Monday 5 December 2022

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…..