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