Shetland Wool Week
Shetland Wool Week was on my bucket list. Well Shetland in general. It’s a cluster of islands that seems to be so far away ,somewhere in the middle of the sea between Scotland and Norway. The draw to visit Shetland for me came from my research into knitting patterns (fair isle stranded colourwork) and watching the scenic murder mystery program Shetland. I finally made it this year, the 10th anniversary year for the festival, for a brief yet memorable visit.
I flew to Shetland which is a quick flight from Glasgow, 90 minutes to Sumburgh. Sumbrugh is the southern point of the islands. The runway literally is at the edge of the island and the plane just comes in from the sea to land.
I spent 4 days at Wool Week. I attend a two day Fair Isle Tam workshop and a couple of tours of two different island: Bressay and Yell.
TWO DAY FAIR ISLE TAM WORKSHOP WITH LINDA SHEARER
Fair isle tams designed and knit by instructor Linda Shearer
I was excited to take this workshop to learn how the beautiful patterned crowns on these tams are created. They are a thing of beauty and very simple to do. The first day was working on the pattern to the start of the crown. Linda who is a very talented knitter from the island of Whalsay and the chair of the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers was the wonderful teacher. She machine knit the rib brim so that all of us eager students could start straight into the colourwork. While busily knitting the brim of our tams, we got an opportunity to try knitting with a Shetland knitting belt. Linda uses a knitting belt to do all of her knitting.
The knitting belt is a belt with a padded leather oval that has holes. The holes allow for a very long straight needle to be placed into it. When knitting, your right needle will be placed into the belt to hold it in place. Knitters using the knitting belt knit with 3 long straight needles to knit in the round. Stitches are split in half between two needles and a third needle is used to knit from each needle with stitches. It’s almost like magic loop and knitting with double pointed combined. At first it is a bit awkward because you have to not try to move or handle the right needle because it is already secured in the belt. For a continental knitter who knits fair isle colourwork with both hands, the knitting belt helped with my throwing or english style of knitting because the right needle is steadied by the belt. I still need a bit more practice before using it on any major projects! On day 2 we got to the really fun part which was the crown. The crown is made up of lines of decreases that are done by decreasing 2 stitches at a time using two different methods which will give slightly different appearances. I managed to finish my tam in 2 days which is a record for me!
EXPLORING LERWICK
Lerwick is the main city of Shetland and where most of the events for Wool Week are held. My tam workshop was held in Lerwick and it’s where I stayed during my visit. Lerwick is a lovely small town with the water not far away. Something I really loved about being in Shetland was the constant smell of the sea. It’s a smell that I love!
Shetland Museum & Archives- This is where hub, the main meeting place for the event in located. It is a modern museum covering the history of Shetland and has good selection of books in the shop. I also enjoy that the museum is surrounded by boats and boat sheds. There was a beautiful stone building that caught my eye.
Commercial Street is the main street of Lerwick. It is full of independent shops, which is a breath of fresh air for many places with chain stores. Some highlights along Commerical Street are:
This is a wonderful chocolate shop filled with delicious chocolate made in Shetland using ingredients from Shetland and Orkney. They made some special Wool Week specials like almost too cute to eat Shetland ponies with printed fair isle patterns. One of my favourite chocolates they have is the Orca bar.
Some chocolate Shetland ponies that came home with me as gifts.
-Jamieson’s of Shetland-
Jamieson’s of Shetland is the flagship shop for one of the two renowned producers of Shetland wool, the other also has Jamieson in the name. Jamieson’s is often used in brilliant colourwork knitwear designer Marie Wallin’s patterns.
-Shetland Times bookshop –
If you’re in need of more knitting books, this is a good stop. They have a good selection and section of knitting books and some fun books on the Shetland dialect too.
Further down the street where the shops end you’ll come upon a beautiful house placed what seems almost in the water. It will be a familiar sight to Shetland tv watchers as Jimmy Perez’s house.
The house used for Jimmy Perez’s house in the tv series Shetland.
TOUR OF BRESSAY
The island of Bressay is a 12 minute ferry ride across the water from Lerwick. While waiting for the ferry, some Norwegian fisherman were clearing their nets of unwanted fish much to the delight of some silly hungry seals.
This tour was offered by Shetland Wool week with a local crofter guide Doug Coutts. Doug is a Shetland native who has a passion for storytelling and archeology.
He provided us an excellent tour around the island full of interesting information and tales along with a stop at his small croft to see some of his animals.
TOUR OF YELL
Yell is one of the northern islands. This was a tour organized by Wool Week that left from Lerwick to drive around to explore the island of Yell. To get to Yell, one had to drive to the ferry from the mainland island to Yell. It was a longer ferry ride of 30 minutes. Once in Yell our first stop was to Ulsta to see the local craft fair. It was nice to see local makers exhibiting their wares. I was very excited because I was able to buy a jumper board or sweater stretcher board. This is a newly made one which is adjustable to fit different sizes as traditionally they were made for a specific size.
Next stop: ponies and sheep
Throughout the drive around the island and stops to various places there were unbelievably gorgeous views. While the weather would change in minutes, it brought out different colours and characteristics to the landscape. Westsandwick Beach was quite windy with large waves coming to shore.
While it was a short visit, it has inspired me creatively and to come again for a longer woolly visit!