Shetland Wool Week trip 2022: Tues 13 Sept

No rain today, but wind! When I looked at 6.00, my phone warned me of major disruption due to gales, but we hoped (and as it turned out were correct) this would not affect the plans to go up to Unst. This was to be a leisurely day and I hoped to find time to use my Ashford Electric Spinner which I had brought with me for the first time. (1) 

The ferry from Toft was booked for 10.45, so on the way up we were able to stop off at Brae. We didn’t try the Brae hotel for coffee, although this does look worth a try, but instead went into Brae Co-op which in our view is a super shop. We stocked up on pastries and enjoyed the coffee and hot chocolate (me) that we made in the Motorhome to have with these.

I had brought some natural dyeing and wool related items with me which I was going to gift. I was going to Unst Heritage Centre to have an afternoon with the Knitting and Spinning ladies tomorrow, so more gifting, and hence more space in the Motorhome for purchases. 

One of these being a bag of Lincoln Longwool locks that I had bought from Rigby Lincoln Longwools. I wanted to spin some fine to add to my complement of fine spun fleece types and  also to add some details of the fleece and the history of the breed to go in the ‘gifting bag’. 

Lincoln Longwool fleece unwashed 

The staple was advertised as ‘at least’ 10” inches long but the locks here were longer than that, 15” (38 cm)! 

I had washed some for myself previously and spun fine yarn with it. This is one of the skeins. A thing of beauty, so lustrous, from locks so full of lanolin. It is always a pleasure when I can start with the fleece, produce the yarn, and then as added bonus natural dye it and knit with it. But all time consuming!(2)

A spun skein, 2 ply. Singles 125 wpi (wraps per inch) NM 2/23

I was also going to take the Ashford Electric Spinner for the Unst ladies to try if they wished, so hoped that when we got to the campsite I would have time to check the e-spinner had survived the journey so far. For me this was late preparation! 

So we progressed to Toft and onto Yell and drove through to Gutcher to wait for the ferry to Belmont in Unst. (For interest in autumn 2022, the return fare was £21.70 for our motorhome). 

Arriving in Unst, Belmont House now a private property

I thought these were for the space centre, but I was informed by a local crofter they are in fact for the wave energy project around the islands of Yell and Unst. 

We drove straight to Uyeasound where we would stay overlooking the sea. What’s not to love about this place! 

There was one caravan parked there, so we parked up and proceeded to get lunch. The facilities had been renovated and now included 2 showers, with hot water, new washbasins etc. but no heat. We have a shower in the motorhome that will be warmer! This year for the first time we would not be able to use the facilities of the Gardiesfauld hostel due to covid restrictions. We had always enjoyed meeting and chatting to the many people who stayed there. At this time of year many would be ‘birders’. Also we got good Wi-Fi reception there, this year only my phone, Vodaphone, appeared to be working, ie no Three reception. I can understand why the hostel was only available as a ‘book the whole hostel’ but felt it would be have a serious effect on the income of the island businesses. One of the challenges of such a remote life, try and keep Covid at bay but still be able to maintain an income. I hoped as Covid becomes less of a concern in the future, the hostel will become a vibrant part of life in the island again. 

Looking one way from our parking spot

And the other way - taken at the same time! 

We decided to leave driving around some of our favourite spots in the island for another day. We had a couple of busy days ahead of us. I got out the electric spinner, which was working just as well as when I packed it away and settled down for a full afternoon of fine lace spinning in one of the most beautiful places. Bliss. It was so good to be back. Sitting looking over the sea we were blessed with great views of a little plover on the beach and a red breasted merganser in the sea. 

1. I use a rechargeable Talentcell (model YB 1206000 -USB ) which I find excellent and lasts for a long time between recharges. It was a bit of a fuss when it arrived as the rubber on the lead going into the back of the spinner was too wide, ie the hole made by Ashford was too narrow. I needed help from a knowledgeable friend to know which lead I needed to buy to go through the hole. When you know what you are looking for it can be found on a well known online auction site. I made sure I labelled the ends of the leads carefully! 
2. To spin 2.5 g this fine takes me two evenings, that is 1 ply of this skein. I have not added up the other processes. You can see why in Shetland at the height of the fine knitting era, often the knitter was not the spinner and the end product was a family affair. 
3. This gives some additional information https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2022/02/16/its-clean-its-predictable-and-its-invisible/

Shetland Wool Week trip: Mon 12 Sept 2022

It was a very wet night, it was great to see real rain again, as we had been in virtual drought conditions for months back home. However, it turned out to be a nice day and the next day we would be moving to a Unst for a week so  decided to do a food and wool shop today! We started off by having a bacon bap in Mackenzies, highly recommended and then drove into Lerwick for some supplies.

Driving into Lerwick, wonderful views. (Michael was driving, this is a quick snap with my phone)

 Today we chose the Co-op, rather than Tesco and were not disappointed. A good choice and the general ambience felt better to me. Tesco seems to be catering for families with lots of members or people with a large freezer. I can understand this but for 2 of us in the motorhome we had a wider choice in the Co-op as we could buy smaller packs.

Next stop was Jamieson and Smith. It was great to be in there when it was not too busy. The shop has had a substantial makeover and felt quite different. It was very spacious and it was great to be surrounded by so much wool, patterns and books. A true delight. On top of this Michael found a plain jumper in a sky blue colour that would be thinner than his fair Isle ones. So after seeming to try on every jumper of that colour in the shop a suitable size was found. I bought some yarn, including a cone of 2ply supreme which I enjoyed knitting my sample shawl shapes, in my Elizabeth Williamson workshops with. By buying a natural colour I can naturally dye the amount I need using plants from the garden mainly. This yarn has taken the dye well and shown no problems with felting. (I am an avid watcher of indie dyers yarn and notice this is not always the case!) I also included a pattern for ‘houss’ socks in a traditional design. I have been going to a Podiatrist  and found that wearing Houss socks aids the mobility of my toe joints rather than wearing former slippers every day. 

Houss socks from Jamieson and Smith

The plan was to have lunch in Hay’s Dock, but I had forgotten that the Museum and thus the cafe is closed on a Monday. We decided  to drive back into town. 

View from the Pier showing the Bressay ferry (and what a wonderful day it was)

We then found, as it was not wool week that The Peerie Cafe and The Dowry were also closed. In fact as it turned out we were pleased about this as we had never eaten in The French Restaurant called C’est La Vie. The whole experience was delightful, the food, the service, the ambience. How had we been coming to Shetland all that time without visiting this restaurant. It would not be our last visit. Following this there  was another treat, this time in Beggs. They have a fantastic selection of boots and I choose a delightful green pair which would match exactly my Harris Tweed green skirt. I looked forward to wearing them together during the winter. ( in fact this never happened, as I lost a substantial amount of weight and now 4 months later think I must make the skirt smaller as I have managed to stabilise my weight but at several kilos lighter). 

The boots and the skirt

After a nice pottering around day we made our way back to the campsite, such a lovely day here now. 

View of Marina 

We cooked chicken for dinner as we would take the rest with us to Unst, where we were travelling tomorrow., having booked the ferry from mainland at 10.15. We were very much looking forward to going to Unst, we love the island and had missed it for the last couple of years. We would be coming back to stay here after our stay in Unst. 

A wonderful reflection at sunset from the campsite, taken at 19.30

Shetland Wool Week visit 2022, day 3 : A chance to catch up with some lace knitting

We had seemed to be very busy every day on what was planned as a holiday.  We were glad to have a morning with nothing in the diary. 

It was great being in the motorhome but we have chosen not to have a TV in there and so we’re missing the 24/7 news about the arrangements for what was happening following the death of the Queen. We subscribe to an online newspaper so it was a chance to have a brief catch up on the news. It seemed  that the Queen’s body had followed the route  we drove along a few days earlier as we travelled to Aberdeen,  and which we know quite well. 

However for me, a ‘free’ morning meant more design work on the fine lace knitting project I had brought with me. The light would be good and it was likely I would not fall asleep doing this. I am at the stage of knitting a sample of the differnet parts of a fine lace cowl to see how they work together and  other important things such as drape. I will also be able, once it is washed and blocked to check on the number of design repeats  both width wise and height wise. I had more or less done this by estimation with previous patterns but there is nothing like measurements of the real thing, in the correct thickness (or in this case thinness) of the yarn. 

I had drawn  out the chart in StitchMastery, and this knitting was also a chance to check I had no errors in the chart. I had brought the actual yarn I would use with me, although as it turned out that was being rather optimistic. 

The yarn I will use- Jamieson and Smith cobweb yarn in optic white. For the cowl I have naturally dyed this with golden rod and over dyed with madder. The colour on the left. The colour on the right was used for the first lace cowl in this series and the middle colour is from the golden rod, where the outer two started, so to speak. 

I realised that in my head I had planned to add the lace edging in one to the adjacent section by knitting it on, as I had done in the mini circular shawl / doily that I had done in workshops with Elizabeth Williamson (1). 

Mini  circular shawl with the edging knitted on. 

However, there in was a problem. I had not brought the instructions with me and that one was a paper pattern. However, the wonders of technology came to my aid, a quick message to Elizabeth and she sent an electronic copy of the pattern and I could continue the design testing. This was very much appreciated. 

This sample has trials of different techniques for the lace cowl. You can see the two insert variations I tried out, also attaching the edging being trialled. I try never to start a project without all the planning done and techniques trialled. It is knit in the same yarn as I have dyed for the cowl. 

We had been invited to go to Anne Eunson’s this afternoon and this would be a great opportunity to chat to a fine spinner, fine lace designer and  knitter! Anne is certainly part of the Shetland Knitting ‘Royalty’ in my mind and certainly has this in her genes. Besides this we also share ‘machine knitting’ and in the past have shared time doing just this. We hoped to do some natural dyeing together but that will not happen on this trip, although I did take Anne some Dyers’s Greenweed from the garden back home. It was great to sit with Anne and talk about lace knitting, she had extended her knitted fence and I see has just added a further arch to it. Her creativity is beyond measure. I didn’t  take a photo of that but it is stunning. 

This is her Fethaland Shawl that I have knitted from the Shetland Wool Work annual 2021

Anne was currently working on a shawl in an exquisite colour and yarn on very fine needles. It will eventually be in her Ravelry shop. (2) 

We were there  many hours and enjoyed her wonderful hospitality. Another great day. We would be meeting again before we left later in the month. 

1. Elizabeth is a Shetland designer born and brought up in Shetland. She designs lots of great lace knitting patterns and runs online workshops teaching Shetland lace knitting techniques, find out more at  https://www.elizabethwilliamsonknitting.co.uk  and on Ravelry at https://www.ravelry.com/designers/elizabeth-williamson
2. Anne has run workshops, including some with her sister Kathleen Anderson, for wool week. She also has patterns published in previous copies of the Wool Week Annual, you can see more about my version of the Fethaland shawl on this blog of http://imagejem.blogspot.com/2022/06/fethaland-shawl.html    Her Ravelry account is https://www.ravelry.com/designers/anne-eunson-designs

Shetland Fine Lace Cowl 2

Fine Shetland lace cowl ready to wear

This is as authentic as I, a Shetland lover living in Norfolk England can make it. I have designed the structure of the cowl, based on the ones I machine knit. (1) 

I have machine knit several of these and have them in colours to match all my different outfits. They are technically a challenge to knit as the yarn is very fine, 40wpi approximately. ( 2) 

The yarn used: 

Full concentration is needs for all of the machine knitting time.They are knit in synthetic yarn, which I ‘kill’ as part of the finishing process but they give a super drape and I wear them throughout the year. ( 3)

My first fine hand knit Shetland cowl was inspired by these characteristic cowls of mine, was this one. 

moss green one, see the link below for more details. 

What do I mean when I say it is ‘authentic’ ? I have used individual motifs in the cowl from Shetland, particularly from Unst that have been charted by Hazel Laurensen. Hazel lives in Unst and her and other knitters and spinners of the island meet at the Heritage Centre there and do all they can to raise the profile of the rich heritage of fine lace knitting in the island. Some years ago I took an advanced lace knitting class with Hazel during a wool week and try and meet up with these ladies when we are in Shetland. Do look at this website which will give you some idea of the wonderful items they have there and the patterns that are available to purchase. (4) 

So most of the motifs are from Unst. I also used 2 techniques taught to me by Elizabeth Williamson (5) the Betsy join and knitting on an edging. She is a Shetlander by birth and comes from a long line of Shetland Knitters, she gives online classes where she is actually there in the class with you. So the joining techniques are authentic Shetland.

The yarn I used is Jamieson and Smith 1 ply cobweb. (6) It is strong enough to go through the vigours of my natural dyeing and when dressed gives a wonderful lace structure which shows the design so well. If you follow me you will know I usually dye my yarn with using plants from my garden and surrounding area. This one is no exception and I used golden rod, in the early stages of the plant coming into flower with a madder overdye. Originally the colour was devised to match a Harris Tweed from Harris skirt that I made but I can see it being worn with lots of other items. 

Finished weight is 22g. 

So some more photos of the cowl. 

Dressing- I had fastened off most of the threads, there were only a few. But not cut them off until after the dressing. This spent about 3 weeks on the board. 

The edging was knitted on, the join is between the insertion and the edging. I am very pleased with this technique

Waiting for the Betsy join

More detail of the motifs I used

Betsy join about to happen, it will be up the centre back and invisible but it deserves  a super join. 

Completed Betsy join, well worth learning as it is so delicate

Completed cowl on my body duplicate as it will be worn. I absolutely love how this has worked out and it ‘sits’ very well around the neck. 

So all in all this is as authentic ‘Shetland’ as I can get for someone who is not a native! I hope it shows how  much I value the skills, techniques and yarns of Shetland and it’s spinners and knitters and hope that by supporting the tradition in this way it can continue, evolve and be appreciated. Thank you Shetland and all who help me on my journey, you know who you are. 

I will be asked if there is going to be a pattern, I always say no but I might say yes this time! 

Notes

1. I showed examples of my machine knit ones and the previous design for the similar but constructed differently olive lace cowl in this post http://imagejem.blogspot.com/2022/01/
2. Please email fleecelovedproducts@gmail.com for availability of this super gauge. The other side is for cobweb yarns. The crepe nature of the yarn which you can see is why I say ‘approximately’.
3. ‘Killing’ this synthetic crepe is a well known technique to machine knitters, it involves steam and patience. 
4. Unst Heritage Centre http://www.unstheritage.com/web/unst-heritage-centre/
5. Elizabeth Williamson knitting https://www.elizabethwilliamsonknitting.co.uk
6. Jamieson and Smith https://www.shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk