and a toilet has been sympathetically added at the back of the church. 

Notes 

1. The Churches Conservation Trust  has a good website showing which churches they care for. Many have a walk in the local area too. Zoom sessions started on Thursday lunchtimes during lockdown with lectures from experts in their field. These are now available on YouTube. https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/
2. Huntingfield Church can be found at IP19 0PR

Shetland Lace Knitting : ‘joins’ in a mini hap

I have mainly chosen to knit rectangular scarves/ stoles/ shawls. There are several reasons for this but  the three main ones are: more wearable for me; I first saw the very fine lace Unst examples and wanted to recreate these; their construction with invisible joins appealed to me a lot! I also found that as I became more skilled in the construction and techniques I could personalise these by using my own chosen combination of motifs. 

During one wool week I took a mini hap class (outside to inside)  with Donna Smith so I could become more familiar with the construction of a square hap….. I quickly learned that there were many ways of constructing a hap and doing the joins! It took me a long time to get round to finishing this hap. 

I am a firm believer in trying out a technique first, often using larger needles and yarn and then when I am happy with the different techniques I can scale down the yarn and needle size to suit my preferences for something very lacy. Eventually I finished the hap but was not proud of what I had achieved. 

I continued to knit fine lace and more recently use my own naturally dyed yarn for this. Then I became very fortunate, Elizabeth Williamson, daughter of Betsy Williamson from Shetland, moved to Woodbridge and started teaching lace knitting! This has really broadened my horizons as I have knitted in different yarns, learned to knit different shaped shawls, learnt many more Shetland techniques, many that I did not know I did not know and generally had a great time! 

The most recent project we have been doing is a mini  square Shetland lace hap, again outside to inside. Illness got in the way and I needed to wait for the next stage (we are fortunate in meeting with Elizabeth in person, although her workshops can be taken online wherever you are in the world.) It is a very clever and lovely design. I have posted about it here on 15 June  22. 

I decided to return to the hap I had knitted many years ago whilst waiting to finish ‘Elizabeth’s’ hap. I wanted to try different ways of joining the mitres where the wedges meet  and also joining on the sides of the centre to the two wedges (trapezoids). I ignored the outer lace at this stage and just knitted in garter stitch. Some of the wedges I did the decrease on the outer stitches and some one stitch in. I wondered if I could even tell the difference. One wedge would be knitted first,  before the centre and the one opposite would be grafted on. (I love grafting since I have improved my technique due to following methods given for grafting, including two sided lace grafting, by Joni Coniglio documented in some recent  posts here in this blog). 

The other important consideration to me was the holes around the centre of the shawl, I aimed for the holes to be identical and the same number on each side. 

Sample one

Hap  with holes on each side and the garter stitch graft on the side opposite where I started.

In this instance I am happy with either a herringbone stitch or whip stitch join for sides 2 and 3 to the centre 

Sample two 

Knitting another sample to see how slipping the first stitch and then doing a whip stitch join can look. I like the neatness of the holes formed and one to add to my repertoire but not for joining the edges of the centre square when I have already knitted the holes around all 4 sides of the square. 

Sample three 

Bigger and with proper wedges. However, I shaped these by decreasing on every  other row from the start, outer edge, and look how they kick out at the outer edges! This must be why Shetland Hap Knitters often / usually  have some straight rows before starting the decreases to make the mitres! 

Happy with the holes and happy with how I joined on the side wedges by joining  them on as I knitted the centre 

Each wedge forming the mitres is  joined to two other wedges with versions of the Betsy join as I interpreted it in 4 different ways based on Hazel Tindall’s  demonstration in the 50 tips from Shetland Knitters  DVDs which she did with Elizabeth Johnston (3). I was waiting for my personal tuition of the Betsy  join for Elizabeth’s hap, which explained and clarified  the method. (The equivalent wedge joins after my personal tuition are shown in a previous blog post Elizabeth’s  Mini hap)

So onto a much changed version of Donna’s knitted hap from the earlier workshop. 

I used Shetland Supreme 2 ply yarn, which I naturally dyed with Alchemilla and Madder. I used size 3.25mm dpns. 

Image of the modified hap 

This has benefited from workshops and discussions with the following Shetland Lace Knitters ( I hope I have not missed anyone out, apologies if I have): 

Kathleen Anderson 

Anne Eunson 

The late Ina Irvine

Elizabeth Johnston 

Donna Smith 

Betsy Williamson

Elizabeth Williamson 

And also Tessa Lorant for the Buttercup Edging in her book  ‘Lace Edgings’ and Joni Coniglio for enabling me to graft lace invisibly

…..but basically the interpretation is mine and I now have managed to work out a variation of the 2017 Mini Hap that I am happy with. 

Order of construction 

Lace edging knitted first, graft completed the Joni Coniglio method

Stitches picked up along a quarter of the peaks, then board/ wedge knitted including the row of holes and return row

3 more boards  completed by picking up stitches along a quarter of the outer peaks for each one,finishing as the first one. 

Returning to the completed first board the centre is knitted picking up one stitch from boards 2 and then 3 on every other row but finishing 2 rows short. The remaining stitch left from each side board is placed on a separate yarn holder. 

The centre is then grafted to the fourth side board including picking up the remaining  st from the side boards to complete the centre section. 

This leaves four  gaps at the mitres which are closed with herringbone stitch after dressing the hap. I felt the herringbone stitch complimented the Buttercup Edging of the lace border.

At last I feel I understand how I can knit a full sized hap, the many alternatives for knitting an outside-in hap and the effect of the different choices made. Planning and making swatches of the motifs and techniques payed off for me. I like to fully understand and be in control of all that goes on in making a knitted item. Perhaps the late Elizabeth Zimmerman should be added to my list above. She certainly encourages this approach! 

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