Shetland Autumn 2023 Day 7, Friday Sept 8th: Whalsay

This was our first proper day, ie it was a trip to Whalsay to the Heritage Centre to see the knitwear display in particular, so proper in that it was knitwear focused! Since I have been coming to Whalsay I have enjoyed the display of local knitwear tremendously. 

We had booked the ferry for 11.15 and were so pleased as it was another glorious sunny day and the sea looked calm! We have had some interesting journeys on the ferry to Whalsay! 

Leaving Laxo

As we arrived a hearse arrived and several of the funeral party were crossing as foot passengers. This was a reminder of how different life is when travel between the islands is ‘normal’. We felt very much intruders in their day of grief. 

We had planned to drive away from the ferry and find a spot for lunch before the Heritage Centre opened in the afternoon. We drove towards Ibister and stopped at the Youth  Centre where we had been on our first visit. 

View for lunch

Surrounding area 

When we were here previously there was a tea which just about fitted in before we went back of the ferry.   I had been to a ‘use a knitting belt and knitting fair isle in the round with only 3 needles  class’ with Amanda Pottinger and Janet many years ago now. (I have looked this up, it was 2017). It was a super class and definitely worth travelling to Whalsay for. I still use the fair isle pouch that I made for my Filofax! The class converted me to knitting in the round, including a yoked jumper,  with the stitches just on two needles! 

Filofax pouch with hand spun mixed purple colours yarn

We were at the Heritage Centre  soon after 14.00 and I was really pleased to see that Linda Shearer was ‘on duty’ during the afternoon. She told me that Britta and Wilma were coming over during the afternoon. I had a good chat with Linda and later with Britta and Wilma too. It was great to have a long session both looking at the knitwear and the folders of samples, newspaper cuttings etc that were  also available to study during the afternoon. 

 Several lace cardigans to examine and underneath this one is some lace knitted by Linda’s mother, Ina Irvine, a beautifully fine lace spinner and knitter who is sadly no longer with us. This one was a duplicate of one knit for the Queen of Norway.

An unexpected delight was to see the items that were knitted by the designers who had the patterns in the Shetland Wool Week Annual for 2022. Due to illness I had not been able to see these last year so it was great to be able to get up close to them this year.

This is from one of the folders, a 1930’s waistcoat with 19 different patterns. 

To me this is what  a trip to Shetland is about - about seeing how Shetland lace and fair isle were  knit in the past. Total immersion in knitwear for the afternoon. 

We caught the 16.15 ferry back. The sun was still out and it was a glorious drive back to Scalloway. I tried to take a photo from the motorhome showing the wind farm pylons. The windscreen should have been cleaned first! It is impossible to give a scale for these. I did look up the height and believe this to be 155m and there are 103 of them. They can be seen from most places on mainland as well as from Whalsay. 

It had been beautifully sunny all day. As we were getting out of the motorhome at the campsite, which must of been closer to 17.15 I noticed the outside temperature was 23C. This was unreal for us to experience in Shetland in September! 

What a great day it had been. 

Shetland Autumn 2023, Day 6 Thurs Sept 7th Arriving in Shetland

When we looked out of the cabin window all we could see was fog, but this was better than rain and could  signal good weather for later in the day. As we were having breakfast we noticed the pilot boat come along the ferry and transfer the pilot. This was the first time we had seen this, so quite exciting. We then realised we were going into Lerwick from the top end, which might have been the reason with the fog for the pilot. 

We had a nice breakfast on the boat and got off the boat swiftly- being nearly last on we were nearly first off. We used to go to Tesco for an essentials shop but more latterly have found the Co-op to be better in virtually all respects. It’s also only just down from the ferry. The first job though was to book our inter island ferry journeys when booking opened. As it seemed calm we were going to Whalsay tomorrow and see the exhibition in the Heritage Centre there. Then there was the return trip to Unst to book. All done swiftly and efficiently. 

We had checked the cruise ship timetable and it looked as if we would be able to park on the pier and have a leisurely morning in Lerwick before driving to out campsite for the next few nights. It was still Misty and the fog had not lifted to give a cloud free day. 

First stop was the Dowry for coffee, it felt good to be back and the year between visits seemed to disappear. Then it was time to walk up the Main Street, we walked along snd looked at the C’est la Vie menu, we had lunch there last year and were delighted with the meal. This year we will fit in dinner…soon! I pottered back slowly, calling in the Red Cross Charity shop and pleased to see a great cookery book. I am eating even more wholefood as I continue with my Zoe personalised nutrition  plan (1) and am always on the look out for ideas. 

Guilt Free Gourmet by Jordan and Jessica Bourke

Paying for this led to another spinning and natural dyeing conversation with the sales assistant as I was wearing my initial pair of  fingerless gloves. She was very interested in learning more about natural dyeing and happy to recommend Bunchy’s book to her, particularly as Bunchy is living in Shetland and so knows the local conditions. She has been generous in her knowledge in the book and it is a book a beginner can learn from and I feel get good results. 

Bunchy’s book.

Then it was on to the Shetland Bookshop and I can usually pick up some books to be put away for Christmas. It looks this year as though I already have the ones I might like! Note to self to come back later in the our time here. I did choose a nice tin though and an essential propelling pencil as I could not find my spare! 

Onto Tourist Information, I was looking for some special cards but nothing really took my eye. I did go for some thin socks, I have plenty of thicker hand knit ones with me which are super warm but these sheep ones took my eye. (In hindsight the sheep look to have odd proportions, but I guess not much of them will be seen) 

Thin sheep socks

( I do own  a sock knitting machine and when I goes home I need to spend some days cranking out pairs! If all goes well a pair in 2 hours is easily achievable). 

One more shop was a must. Shetland is the place to buy decent boots and the shop for those is Beggs. I bought a delightful green pair last year and this year I am hoping to get a more heavy duty black lace up pair as my ones that I have had since about 2006 are past their best! Even having some strict criteria I had a choice and they had my size. The assistants are very helpful, knowledgeable and understanding. So I was not disappointed. 

Beggs getting ready for wool week

So then on to the library. It was suggested to me that I would be able to borrow books from the library on a temporary ticket as we were in Shetland for some time. This was true, the library staff, like the staff at home in Norfolk, were super helpful and I was able to take out 5 books. It is a super library and there is a whole room devoted to Shetland books, some are multiple copies, and there is another section devoted to non Shetland textile books too. Being able to use the library was a super treat. 

Having made ourselves lunch we decided we could go and find our campsite, for the first time we were going to the new campsite in Scalloway. This was more expensive than our other campsites and we had to pay all of the fee some weeks in advance. (Always a bit of a concern given our health conditions, but understandable). As we drove over to the campsite at Scalloway we left the damp mist conditions in Lerwick and arrived in glorious sunshine. We were met by the warden and very pleased we had booked here, the position was super and of course all the facilities were new. A caravan had arrived on the ferry with us but none of the other motorhomes were here. 

We were staying here until we went up to Unst on Tuesday. 

View of our  parking spot 

We were glad to have arrived ‘proper ‘ in Shetland and enjoyed tea, cake and for me reading of some of the library books. 

1. I had a shock last year when I was told, from a routine health review, that I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure and was pre diabetic. Also, as my father had died at 50 due to a heart condition I was labelled ‘at risk’ and had more contact with the GP surgery in a week than I had done for years. Anyone who knows me well, know I am petite and slim! I agreed to go on to the minimum statin dose (also strongly advised to do this by Dr son!) I was already interested in the Zoe programme, having suffered from digestive problems for years following severe food poisoning. So this added concern persuaded me to join the programme and in the meantime I read every library book I could get on being pre diabetic!