Friday October 10 th Another Leisurely Day

This is my second attempt at having a leisurely day. We were very late back last night but unfortunately my body doesn't 'do' lie ins! Without food in the system I have a migraine which is not good news for anybody.
The plan for today was to look round the Textile Unit at the college in the morning and go to Oliver's talk on Fleece Grading in the afternoon at Jamieson and Smith. Wool and fleece buying will take place on Monday not today.
So after as leisurely start as we dared we stopped at Tesco and what a surprise I am on the front page of the Shetland Times (small photo) and inside ( bigger photo) going into the opening ceremony for Wool Week. What a treat!
You can just spot my hat - right in the middle - see my blog post of Sept 24th 2014 to see the completed hat and earlier posts  to see the story of the hat from the spinning, through the dyeing!

So on to the textile unit (actually called the Textile Facilitation Unit).  Wow this is something special. I had a detailed tour by Eric Stewart the technician who runs it showing me the different gauge machines ( 5,7 and 12 gauge Shima Seiki) and the linkers. Even washing and drying can be performed. He explained how the service is used by students, by graduates as they leave and also by many knitters on the islands and how when space permits by machine knitters elsewhere. I met the new assistant ( Roisin Mcatamney) and there is now a Facebook page for the unit. It was very interesting. I was also able to have a tour of the facilities available to students at the college, imagine  having your own knitting machine and looms during your degree, complexity depending on the year of your course- in such an amazing setting on such an amazing island...... envy! I was so glad I got to  I get to look round this unit.

Then it was back to the Hub and a chance to work out exactly where the Sunday tea & exhibition with Shetland Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers was on Sunday and then onto to Hay's Dock Restaurant and a bowl of delightful soup for lunch.

Jane (Ennis) was travelling up from London, we'd not met but been in touch via fb for some time over coming to Wool Week. She'd had a number of misfortunes and was only able to make a flying visit, spending more time travelling then being here virtually! We will try and meet while she is at Wool Week! She was now on her journey.

So off to Oliver's grading and sorting fleece talk. This talk is worthy of a post of its own! If you are into fleece then this talk should be on your must do list! It has to be experienced and can't really be described. It was a brilliant way to spend an afternoon and Oliver is a true professional and at the very top of his game. I count myself very fortunate as I was one of the 'artisans' who has also been round the plant and spent a day listening to Martin Curtis and his passion for wool in Bradford. I am a Real Shetland person! The talk was well attended and there was much buying of wool and fleece to be taken home around the world which was great, my treat will come on Monday when M and I return to stock up before we catch the ferry back. It was very hard not to join in the buying though.

Oliver grading the fleece, in one of the 'sheds', the one nearer to me is the better grade fleece.

Then we felt we needed a cup of tea before returning back to our base and we just happened to bump into Barbara Ridland again which was super as we wanted a real chat before leaving Shetland. So we managed a second cup of tea and more cake at Mareel the fantastic home of film on the waterfront and were able to have a leisurely catch up with Barbara who hinted that Elizabeth would like a similar chat before I left too. That would be nice as Monday's workshop was too intense for a real chat, so thinking caps were put on of how to achieve this in the remaining days! I am beginning to feel sad all this talk about last meetings reminds us that we will soon be leaving this beautiful place. However, we hope to return possibly for longer in 2015.

Thursday October 9th The Book Launch at Unst Heritage Centre

There was going to be a book launch at the Unst Heritage Centre at 12.30. So we had a fairly leisurely start. Victoria was going to open a pop up tea room in the Community Hall opposite and we hoped to have lunch there if M could check there was something I could eat and then we were booked on the ferry back to mainland.  We were booked for dinner at Hay's Dock  Restaurant and then I had a lecture in the Museum and then back down to Levenwick for sleeping for the evening. So the day was going to be busy after this leisurely start.
The museum wasn't opening until 11.00 or so but there were rumours that several were travelling up from mainland for the launch of the book - we had a sneak preview the day before as we were on the course but I was waiting for the launch to get a copy. There were special little packs with sample yarn in for the first 30 on the day and I fancied having one of these as a special memento of the occasion. This I achieved so it is very special to me.
So as the Museum opened I went in and enjoyed looking at the knitwear collection again and M chatted to Victoria about lunch and enjoyed a coffee and after the 'Unst ladies' had got their special collection of knitwear out I sat and chatted to them.
This was nice as I had spun and knitted with some of them on a previous visit and it was also a chance to talk to Hazel about yesterday and show her some of my fine spinning as well as admire some more of her amazing shawls, scarves and knitwear in general.  It turned out that Hazel had documented and devised the patterns from the original lace for the booklet of patterns and put together the Burrafirth Scarf pattern for the launch. Awesome in the true meaning of the word. By the time of the launch there was quite a crowd at the Centre. A truly wonderful sight. Rhoda explained how the book came about and introduced the 3 knitters from the late 1800's featured briefly in the booklet and how the current knitters had double checked the patterns drawn up by Hazel. These wonderful ladies give freely of their time and considerable expertise to help keep the Unst Heritage Centre open and pass on the tradition of this fine Unst lace.  
(* the booklet & pattern mentioned as well as many others are available for sale from Unst Heritage Centre)
It was a lovely event and I was so pleased to be able to be part of it.

Then it was off to Victoria's pop up tea rooms for a delightful lunch - lentil and vegetable soup which was super with vintage crockery etc. so then goodbye to Unst for another year, but we had managed two visits this year so were feeling spoilt.

We had booked dinner at Hay's Dock Restaurant and this was rather special too, the menu was printed on special wool week paper with a watermark of fair isle,  What was (is!) super about Hay's Dock Restaurant was that me being wheat, dairy and gluten free did not phase them at all - I felt a normal human! So I ate my meal fairly swiftly to get to the lecture for 7.00 and Michael's aim was to go slowly and sit and put in as much time as possible as I did not finish until 9.30.
After an introduction by Carol Christiansen, Curator of the Shetland Museum the evening was shared between Stella Ruhe giving a wonderful detailed research talk about Gansey knitting in the Netherlands and Hazel Tindall, Shetland Wool Week Patron similarly talking about knitting in the 1960s. Hazel provided a detailed insight into knitting of her own mother. It was a fascinating evening. As I sat and enjoyed these speakers in a full lecture theatre I realised I had a lady from New Zealand on one side of me and a lady from Israel on the other. It is this international flavour that adds to wool week to make it so special.

We each added a tag to the map to show where we came from. This photo gives some indication but the tags are not showing up too well! South Africa has a tag for example!

As I met up with Michael and we drove down to Levenwick and bed, I reflected on yet another brilliant day and how fortunate I was to be able to be part of Shetland Wool Week. But it wasn't over yet, I had event planned up to and including Sunday and we weren't leaving until the ferry on Monday evening.

Wednesday October 8 th Lace Knitting Workshop Unst

I was so lucky to be on this workshop as there were only 4 places available. This was the first workshop we booked up for wool week and arranged the rest of my wool week experience around it! So the 4 of us were Dorothy ( from Alaska I think), Marie ( from Yorkshire), who is big into Ravelry , Netta ( from Israel who I had met at the hub and lent my spinning wheel to o she could learn spinning ) and myself. Hazel was to be our Tutor we were using one of the amazing display rooms in the Heritage Museum at Unst - but it was a bit chilly. This was improved when Rhoda turned up with the key to the room with extra heating. There was another larger class taking place doing a cockleshell scarf but this class was starting later than ours – not such a complicated day!

It was a very intense day and quite hard for me - usually I need a day to recover from such a bad migraine so I was a bit slow to get going - but I kept plodding on and was not going to be defeated! Hazel began by showing us a selection of her amazing scarves, all neatly rolled to preserve them. Different sections of the scarves were discussed with pointers to designs. This led to how to read charts, planning designs, sample knitting, grafting and dressing the scarf. Then it was our turn to do it! Much concentration and with grateful thanks to Hazel we all went home delighted that we had learnt so much in the day. This post cannot convey the pleasure I personally had on that day, we had a choice of yarn, design and all the help we could possibly have wanted from one of the very best designers and knitters of Unst lace there is.
My lace edging from the day

I needed a fairly swift turn round as Michael and I had another event that day! At 7.30 there was a talk at Belmont House which we were looking forward to. Belmont House is a sumptuous place and if you ever get to Unst and want to stay somewhere super this would be it! As it turned out the talk was by Minnie Mouat with an addition by Rhona (both were at the Heritage Centre during the day and Minnie and I correspond! ) It was fascinating. Minnie talked about the History of sheep, wool and products in Unst and Rhona talked about her mother's collection of fair isle knitting and particular a Fair Isle cardigan that she has replicated. This is absolutely stunning and the actual fair isle section, which is rather usual is available on a card at the Heritage Centre.
This Wednesday goes down as one of the all time great days in my life!
A beautiful sunset to round off the day (about 4pm.)

Tuesday October 7th Migraine in Shetland!

I guess it was inevitable that after such an action packed day yesterday I would wake with a very bad migraine. ( I was suffering from chronic migraine and just so pleased I had managed to get to Shetland). So decisions had to be taken and reluctantly we had to cancel our tour of the organic croft  Uradale while I took my medication and waited. We needed to travel up to Unst during the day ready for the highlight of my trip the Lace Knitting workshop on Wednesday. Michael drove us up , I can't remember much about the day other than it was less windy than yesterday. When we arrived at Gardiesfauld Youth Hostel the weather was good and I decided to take more seaweed photos and to try and clear my head by walking along the beach. We had company, Sally Anthill and Michael (from Brampton) were camping also. All attempts at getting rid of my migraine had failed - sleeping, eating, fresh air, lesser painkillers so I went to bed early with a triptan and fingers crossed for tomorrow. Unst is too nice a place to have a migraine!Seaweed that will be inspiration for yarn or weaving - or both

Monday 6th October: A leisurely day?

The gap in posting has been much longer than I ever planned. We are now safely relocated to Norfolk. My textile resources are mainly still packed but secure in one of their two fantastic new workspaces. The real bugbear is that I have been struck by this pesky virus/ chest infection that had a go at me before we moved and has just come back for the third time - this time putting me in bed for a full week. So everything here is slow. Enough of that, I am now attempting to finish the Shetland Wool Week Journal!

I had planned for a leisurely day during the Monday of Wool Week (October 6^th) as I had managed to fix up a late booking for a workshop for the evening. I started off by going into Joanna Hunter's shop (Ninian, 80 Commercial St) in Lerwick and into her back room and seeing where she designs her jumpers etc. She has a couple of electronic Brothers for doing samples etc and had a wonderful array of coloured cones. It was great to see some of her design boards and hear how her work is knitted at the college, being transferred on disc. Joanne highly recommended a visit to the college.
On next to the Hub, to be accosted by a lady (Lucy) saying "I met you a couple of years ago when my boat broke down in Unst and we knitted together " this just sums up Wool Week. Lucy was now back with a whole group from Kent.
I was keen to see Margaret Peterson. When I was last in Shetland, she had kindly given me a lesson to help improve my fine spinning. She was finishing a lesson at the Museum after lunch and I thought she would like to see how I had progressed. It was lovely to see her again - and yes she was very complimentary about my progress and was keen for her current class to see what they could aspire too.

Some of my fine Shetland spinning-

The yarn is about 1/6mm diameter - I cannot find my accurate micrometer scale to measure it at the moment - apologies in a box somewhere (it is finer than Gutermann Polyester sewing thread!)

In the afternoon I took the Textile Tour at the Shetland Museum led by the very talented Kathy. If you ever get a chance to visit the museum do try and take this tour - it is superb. Kathy brought some of her own exceptional knitting with her to supplement and explain finer points – this  was much appreciated by those of us on the tour.
During the tour the weather had 'come in' ! The ferry was leaving 2 hours early and there was a great swell in the harbour. No ferry was coming from Aberdeen so there were some disappointed Wool Weekers who could not arrive!
We drove back to our campsite at Levenwick, and then on to Hoswick  so I could go to my Understanding Shetland Lace Course with Elizabeth Johnson. This was going to be very special for me. It was Elizabeth that had first taught me to spin, with a drop spindle, in 2001 and really began my spinning, weaving and dyeing life! I have kept in touch with Elizabeth since but we hadn't managed to meet up so tonight was going to be special. It was a great course, a group of us concentrating on designing lace in Hoswick Visitor Centre while we could hear the weather outside! Long periods of silence as we were thinking so hard! The time went quickly.

This is a photo of Elizabeth and I after all these years!

The weather seemed to calm a bit but M was worried about the roads. We were not near the sea but had to drive along a high road with a cliff! We were told boulders were falling off it in the torrential rain and waterfalls that were resulting! The drive back was hairy but it all worked out. The heavy rain stopped about 1am Michael tells me! I seem to have packed a lot into me first day!

Sunday 5th October: The Opening Ceremony

Well what a sunrise, worth a wet day to get this!

We decided to have a quiet morning, the opening ceremony was taking place at Mareel , also at the Hay's Dock area of Lerwick. Mareel is another great facility for Shetland, it is 'new' to us as it was being built when we were last there. It has a cafe, which is open well into the evening, and overlooks the waterfront, and lots of cinema screen. Another great place to meet people.

We drove to Hay's Dock and went to the Hub and I thought I'd have a nice quiet spin, Netta ( the young lady from Israel watched me). She learnt to use a drop spindle yesterday and I left her having a go on my Joy spinning wheel being helped by another lady when I went to lunch. This is an example of what happens at the Hub! Netta is coming up to Unst for the Designing a Fine Lace Scarf Workshop that I am going on Wed, so we wonder who the other 2 participants are.

We bump into each other again as we queue to go into the opening ceremony and I admire her first spin yarn on a wheel- a great achievement! Netta's story of how she found Shetland Wool Week is amazing and the map of places where people have come from is filling up - just incredible. The array of different hats was breathtaking and eventually we go into the hall and the ceremony starts. Stalls around the outside of activities on offer during the week, with a chance to talk to the leaders, wonderful music, wine and super cake, some speeches, a chance to other wool week paticipants and it really feels like this is happening now!

I managed to sneak out and meet up with Michael for afternoon tea in Hay's Dock cafe before it closed and as we drove back to Levenwick we noted that it was getting rather windy, we might need to change our parking position again tonight!

The interesting thing was the picture taken of the event that went on fb and the front page of the Shetland Times had my hat in the middle!

Saturday 4th October : Day 1 of Shetland Wool Week

Our first really wet morning, we had planned to go to the Sheep Sales but decided to give that a miss in the rain! Instead we left the campsite and called at Tesco but were so early there were no papers! These have to come over by plane I guess and 10 am was too early, so onto Hay's Dock for coffee and to register for Wool Week in the Boat Hall hub. I was one of the first but several people around, I collected my bag and met Selina who will be organising Shetland Wool Week 2015 and filled in our tab on the map. I noticed already that one is from Israel!
Sheep at the hub!

Horror of horrors then struck me as I realised that my memory stick was corrupt and all the photos I had taken so far were inaccessible. I had a few really good ones on the camera but the majority would not open. Selina was brilliant and suggested trying both a camera shop and computer shop in Lerwick and told me who to ask for. Of course I always take a back up UNTIL I am on Unst and have a migraine and do it last Thursday! Bad news.
The only thing to do was leave well alone and have lunch - super lentil coconut and apricot soup in Hay's Dock restaurant! During Wool Week I had booked a number of workshops but there are also lots of other things that are open that are either free or open for a small charge. One of these was the Shetland Textile Museum at The Bod. I had looked round this before but the exhibitions change and it was definitely on my list for the week so decided to fit this in this afternoon. Ella (from Jamieson and Smith) had curated an exhibition on Shetland Knitwear during the Oil Boom which was very interesting and there was also an exhibition of Fine Shetland Lace. I can't describe it all here, it is a MUST visit place if you go to Shetland- do allow enough time for your visit. The volunteers are fantastic and very knowledgeable. I spent a long time in conversation with a lady from the local Guild who was spinning about spinning and dyeing that we do. My favourite item? Too difficult a question that! I did love the cockleshell scarves with the different colours towards the edges and the lace stockings particularly. The shop has an array of beautiful items too. I was particularly taken by this card by Monica Pothecary which I had not seen before and I was able to buy it and bring it home - notice the knitting machine. (I have plans to see other knitting machines during the week! )

So the next stop was to see about the memory stick - so I called at the computer shop, and the lad confirmed it wasn't behaving as a memory stick and suggested I called back on Monday when the real expert would be in! I decided to buy a new stick from him and start again.

Postscript to the photo problem: I decided that I knew a clever lady who could help me when I got home and she sure did. She knows who she is and she took my stick, downloaded a programme, popped the memory stick into the computer and the photos appeared. Thank you so much you are wonderful. I will always do a backup and not do anything complicated when I have a migraine!