Shetland Wool Week 2015 Days 8 & 9

 

On Saturday my class was in Knitted Christmas Baubles, there were a choice of two different Fair Isle patterns - or sheep!

 

 

 

There was also a Maker's Market in Room 16 of Isleburgh Community Centre where my class was taking place.  I managed to nip out for a quick look during our lunchbreak.  There were knitted items, patterns, yarn and jewellery.  You could also purchase tea and coffee, sandwiches and homebakes in the hall and the room was set out with tables with vintage cloths.  It had a lovely atmosphere - and it was incredibly busy! Unfortunately my camera's battery was exhausted (a bit like a lot of us!) so I only managed to get two photos of the market. 

 

 

Saturday was the last official day of Shetland Wool Week, but on Sunday I went to the famous Sunday teas in the Tingwall Hall organised by the Shetland Guild of Weavers, Spinners, Dyers and Knitters.

 

 

There were tea and coffee and abundant sandwiches and homebakes.  All you could eat for £4!

 

 

The Guild also have demonstrations and finished items on display.  There were beautiful Fair Isle hats and gloves: 

Lace and Fair Isle Items by Hazel Tindall:

 

Amazing lace by Kathleen Anderson:

Unusual knitted garments such as this lace jumper by Pearl Johnson.  Felicity Ford and I stood for a while trying to figure out it's construction:

 

I think my favourite garment on display was this Fair Isle allover also knitted by Pearl.  I just couldn't stop looking at it.  The pattern and colours are so cleverly put together it almost has a 3D quality about it:

 

And then that was it.  I felt quite sad when it was all over, I have had a great time and have made lots of new friends and enjoyed spending time with old friends.  It was a beautiful night on Sunday with what seemed a very appropriate sunset. We had a wander down to the Meal beach (in an attempt to burn off some sugar from the homebakes earlier in the day!) 

 

 

I would like to thank everyone who was involved in organising Shetland Wool Week, it really is a fantastic event.  I would also like to thank everyone for coming as if there were no visitors there would be no event! 

 

Of course, my pictures only show a small part of what is happening during the week, there is so much going on all over Shetland.

 

Roll on Shetland Wool Week 2016!

 

Shetland Wool Week 2015 - Day 7

It was another busy day on Friday.  In the morning I taught another group of lovely ladies "Fair Isle Knitting".  The task was to start knitting a phone cover or pouch from a choice of patterns.

 

Friday afternoon was really the first chance I have had to go out and about, I went to visit the girls at Ninian - they have such a beautiful range of yarn colours in the studio.

 

Finished garments in the shop:

 

 While I was there I knitted a coiple of rows on the Muckle Gravit (great big scarf), which was started by Shetland Arts and Crafts Association over ten years ago.

 

 

Empty shelves at Jamieson's of Shetland shows evidence that Lerwick has been invaded by knitters.

 

Fair Isle garments for sale at Jamieson's of Shetland:

Over at Vaila Fine Art  Shetland Organics have once again put on a beautiful display of a variety of work made mainly be local makers.

There I met  Alicja Tyburska  from Poland, she has been based at Vaila Fine Art during Wool Week and is demonstrating weaving traditional Polish doubleweave cloth on an antique loom.  Examples of double weave cloth can be seen behind Alicja.

 

The gallery is filled with examples of items using Shetland Organic wool:

 

 

Wool Week wouldn't be wool week without a trip to Jamieson and Smith - I dropped in on my way home, the shop was really busy and Deborah Gray had just finished a class on drop spindle techniques.  My camera card was full so I had to resort to taking photos with the iPad, so the quality is not very good.

 

 

It is now Sunday night as I write this and its all over - I am feeling quite emotional, very tired and looking forward to getting back to normal but also sad as I will really miss it.

 

I will be back tomorrow with photos of the last two days!

 

 

Shetland Wool Week 2015 Days 4, 5 & 6

At the beginning of the week I planned to blog every day but it hasn't happened like that - it has been a pretty busy few days!

On Tuesday I spent the day in the hub helping at the information desk and chatting to people. There were classes going on during the day:

Deborah Gray was teaching a class on Shetland Colours: Blending fibres.  Students were provided with a photograph of a Shetland scene and provided with fleece in primary colours and white.  The range of colours created were amazing. 

 

 

Helene Magnusson gave a class on the Icelandic lace dress with the help of her woolly assistant Henrietta!

 

 

The hub was full of knitters and spinners as usual: 

 

 

 

It has been really good to see the baa-ble hats but also really good to see other garments inspired by the hat.  These mitts were made by Amanda Richmond from NSW Australia.  You can see the project on Ravelry here.

 

On Wednesday I taught  "Introduction to Fair Isle Knitting" to a lovely group of ladies. 

 

 

 

 

In the evening I went to the Shetland Library, they were holding an informal knitting session (Stitches From the Stacks), the extensive textile selection of books were unearthed and knitters could browse through the books while enjoying a cup of tea and homebakes.

 

 

We were very happy that Felicity found her book Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook in the display!  (Have you noticed she has appeared in every blog post this week?!)

 

 

Today we had a visit from the knitting group from Whalsay school, this group is run by a group of volunteers and their knitting skills are amazing.  Its so good to see the younger generation so enthusiastic about traditional knitting.  They were all so lovely too.

 

Photo: Selina Miller 

 

We made some felt jewellery, they all ended up with a necklace an some felt "beads" they could make into a bracelet.

 

Their presence was a big hit  - here they are getting interviewed for Radio Shetland:

 

 

 Knitting projects!

 

 

Later on we had a visit from the knitting group from the Anderson High School - I wanted to get some more photos but I was so busy I didn't get time - I can't believe its Friday tomorrow!