Shetland 2, Knitting

This is the Jamieson & Smith shop in Lerwick. So many weights but I eventually went for some jumper weight, the go to yarn for fair isle knitting.


These were the colours I chose for the Yuglet hat. This pattern isn't in Ravelry's database so I thought I'd put a picture of it when I add it to my projects.



See how much I knitted whilst enjoying the view.




Today we went to Sumburgh Head to see puffins. I also met a lovely lady in a yarn shop at Hoswick who has a Little Peggy spinning wheel to sell. Hopefully we can do a deal. I'm calling back on Friday to see her and try it out. I'm very excited.

I haven't worked out how to add links when using my IPad so ill pop them all on when I get back.

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Shetland 1

A little dark, but you get the idea. This where I'm going to be for the next few days. With my feet up looking out onto this lovely view. Already there have been arctic terns and oyster catchers out there. I've also heard skylarks.

The journey was long and frustrating. We had to turn back to Edinburgh yesterday as the weather at Sumburgh airport was too bad to land the plane. A night in a hotel in Edinburgh and another early start today with a long wait for the weather to soften so we could take off. Eventually we found ourselves here after making friends with fellow travellers who gave us lots of tips about places to see and eat. One lovely man, Gareth even led us to our lodge and showed us where to go.

This is a lovely place, just look at this, fellow knitters..



Fair isle cushions on the sofas and Hazel, who runs the place is a knitter as is her mum, they sell what they make and sell wool from a neighbour who spins and dyes. I'm in heaven.



This is what greeted me as I walked into the lodge we are staying in. Oh wow!

On My Needles

Judi2 is working hard at modelling the aran jumper I have just started. I was going to dye this yarn until I saw this pattern that my sister found. It had to be aran colour for the aran jumper. It's blue faced leicester which I bought in 'Skeins' in Glossop the other week. Its very soft and knitting up beautifully, my sister is also knitting it but in brown bfl. Although this should be a quick knit I'm going to have to abandon it for a couple of weeks soon as I'm off to Shetland, I'll need some socks to knit because this will just be too big to pack.

Sunny Bank Holiday

The sun shone on my cherry blossom.

And on the kerria over the pond.

Window boxes done with white petunias and violas.

Plying my yarn on Kate's spinning wheel. A short post this week.

Wensley Yarn Workers Challenge

On the first Sunday of every month I go up to Derbyshire to stay with my sister and together we go for a creative day with the Wensley Yarn Workers. We meet in the Wensley Reading Room which is a delightful little village hall, often with a log fire blazing. We spend the morning learning something new and the afternoon knitting, spinning, weaving or just creating. It's a really lovely day. Lunch is made by Kate and her husband and consists of home made soup and bread or jacket potatoes and there are always home made cakes or biscuits. It really is one of the best ways I know to spend a Sunday. Each month Kate posts a photo on the forum on Ravelry as inspiration for the next meet. We can interpret it in any way we choose or not. This is mine for this month. This month's photo is of a lake (I think its in Scotland so it's a Loch) I used a number of fabrics I had in my stash and made this string block cushion. 

For those of you who requested a photo of me in the dress I made the other week, here it is. I was going to save it for the summer which meant no tights, but I found these teal ones in my drawer and thought they would go really well with the dress and this cardi I made a while ago. I'm chuffed to bits with the dress and can see I'll be making more. The pattern would be great shortened as a top to wear with jeans or made to bum length to wear with leggings. I need to go back up to Skipton to buy more pieces of cotton lawn. Damn!

Little Summer Dress

I picked up this fabric in Skipton at the Fent Shop She had a rail of pieces of cotton lawn for £8.00 per metre, so I bought two and made this. It was the simplest pattern ever, rolled edges, no zip, just the addition of elastic in a casing to give it shape. 

The only mods I made to the pattern was to move the placing of the casing of elastic as on the pattern it would have been across the middle of my boobs, not a good look. I also added a couple of patch pockets to add a bit more interest.

Now all I need is a summer to wear it. It looks much better on than on the hanger but I wasn't going to model it, it's too cold. 

I suppose all it needs now is a little knitted cardigan to go over it, oh go on then!

Skipton Beer Fest

Just got back from a lovely few days in Skipton. It was the traindrivers birthday so we went to the Beer Festival, my first and I really enjoyed it, I tried  Mary Jane, Golden Pippin, Wild Swan and Manifesto Stout, all good except the stout which wasn't like Guiness at all. I also tried a Perry called Two Trees which I didn't like.  I kept the glass, its a rite of passage or something.

Skipton is a pretty, busy town with lots of nice shops and eateries. We stayed at the Woolly Sheep, well we had to didn't we and it was comfortable and central. This was important as we went by train so needed to be in walking distance of everything. I was able to visit Purl and Jane while he was in the pub and bought some BFL 4 ply for dyeing.

We didn't spend the whole time in the pubs of Skipton, we visited Ilkley and had tea and cake in Betty's, it was so quaint with the waitresses wearing broderie anglais blouses and black aprons. The cake was delicious. We needed a walk afterwards and found ourselves down by the River Wharfe where the crocus' and daffs were struggling to make an appearance.

We also went to Settle, this place has to have my all time favourite station, it's quirky, olde worldy and pretty with lots of tubs of daffs, pansies and violas. It has amazing views across the moors from the platform. Had we stayed on the train and not got off in Settle we would have gone over the Ribblesdale Viaduct.

I was able to get a bit of my Folded jumper knitted on the train, this is my attempt at stash busting. I proudly told my sister who keeps on about the size of my stash that I was using some of it, only to be reminded that I bought yarn in Yorkshire, not only the BFL but also this:

How could I resist? It's just crying out to be socks, I couldn't leave it on the shelf in the shop. 

We had a really lovely few days away, can't believe it's back to school tomorrow, heads down for the long stretch to the summer holidays.