As always, we'll start with the regulars:
WIPs
I took a few things with me to work on while travelling, and while on Shetland, Some of these things started the journey as yarn and needles, some started as partial projects, some were finished while I was there, One has been finished since I returned home, but there is one still on the needles, and it's this pair of socks:
As with all of my socks, the pattern has been adapted to fit me by increasing the number of stitches at the cuff, shortening the leg, and decreasing the number of stitches around the foot. The pattern is Hermiones Everyday Socks, by Erica Lueder, and the yarn is Lady Persephone, in the colourway "I like what you've done with the place" by Countess Ablaze.
I cast these on during a celebration Sunday lunch with Stephens parents and their bowling club. Well, not actually during lunch, that would have been rude! But during the presentations and chattering afterwards. Work on them has slowed since I've been back home, as this has become my portable project, and I'm working on something new when I'm at home.
The something new is this:
This is Yarn Tamer, by Louise Zass-Bangham of Inspiration Knits. It's a cowl pattern that is designed specifically as a way of using a particularly wild and crazy variegated colourway, without it being too overwhelming. I'm knitting it as part of a KAL with the Inspiration Knits Ravelry group. The pattern is available in the new Inspiration Knits book "Knit, Play, Colour", which is a perfect sort of pattern book for me, as it offers suggestions on modifying the desings, and many of the patterns work brilliantly with the variegated colourways that I love.
The yarns that I'm using are both by Countess Ablaze. The Wild colourway is "She's a full on Monet", on Viscount of Spark, and the Tame colourway is "Come back in the seventh year" from the Twelve Caesars collection, on Lord Kitchener 4-ply.
The final knitting project that I have active right now is my 2 year old Kyna shawl.
I took this with me to Shetland to make use of the peace and quiet, and concentrate on the many set-up rows, and finally finish one of the most quintessentially selfish projects I've ever worked on. Selfish yarn, and item made for me, and most especially, the knitting itself is selfish. It's the sort of pattern where you really need to absorb yourself in your knitting, and ignore distractions, you couldn't do this absent-mindedly while half watching TV, and half having a conversation with your family. I'm pleased to say I did make significant progress. It may be a while before I can pick it up again, as we're rapidly approaching that time of year when my knitting is not my own, but at least I have achieved something with this, at last!
I also must apologise, as I was convinced that the yarn I was using for this project was by Triskelion, and it's actually by Fyberspates. The yarn is Vivacious 4-ply, and the colourway is Deep Forest.
The changing colours of autumn, and my newly repaired wheel (more on that later), have also inspired me to start work on a new spinning project, using a braid of fibre that is far from my usual colour palette:
The colourway is "Spreads news among people", and the fibre is 100% Southdown. I've never spun Southdown before, and I love it! It's incredibly springy, and lofty, and I'm really looking forward to working with the finished yarn too. I'm trying to keep the colours as separate as I can while I spin, to try to avoid any 'muddiness' when I chain-ply later. So far it's going really well :)
FOs
I took a cake of The English Gentleman, in the colourway "Hidden in cloud and fog" with me to Shetland too. It seemed appropriate :) The aim was to knit myself a hat in the first few days, that I could then wear for the rest of the trip on chilly and windy days. I succeeded in making not only the hat, but also a pair of matching wrist warmers.
The pattern is Claudia, by MJ Kim, and I forgot to work the knit stitches on the hat through the back loop. I think it still looks ok, but I must admit that the mitts look neater.
I was very glad of this hat on several occasions, but most especially when visiting Unst, the most northerly of the isles that we went to. It was a fairly brisk and breezy day, and Stephen managed to find out about some old WWII installations, now largely overgrown, so we spent some time romping about among those. My hat and mitts served me very admirably :)
While I was on mainland Shetland, I also picked up a magazine of crafty type things, and in it there was a small frame-loom. So I decided to try my hand at weaving. I have to say, it's not really a hobby that I think I'm likely to take up seriously, but it was quite fun to have a go.
Since returning home, I've finished the only spinning project that I actually took with me. Obviously I took my wheel, but before going I emptied the bobbins, and took a bit of spare corriedale fluff to use for test spinning while diagnosing problems, but none of that was meant to actually produce yarn.
I also took my lightest spindle, and the few grams of fibre that I dyed myself, using berries from my own garden. That 3g of fibre is now 14 yards of roughly fingering weight yarn, in a lovely purple colour.
I just hope that the colour doesn't fade too much, as I am aware this can be a problem with natural dyes.
Stash Acquisition
I feel like this should have a bigger heading this time:
Stash Acquisition!
Uhm, yeah, so I did a bit of shopping... Actually, not as much of it is yarn as you might expect, and all of it has a purpose in mind.
So we'll start with the big one:
This is a sweater quantity of Spindrift, by Jamieson's. The plan is to make myself a cardigan or sweater with a fairisle yoke. I haven't settled on the pattern yet, but this should be plenty of yarn for it.
This little lot is from Jamieson and Smith. Not the same as Jamieson's! The red skeins are 2-ply lace, and for a cockleshell scarf. The lilac coloured yarn is 1-ply, cobweb weight, and they are for a traditional Shetland hap. I'm expecting that to be a bit of an epic undertaking, so don't expect to see that appearing in my WIPs any time soon!
This was bought at the Unst Heritage Centre, and it is a pattern for a traditional "wedding ring" scarf. The yarn comes with the kit, and it is cobweb weight, but I don't know where it was spun, or who spun it. I assume that it is commercially spun, but I saw many, many, examples of hand spun yarn on Shetland that was every bit as fine, and even as this. It's thinner than the cotton thread that you might use to sew on a button!
I'm not supposed to be buying fibre until I've spun up a significant proportion of what I already have stashed. You see, fibre doesn't "keep" the same way that yarn does. The longer you leave it, the more likely it is to begin to felt, especially if it is exposed to any moisture, or if it is getting increasingly squashed beneath a pile of more stash. But when I saw this, I'd just come from the wheel clinic, so I knew that I'd be able to get more spinning done soon, and this is only a tiny little sample of the natural colours available from Shetland fleece!
Clearly, this is not Shetland yarn. Update night for the latest in the Odyssey collection happened while I was away, and I learned that the Countess is also selling hard copies of Knit, Play, Colour too. So these all arrived shortly after I returned home.
The fibre is BFL, tussah Silk, and rainbow firestar, in the colourway "Speed of his feet". The middle skein is the same colourway on The English Gentleman Aran. The skein on the right is also English Gent Aran, but the colourway is "Nightmare", which is a repeatable colour. The skein on the left is Lady Persephone sock yarn, and the colourway is "Nemesis", another repeatable colour.
The Library
I could have put these under stash I suppose, but in the end I bought so many new books that I definitely feel they deserve their own section.
I went north with the specific aim of acquiring my own copy of A Legacy of Shetland Lace, but I was also keen on seeing what else might be available. In particular I was after a pattern for a yoked sweater or cardigan. In the end, with Stephens help, I bought an entire book on yoked designs! There are also some beautiful cable knits in there.
I'd also seen an article, in The Knitter I think, about a book called Viking Knits, that had left me very interested in owning that book too, but for some strange reason I hadn't really expected to find a copy while on Shetland. Of course I did. The northern isles are basically the land of the British Vikings after all!
The fair isle, and scandinavian design books I could have bought anywhere, I even had them on my Amazon wishlist, but it felt right to buy them then.
The little booklet called "A Stitch in Time" doesn't have any patterns in it, it's more of a history of lace knitting on Unst, and is another item that I bought while visiting the Unst Heritage Centre.
This years Shetland Wool Week Annual was of course a necessity :)
Shetland
How can I possibly describe Shetland for you? I don't know if I can! I can tell you that I met a lot of people there who didn't have a local accent, and without exception, when asked what made them move up there, they replied "I came to visit, and loved it so much that I wanted to stay." I can see how it could easily do that to a person, but for me it was just a little bit too remote, and isolated. I will gladly return for visits though, and I certainly intend to go back for another wool week or 2...
The profusion of wool-craft, and knitting related items that turn up everywhere is amazing. The Wool Week hub, at the Isleborough community centre in Lerwick was a perfect place to stop and get your bearings, have a cuppa, knit a few rows, and chat to other knitters and spinners. Everyone was friendly, and helpful, and there was just a fantastic atmosphere there. I had 2 favourite places though, one was the visitors centre in Hoswick, where I saw more spinning wheels in one place than I've ever seen before, and definitely took my time with talking about knitting, spinning, and Shetland itself, and yet for once, Stephen wasn't bored! He could have stayed hours longer reading the information on aircraft crashes around the island during WWII that was available in the little museum room. The other favourite place was the North Base Cafe, museum, and chocolate shop on Unst. So friendly, and comfortable, and the most epic hot chocolate you could possibly imagine! This was another place that Stephen could have stayed at for hours.
Since I can't describe everything, I shall have to settle for giving you this general impression of our visit, and showing you a tiny bit of this beautiful place, so here are a handful of the many photos that I took during the 10 days I was there. There's some of the land itself:
Some of the beautiful museum displays:
And a couple of things that get yarnies excited:
This last one is especially exciting to me, as this is my wheel, with her twin! I've never seen another Frank Herring wheel before, so it was a joy to take advice from the exceptionally knowledgeable Elizabeth in Hoswick, as she compared the behaviour of my wheel to hers.
Now I love my wheel, I have since before she was mine, when I tried her out at a yarn and fibre craft workshop arranged for a friends birthday, but she's always had a few little quirks. Being a new spinner when I first got her, I really didn't know how much of the problem was user error (ie, I was doing something stupid), and how much was equipment fault. Plying was a particular issue, I'd find the whole flyer and bobbin assembly jumping out of position whenever I ran the wheel anti-clockwise.
Elizabeth was wonderful though, she had a look, had a try, and worked out that the plastic collar that holds the flyer and bobbin in place was so badly worn that it wasn't holding everything steady, and also that I could do with my drive band being a little tighter.
On the journey home we stopped overnight in Newcastle, visiting my parents. I showed my wheel to my dad, and explained about he worn collar, and he promptly replaced it with a custom made leather collar. He also cleaned and smoothed any rough edges that he could find, and replaced some washers that were out of place. he would have given her a full over haul if we'd been able to stay long enough! But now I can say that my wheel runs like a dream. No more squeaks, no more rattles, no more tension problems, and best of all, no more leaping bobbins!
Penguins
Yes, there were penguins!
This cuddle daddy and his chick were living on the boat that took us north. I decided that I should buy them and bring them home to live with my penguin colony.
These chaps all live in the Shetland Museum in Lerwick. Apparently sailors would collect strange eggs and paint them, or unusual animal horns, which they would carve. My favourite is the fellow in the bottom photo, he looks so curious!
Finally, on the way home, we disembarked from a really quite tempestuous sea journey in Aberdeen. Neither Stephen, nor I, felt much like getting straight into the car and driving anywhere. So even though the storm that had followed us all night was still above our heads, and battering Aberdeen with wind, and epic rain, Stephen decided to go for a walk, and play Ingress for a while. I decided to spend that time finding my land-legs again in Hobbycraft. They had these needle-felting kits for just £2! I'm really pleased with the results, considering this was my first ever attempt at needle-felting, and the penguin on the left was made entirely while being passenger in a car, still frequently beset by wind, rain, and exceptionally foggy hilltops!
I'm afraid that's definitely all I have time for. I need to be up again in a little over 6 hours to take a bunch of Sheffield knitters to the Bakewell Wool Gathering! But I shall be back soon to tell you all about it :)
Sweet dreams my dears!
