Shetland Autumn 2023 Day 12: Wed Sept 13: Fine yarn at Unst Heritage Centre and Norwick Beach

 

It was the coldest morning we had experienced since last winter! It was 6C outside but fortunately the motorhome is well insulated and we carry a radiator which we have on at night when needed. This is the most northern island after all. 

It was going to be a special day as some of the Knitting and  Spinning ladies were meeting with me at the Heritage Centre. 

Before then we hoped to visit some favourite  spots and have lunch at Victoria’s Tea Rooms. The first stop was Baltasound and I had a 100th birthday card to post for a friend back home, I thought it would be good to get the special stamp from the most northerly post office. 

The view from the post office, so ‘atmospheric’! 

Unfortunately the post office was closed due to illness, and the next day too….so the card might get the special stamp but would be late! Never mind technology came to the rescue and I could wish her happy birthday by email and the card would arrive sometime. (1)

We thought we would have coffee at the Final Checkout as we imagined this accompanied by a bacon roll! However a mini bus was emptying thinking the same as us so we abandoned that for today and drove on to Victoria’s for coffee… and spectacular cake. 

It was getting out to be a lovely day. 

The view from the tea rooms. 

Not unsurprisingly the tea rooms,or rather the parking was getting parked up. So we decided to stay parked there for our early lunch. Michael enjoys bird watching there and I could easily admire the view and actually get some knitting done. 

The ladies had asked me to bring some natural dyeing and would I have my (Ashford ) e spinner with me as I did last year. Pre  covid I have done some practical natural dyeing with the ladies - you can see this in posts from pre covid wool weeks eg 8 Dec 2019

I had also brought my digital microscope so we could investigate some of the finer spun yarns. 

Betsy Williamson had travelled up for the afternoon, I think from Fetlar and Helen Hart had caught the ferry up from Yell. I was so very pleased that Helen has won the best fleece in Yell show and quite overcome when she gave me some to take home (2). I have since measured the diameter of individual fibres but still considering what to knit with this special fleece. 

It was so lovely to have so many experienced spinners and knitters in the room and the 2 hours wasn’t long enough! 

We started by looking at the natural dyed yarns, including the box of solar dyed ones (post of 5 Feb 2024). I got the e spinner out for anyone to have go at that, as a little queue formed and then the digital microscope that  we could look at, and measure, the width of any yarn supplied. I had my laptop so we got a decent sized view from the microscope. 

Betsy had brought some of her fine spinning from her camel and silk mix so we started off looking at this. 

and the one ply

I know it was fine, but this was 2 ply so more careful mounting of the fibre gave us 1 ply. I recorded the widths but did not stop to do the sums as we wanted to look at all we could. Gasps of delight at the singles. Betsy is a very fine Shetland spinner and she had the ability to spin and talk and also has that special skill, Shetland lace spinners have, of adding just enough twist to hold it together whilst maintaining the full integrity of the yarns. This was very noticeable when we used the microscope. We used two magnifications, a roughly 50 and 200, although I obviously record the exact magnification. As we were looking in awe at this Betsy announced she had some more in her bag which she thought might be even finer….. well our time ran out! 

I think we had all had a very enjoyable afternoon. I had only looked briefly at the items on display in the room we were in and I did not get into the actual room of the lace on display! I did notice a super square hap that Hazel Laurenson  is working on to make the chart pattern to add to the Unst Heritage Centre Collection, so watch this space for that pattern. 

I did notice the actual deckchair that Helen Robertson knitted whilst doing her marathan knit there. There was a video of this that I watched quite a bit of, but did not manage the whole 12 hours. (3)

The  deckchair

Baby items on display in the meeting room. Apologies for the photo, the sun was out and I had to stand at an angle to reduce the reflection. On balance I decided to include it! 

Betsy’s lace turned out when I measured it to be very very fine. I recalibrated the microscope using my industry standard micrometer to check I had not got the scale wrong.  But no, it was correct! These measurements belong to Betsy so I am not going to share them here, but I hope during the year we can make a post about these. The beginning of 2024 has been rather disrupted for both of us. 

I did arrange to go back to the museum in the morning and work with Minnie on measuring some more yarns. 

The weather was stunning and as Michael picked me up we decided to go to Norwick beach to make ourselves tea and cake and enjoy the view. The light was not great for photography being very sunny but these are some pictures from there. 

Part of the beach, which changes each year

Shells, I don’t think I ever seen so many tiny perfect shells

… and some wonderfully inspirational textures in the beach which can inspire some Japanese type knitting 

Note

1. Actually the post can be very quick from Shetland. I had a book, A year in My Shetland Garden by Misa Hay, sent  home after I left and this may sound unbelievable but I received it the next day. This is much quicker than receiving local post! The book is brilliant and I highly recommend it if you are into ‘more natural’ food. 
2. I had taken some carded batt home with me when we were with Helen in Sept 2022, and spun this up. It was gorgeous yarn and I was able to spin it very finely. I tried to convince Helen that it came from a very good fleece then. So when I heard her news about the show I was delighted but not complete surprised. I remember Oliver Henry saying during one of his talks that I have attended that very fine fleece can come from Yell sheep. 
3. Try this link to get a you tube video of Helen’s 24 hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_gDCLL6QF0