Shetland Autumn 2023: Day 13 Thursday 14 September : A day concentrating on Unst Heritage Centre

It was vey wet and windy but the temperature outside was in double figures when we woke up although we suspected that the weather had broken. We had experienced brilliant weather since we left Norfolk. The weather in Shetland had been superb, as you might have noticed from the landscape photos, and in fact it could have been summer. Some local friends had thanked us for bringing the good weather. Today felt more like ‘Wool Week’ weather and this was sad, many people would be arriving during the coming week and would need all their wool layers. It was much more windy than it had been. 

We managed to have a word with Nigel. Nigel is a crofter in the north of the island, and I owe him big time! In 2019, once we were back from Shetland I noticed a skein holder on the fb page at Unst Partnership Shop. I contacted them and paid for what I thought was this. Nigel offered to look after it until we returned in 2020. As things turned out, Covid and more Covid, we did not return until last year! Nigel dutifully brought me the wool skein holder plus half of two others. The two halves are now one, and in the ownership of a fine Shetland lace knitter and the middle one is the one that I now own. It is very special and is adjustable. (1) 

As the time went so swiftly at the Heritage  Centre yesterday, I was meeting Minnie there again this morning to look at more yarn with the digital microscope. Again I would take measurements and then do the sums later. It takes time to manipulate the markers to do the measuring and just taking one  measurement is not very scientific, so we need several. 

This morning we worked in the Staff Office. This way we could, we hoped, get more done without being interrupted. This we did. Minnie had brought some of her yarn passed down in the family and some of her own including some she spun yesterday using the Ashford e- spinner. We also looked at some ‘Museum’ yarn. Before we knew it was lunch  time! This is some of Minnie’s yarn from the espinner. 

I do not believe she had tried to use one before and this just goes to show once you have  ‘spinning  finely’ in your blood you  can manage any means of spinning! I am hoping that more of what we did will be made available later, but it is for the ladies and the Heritage Centre to decide how this is done. We did have one amazing moment…just like yesterday. We were enjoying looking at the fineness of a yarn, and admiring it when Minnie announced she thought it would be 2 ply. So more investigating and it was in fact  2 ply! What we saw when we looked at the 1 ply was very special indeed. We are both hoping that we can explore more of these very special yarns before to long. 

But I still had not got into the room with the Knitting Display. So my plan was to go and clear my head and get some fresh air  over lunch and then come back and get into that room. 

Where, other than Victoria’s Tea Room, would one have lunch, the answer for us was a no brainer - Norwick Beach! 

Then I returned to the Heritage Centre and did manage to get into the lace knitting display room. Such a fine yarn feast, lots to look at, it is the details of the items that I like to study. A selection of what took my eye follows. There was some very very fine knitwear on display. It was great to see some exceptional pieces that Hazel Laurenson had produced. 

You don’t actually need a leather knitting belt to have a try with knitting with one! I used bundles of bamboo grown in my garden when we had a go at a meeting of Norfolk and Suffolk Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers some time ago. You can use what you have! 

If you have studied Shetland Fine Lace Knitting you will have come across the Sutherland Sisters. This was like a business card, bigger than we use these days… and so much nicer! 

Different variations of the skein holder

Some very fine hand spun yarn, knitted beautifully

All the yarn in this display was fine, this is the finest or some of the finest there! 

Part of a very long sampler stole knit by Hazel Laurenson. I really like to see this personalisation. 

This will need to tide me over until our next visit. 

We managed to stop at the Unst Partnership Shop, it is open on a Thursday afternoon this time of the year and I managed to spot a great find, exceptionally lucky. 

Book from Unst  Partnership

So back to the campsite and tea and cake. I felt completely wiped out, all the thinking about fine yarn and Unst lace knitting……. So I needed to eat and cross my fingers that I was not getting a migraine as tomorrow was our last half day this year in Unst and I wanted to maximise my time. 

It was getting windy and we did think about moving the van away from the front by the sea to behind the hostel. But we convinced ourselves the wind was dropping. 

I went to sleep early but Michael did not due to the wind. Note to ourselves, if we half think we need to move the motorhome due to the wind, we should move it and then perhaps we will both sleep. 

Notes

1. Unfortunately I never finished write up the journal of visiting Shetland in 2022. At the beginning of 2023 I had problems with my eyes and had my cataracts dealt with one  after the other. All went well, but this overlapped with having more landscaping done in the garden and then the garden badly needed my attention. I never really caught up and the Shetland Journal 2022 went by the way side after a few posts, so apologies. 

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