It’s been a busy but thankfully not totally exhausting couple of days. This is really good, because we’re only part way through our trip and the full day hike in still in front of us. I have, however, already eaten far more scones than is good for me.
TheEnabler and I both successfully made our way to Aberdeen on Friday with no massive drama. Just a few bits – Frankfurt is over automated to the point of causing delays when things break down, and the 727 bus from the aiport has multiple routes only some of which go where we needed – but mostly just a long day. Happily, we found a fantastic Thai place for dinner.
Saturday was every bit as rainy as the Aberdeen weather report predicted. Luckily the hotel has a luggage room, since the ferry didn’t leave until 5pm. But that still left us largly without a home base between check out of the hotel and check in at the ferry, and it was not a good day for just wandering around the city. We found a nice vegan spot for a late breakfast/early lunch, stopped in to see the Episcopalian catherdral, and then headed over to a bookstore/coffee shop called Books and Beans to hang out for the remainder of the afternoon. This was a great place to get a little knitting done on my Dionne shawl, which also added a bit of yellow sunshine to an otherwise mostly grey day.
Checking into the ferry and dropping off our luggage was extremely easy, and the ferry was off by the 17:00 departure time.
Happily, we had a very smooth crossing and it actually had pretty nice and reasonably priced dinner and breakfast. Most of Sunday was pretty slow as we checked into our lodgings, got lunch (some of the best fish ‘n chips we’ve ever had) and did a little grocery shopping to cook dinner. However, there was an unofficial Shetland Wool Week gathering at the Douglas Arms which we attended along with about half a dozen other fiber folks. Most were from the UK, with one Dutch woman. One was a local from Shetland.
It was a nice way to start the week with great conversations about our projects, knitting, spinning, crochet and what we look for in yarns. One fellow attendee was Jam, future owner of The Caledonian Wool Co in Fort William. Coincidentally, this is the next stop on our Scotland tour, but sadly she doesn’t open until November (and will still be at SWW). But her store sounds like it’s going to be an awesome place to get Scottish yarns.
Today kicked off my classes and talks. The first I attended was Quotidian Colorwork by Felicity Ford to learn about how to transform inspiration (like my many many photos I swear I’ll do something with) into actual stranded colorwork. It was a fantastic course and I highly recommend it. Felix was a great teacher – attentive to what her students said about what they wanted to achieve, paced things well, and made sure nobody was left behind or ignored (even those trucking along on their own). She had very clearly interrogated her own methods for arriving at finished designs such that she could clearly explain her process to others.
I left both having accomplished a lovely little swatch of colorwork, but also with samples of the colors to buy and a plan for how to continue what I’d started.
Next up, I finally made it to the Hub, where I picked up a copy of the Annual and a project back to store my swatch and yarns bits in. Then I attended a short talk by a woman, Ria Burns, who desgins knitwear from locally sourced yarns which she then dyes with naturally dyes, many of which she has started growing herself.
The remainder of the day was mostly shopping. We got coffee at the Peerie Cafe, and then strolled around some of the shops in town. I found a nice hooded vest for myself at Jamieson’s – totally unexpected purchase, but it looks lovely and practical, and I’m not going to make myself anything like it anytime soon. I knocked getting a knitting belt and logn dpns to go with it off the list, and a couple sheep somehow made it into the bag. As we were walking down the street, we spotted the adorable shetland pony. TheEnabler was laughing out loud looking at it, so we had to get the little magnet with the picture.
We did make it over to the Shetland Museum and Archives to learn a bit more about Shetland’s history, from prehistoric, through Nordic/Viking settlement through becoming part of Scotland. There were some amazing displays of Shetland lace knitting as well as many examples of colorowork. Rather than me trying to summarize everything, I suggest you visit their website and online resources. They have some great pictures online.
Now we are enjoying a chill evening. Tomorrow is more classes and a trip to Jamieson and Smith, then probably some hanging out and knitting at the Hub.