Knitting and stashing (of a sort)

One of the universal truths of many hobbies is that one needs special stuff, oh I know in theory one can knit with any pair of pointy sticks and any yarn like material .... But the process is so much more enjoyable, the outcome more predictable and the result usually more satisfying if one has choice in tools and materials. My bookbinding is very much kitchen table stuff, oh I have a nipping press, and have made a wee clamping press - but the bulk of my tools and materials are those found around the house. Tambour bead embroidery is at the other end of the tool spectrum, starting with a special hooked needle in a special holder - and extending into frames that are able to tension larger pieces of fabric than your average embroidery hoop - not to mention the stands so one can work with both hands free. So far I have invested in several needles and holders, several frames, one set of supports, and a few different fabrics and threads. Those seemed the essentials, the things I needed to be able to tambour. Until now ... I worked with materials from my stash, like many I had a selection or is that accumulation of threads and other things that I had acquired over my life as I stitched and sewed, I also had a small selection of beads ... acquired when became interested in beads and knitting together.

Until now that is, recently I decided that while working with my existing stash was fine for developing skills in tambour beading it was rather limiting. Limiting in terms of the range I was learning to work with, limiting in terms of the colours I had on hand and what I could do with them. In short I realized that my yarn stash provided a resource on which to draw for inspiration and ingrediants and the beginnings of a project and I wanted a bead stash. There I've said it, I wanted another stash.
Enter a trip to Enterprise Beads to enhance my stash, who are based in Oamaru - an hour and a half drive north. Where they sell beads on strings. Strung beads, that is important for tambour work. Bear and I made a day of it, with little cub, elder cub had a D&D game to attend so escaped. Littlest cub scored a solid spruce top traveling uke - it was so cute, and sounded surpringly good for its thinness and size. Many of the beads in this box were not part of my stash before Saturday, and they are now. Beads that come in strings are often sold in hanks, and a hank can have around 4000 beads in it for the size bought. I bought several hanks ... more than I have fingers and thumbs. That means that I have over 40,000 beads at hand. That is a lot of beadwork practice. The only difficulty was coming to terms with the limiting factor of my purchasing dollar compared to the wide range of offerings in store. As a starting point I decided to get a few if my favorite grey/blue shades, some froggy greens, olives, golds and browns, and a few sparkly highlights, silver-white, orange, and dull gold. The hanks all fit into a remarkably small paper bag when bought - like a precious little secret, taking hardly any room in my handbag. I suspect I will go back. I may have also added some strung sequins, which come strung in worms each with 1000 sequins, I added 8 worms, so now have 8000 sequins to practice with .....some in gold, some in bronze, and and some silvery clear.

Surprisingly I have not broken into any of the hanks yet, just spent some time ordering my smallish stash and sorting the odds and ends (every stash has those) into a secondary storage box. Serendipitously my local Tambour guru gifted me a storage box of just the perfect size and function, so now I have two boxes filled with beads, or near filled ... There is room for moe. I have been working away on the pink lace edged cardigan - to the point where a sleeve begins.
And I have one more immediate project in mind, it involves converting these turned feet into embroidery frame supports.

These have been around for yonks, and every time we tidied up the shed, or the carport, or the replacement garage both Bear and I thought they were too good to throw away. Something twigged in Bears mind as I embroidered a few weeks ago and he asked why I didn't I use these to make an elegant frame support that would sit on the table. All I need now is some time in the garage with some steel pins, the grinder and the drill press ....
Spring has sprung, so the garden fills with weeds, there are outdoor chores to do ... And so I have no idea when I will get that time, but that is ok, I have a plan and one day there will be the opportunity.
Take care
Na Stella

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All of it, out on show

Well here I am, back from KAN, if you want to drool over what went on there is a KAN ravelry forum thread and a site with photos from all three KANs (note this years kan was 2012, and photos are at the bottom of the page). Now I am home, and pretty much all knit out, the past two days I have been spinning, having felt a need to do something other than knit from a chart and not wanting to start something new. Last time I did that, it was the Pi shawl specifically to knit at KAN, before I realized that traveling knits are better if not worked with the yarn on a cone. Last post I promised to reveal my splurge, my stash enhancement, so here it is, sans one or two little things that are gifts for those who could not attend.

All of it

Compared to some of the photos in the KAN ravelry forums my Stash enhancement was very moderate, but I guess that just showing this pile is mean and I really need to provide a fuller tour of the pile.

First this

Within minutes of arrival, my traveling enabler M announced that there was the perfect merino silk grey yarn for me on the trade table next to her vintage Purls stall. Not only that but she had asked for three skeins to be put aside for me. Well - I couldn't really ignore such open thoughtfulness, could I? especially as often it is difficult to secure an entire cardigans worth of yarn from indie diers. The dye pots are small compared to industry, so as a result barches are small, and once yarn is on the market the dye batches are quickly sold. I loved the grey, named Smoke and mirrors, dyed by Jessica of Spinning a yarn. Having just finished a grey cardigan I know I need another one, truly I do.

Next fibre

Next there was a stop at Wabisabi fibers, where Matt had the most amazing variety on offer. This is two little 50g twists of North Island New Zealand Corriedale, which I am told is very different to south island Corriedale. I look forward to playing with this.

Thirdly

Thirdly was this, on day two of KAN, first is a twist of amazing yarn, so luxurious that the budget fibre is baby alpaca! I kid you not, this is Road to china, and is 50 grams of heavy fingering yarn consisting of 65% baby alpaca, 10% cashmere, 15% silk, and 10% camel. I don't even think it actually weighs anything, the label says 50 grams, but in ones hand the yarn is so soft as to feel weightless. Next to the yarn is a cute wee needle gauge, from Finland in the shape of a robot ....because ... you know ... it was cute, and the yarn fumes got to me.

That little splurge was followed the next day, as KAN is a three day event, by this a soft white and silver grey sock yarn blend, with merino and a touch of nylon also from Wabisabi fibers. I had seen this on day one, and loved it. Still there on the last day indicated that I really needed to adopt this fibre .... As no one else had.

More lovely rainbows

Also on the last day I spotted this, or rather these, two lovely hand made Rolags of blended merino. You know that jeweler, Frances who makes the beautiful spindles? Well this is one of her blends, I've spun her fibre before and the colors just glow. The two packets match, giving me all sorts of opportunity to play more with the fibre colors as I spin. I wish the photo did justice to the blend ... but it only hints at the bright sunny jewel colors.

M again

Then as the traders prepared to pack up, M from Vintage Purls convinced me that this was the perfect colour for me and as such needed to come home with me. I had been avoiding this fibre, yes it is 'my favorite' shade of grey blue, but it has sparkly bits as well. I'm not sure how I feel about sparkle in my fibre, but this has just a hint amidst the merino, alpaca and silk, such a teeny amount I could pretend it is not there.

I just realized that KAN started with M enabling me, and finished the same way .... with M enabling me, and I don't care, with friends like that i am one lucky knitter/spinner.


Take care, next post will have actual reporting of knitting and spinning .... I promise.

Na stella

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After Unwind now I'm unwound ....totally

Yes, totally unwound, as expected. The unwind event was fantastic, beyond fantastic, amazing and wonderful and exciting and and lovely  ..... and well just plain old great. I'm still smiling, and happy at all the friends I met, and made and saw, and talked with, and all that was on offer. I didn't take a camera, somehow I forgot ... but I'm also a bit wary of posting photos of people and their stuff public ally without asking. Some how I never seem to get to the point in the conversation where I ask for permission to blog a photo I'm making ... so I just avoid it altogether. Unwind involved three full days of doing stuff, I turned up at 8:00 am on Friday to help with the set up, and it was full on after that. I was but a minor part of the event and totally take my hat off to The Vintage Purls team, M, Mr K, A and J, as well as all the local helpers who made the event run smoothly and were just friendly, amazing and non-flustered at all times.

Most amazing was that Little Cub, was the youngest Unwinder there. Oh there were younger people but none were registered as part of the event and none were knitting non-stop. While I was off teaching steeking  Little cub found a stand with  knitting and decorating supplies, patterns for Owls and hearts, and knit an Owl to hang on the tree. in the round, mostly all by herself, totally without me! Then she knit another and started a third! I also knit one, but mine pales in comparison to hers, and she won a skein of lace merino fingering yarn, for the largest Owl. Funny thing is that she was in the process of knitting an even larger one.  Mine is the sleepy Owl, I went a tad crazy with beading the beak and adding tufts to the ears and tail,  and thought that Owls slept during the day so avoided making eyes altogether. 

My classes, Steeking and Bookbinding seemed to go well, no one gave up, or announced that it was all too difficult. I tried to explain that I'm the kind of teacher that believes that improvement comes with practice, and that learning is the most exciting when one gets to do something real rather than mess about with fiddly little practice tasks. For steeking that means that I aim to have my class cutting up my steeked sample within the first 10 minutes of class, and stitching their sample in the first 15 minutes. Half way through the class time the students are unhappy with their first edge, but then we move on to the second steeked edge and things get more complicated and easier at the same time if that is at all possible. By the end of the class my aim is to have students who know they can go away and do at least as good but probably better next time they steek. Bookbinding went a little the same way ... at great speed. We had 12 bound books all done a little over 3 hours into the class - and again most seemed ok with the idea that this was a skill that could be improved with only a little practice, most were talking about the 'next' book - which was magic to hear.

My other role for the week was to run the SwapShop with Sharon, and so we did. Friday we traded in a whole mountain of yarn, we seemed to have more yarn on our table than many of the traders!  Saturday the shop opened for sales, using special Unwind Vouchers, earned thru donating yarn to the shop. By midday Saturday the table was pretty much cleared. The luxury fibres went to those who love special stuff. The fluffy stuff, and there was a lot of fluffy stuff, went early and easily to those who like fluff. The pink stuff went to those who lusted after pink, ditto the red, and yellow  and handspun, and sock stuff. By Sunday my Swap shop role was done.

 This was my big splurge, a new spindle, the one with the Sinister Raven. I was dithering over some of the bird Spindles that Sourkraut had on her table, and made the mistake of asking which one I should choose. Sourkraut replied that the Raven or even the Sinister Raven, with its beak facing left, was one she thought was ideal for me. That was that, after knowing about the Sinister Raven the decision was made. The raven is now home and seems to be eying up the cute silver bunny that I brought back from the last visit to a trade table stocked by Sourkraut.

 With the spindle purchase out of the way I did spurge on yarn, there is a mixture here, four balls of Rowan organic cotton from the Swap shop, a cardigans worth  of Blue faced Leicester fingering weight yarn from Verandah Yarns in a lovely red orange named Elizabeth Bennett. I bought a skein of Merino Silk fingering weight yarn from Spinning a Yarn in the perfect blue to match little cubs eyes, Waterman - that will become a wee shrug or short sleeved cardigan or even something like a lace warp for Little cub - this is same kind of yarn she won for her Owl, but that skein was in pink. I sucumed to James's beautiful yarn as well, and bought a skein of Merino Mania  Fibre Alive from Joy of Yarn, in Ranger (Batch 3).

And this is the results of my class with James on making and using one of Kaffe Fassets Magic yarn balls. The class was amazing, and this swatch dosn't do justice to the range of yarns we had to pick from or the generosity of the knitters who shared and offered advice and just had fun in selecting 7 or 8 colours to knit with on a plain background.

Sorry the post is a bit jumpy, and bitsy, I'm still tired and happily recovering from all the fun, and missing my weekend sleep in. I'm so looking forward to next weekend when I get to be at home an sleep in Saturday and Sunday.

I'll link to posts about Unwind 2012 as I find them or as people let me know here,
Veranda Yarns Unwind 2012,

take care .... more next weekend.
Stella

The post with gloves, sewing and a new ukelele

Things have been busy here, Unwind is next weekend which means a slight panic all round. Not a mad panic, but a slow ordered got-to-make-sure-that-things-are-in-order kind of controlled panic. Now I'm not organizing Unwind, I am unwinding, and along with smallest cub,  teaching two classes, and taking one. That means getting organized for three classes, so I've been sorting and stacking, things for this class, things for that class, and things for the other class in yet another pile. I've also been volunteering as a general helper if and when needed - so there have a few chores as part of that. Today I've got an update on the Sanquhar gloves, which are coming along nicely and quicker than anticipated, a new sock club installment which came with my new favorite knit tool, I'll show you my volunteer project for Unwind, and there is a new ukelele and with it a new word - purfling. All in all a busy weekend.

My Sanquhar gloves are growing surprisingly quickly, for something knit in colour work and at a fine gauge. Around 10:30 last night I reached the point of dividing up for the fingers and decided that was a task best left for another day. The wrist fits beautifully, but the palm seems loose. That may be the result of the straight dpns/needles distorting the fabric, or it maybe the stitch count being reliant on multiples of 13. I'm holding off making any decisions on this, but know that given it is pink and grey Bear is unlikely to welcome them even if his paws are larger than mine.

This kit arrived during the week, the latest installment of the Vintage Purls 2012 Summer club, I've not done the purple justice, its richer and purpler than this. Truly this is one of those purples that even those who don't really get purple like  - I lost count of the number of comments along the lines of 'well I don't really do purple, but this purple is the kind I can do'. 

 I have a new toy, the wee special treat in the last Vintage Purls sock club,with it I can highlight the line of chart I am knitting.

And when I've knit that line I can move the tape to another line - easily.

This is my new favorite knit tool, highlighter tape. I guess that most of you already know about this stuff, but I'm still underlining in pencil and occasionally using yellow highlighter pen or a 3M sticky post it. The best bit is that the tape isn't even sticky - it seems to be that clever cling plastic rather than traditional sticky tape so there is not sticky residue left behind and it stays clingy. I am indebted to Morag for discovering this in Julia's knit kit and sourcing enough to supply knit-clubbers.

One of my volunteer roles at Unwind is helping the the swap shop, a table where one can trade the  yarn one owns but no longer loves for credits that can then be used to 'purchase' yarn traded in by others. The Swap-shop needed a sign and this is it, a quilted banner to drape across the front of the table, the fabric is a remnant of a Liberty Print, Melbury in colour way D. Finishing this let me tick of another thing on my to-do list.

Lastly there is a new Uke in the house, little cub has been playing Ukelele for 3 years, all the time on the same pink cheap lacquered soprano ukelele. Initial cost was $20, and while we had invested in a tuner and a custom bag, it remained a little cheap uke. Elder cub has returned to his guitar and so we are shopping around for a guitar to fit his five foot ten inch frame, his last one was bought when he was 9, and much shorter.  As we toured the music shops of Dunedin I became aware that there was more to the Ukelele world than cheap toy versions, and that little cub who has plucked away under her own steam for three years could also do with an upgrade. We are still negotiating with the elder cub the  details of the guitar,  so far no pick up, steel or nylon strings as yet undecided, Bear wants one made in Canada or Spain, Cub wants a cutaway body ..... its a whole new world to me, and a whole new set of terms. In the meanwhile we have splurged on a new uke for little cub, a Lanikai Flame Maple Tenor with real abalone purfling. Sounds much more mellow and full than the wee pink soprano uke it replaces. We figure this kind of spending replaces the large game station that we will never buy for them.

Purfling - now that is a word that I could use to describe my knitting, in some dictionaries its a ruffled or curved ornamental band - in others an ornamental border or edging. Now I think I'm  looking for a project to purf ...... I'm sure Morag just finished a cardigan with a Purfled band ..... Purfling is nice in the right places.

take care
na Stella

KAN Report

a post subtitled - not all of this is for me.

So I've just returned from KAN, with the traveling troupe of Dunedin knitters, not all of them, there were a few that just couldn't make it this year so we numbered four. What an adventure!
Travel to and from Napier was disrupted by fog, with delays, hiring a rental car, driving for 4.5 hours, an overnight stay at the Yaldhurst Tavern followed by at 4:30am start. The Yaldhurst was an old school workman's tavern, where we as impartial non-locals were required to draw the meat raffle before the waitstaff were free to issue our room keys. Travel back involved another 4:30 am start, for a 6:30am flight, which was delayed by 1 hour - resulting in a missed connection and a later flight home.
All that paled into insignificant with KAN, three days of knitters, shopping and learning - such fun.



First stop was the KAN registration desk, and there we picked up the final timetable/info and recieved a wonderful bag of goodies, long dpns, needles for sewing in ends, stitch holders, real coffee, badges, discount cards, yarn samples, and two balls of yarn! Yes really - the local mill has lovely stuff and they shared generously. We four knitters 'pooled' ours so two of the Dunedin knitters went home with project quantities in their fav colours. All of that was packed away in a lovely reuse tote - I got butterflies, but others had faux zebra and some even faux leopard. Behind is some stash enhancement.

I meet lovely Ravelers in person, Just Jussi, Matt, and Sue, Sally and Kate, Sourkraut who started her VP colour-work sock and brought amazing jewellery ... and many others who I have not yet connected in my fuzzy sleep deprived mind to their Ravelry identities. The event was organized by the super amazing Maree ...... who's praises are being loudly sung here[Rav link folks].

There were of course traders, with lovely lovely things. I was restrained, and made modest purchases - leaving plenty for others. I 'had' to have some of Matts fibre, he has the most amazing blends that I just don't see in any other places, the green is suri Alpaca, and the (cough cough) grey blue, is a blend, Merino, Alpaca, Silk and Angora. Little Radiator had the most amazing stock, as she most logically explained she 'loves Frieda' and 'loves knitting' therefore Frieda must have been a knitter! She also designed a tee shirt print that was perfect for teaching steeking in ...... and the felt 'badges' with Spinner, and vintage spinning and knitting prints. She has so many cool badges that my wee head was fair spinning. I now have visions of decorating an old fashioned blanket with her badges in the style of a girl guide or scout who has attended many jamborees.

Back to the stash acquisition, amongst that is also a ball of Kauni - Danish Yarn with fabulously long colour shifts and glowing colours. There is also a bag of mill-scrap, pencil roving, in super-wash merino, the blue and orange which is destined for a baby blanket. And a few wee pairs of the most amazing mini scissors - Hiya Hiya Puppy Snips. I also bought Teosinte - because it was there and I fell in like with it very much.

I took the current baby blanket as my to do first project. The baby shower is on Tuesday aka tomorrow. Not only did I finish it but it was blocked in the motel room with stunning views of the ocean and bay and sky blue skies. I do have photo of that but is on Karens Camera as I forgot to take one (Doh!). What I do have is a photo of the finished read to gift blanket at home _ I had to fudge the pattern to get it out of the <500m I had, so omitted one or two charts and developed a more economical edge. I am in awe of Anne's lace designing - aren't you?

There was non -knitting and spinning, Napier has some of the most amazing vintage shops. Toby has developed an interest in things to do with vintage aircraft - so these NZ Air force buttons seemed a good score. The other vintage buttons will easily find a home in my own button collection.

To complete the weekend I arrived home to a small international packet of book things, my very own bone folder, and bookbinding needles, curved and straight. And Bear just rang to see if I was here, he has just collected the cubs from school and will be here in 10 minutes ....

So I'm off to put on the kettle and get ready to catch up with family things, na Stella

Coming clean - fessing up

In today's post I'll share my goodies acquired on my Shetland trip - and that feels a little like coming clean, of confessing. Next post I'll talk more about the conference ... promise, but I feel like I need to 'process' the new acquisitions just so I can put them away. By process I mean, document, add the books to my Library Thing listing, and to my Ravelry page, and the same with yarn and fibre. I will also update you on the knitting- in progress, there is something finished, something lost, something new and something making good progress but in the wrong size.
First the goodies, then the knighting - OK?


So Shetland goodies .. well my first knitting purchases were at the Shetland times, Lorna my traveling companion had this place on her 'must do' list. She went with a list of books she 'needed' to add to her library. I was happy just to look, but had read the latest Knitter on the way over and saw Jarad Floods recommendation for Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller as a must have for those thinking about lace, On Lorna's recommendation I also picked up Shetland Lace by Gladys Amedro (recently reprinted), A Stitch in Time Unst's Fine lace knitting by the Unst Heritage Trust, Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont (nothing to do with Shetland knitting but they had it in stock - who was I to ignore it?).

A few days latter Annemor Sundbo's luggage arrived and the Shetland Museum and Archives had her books for sale - so I splurged. Now I am the proud owner of Everyday Knitting - Treasures from the Ragpile (which I thought was out of print!), Setesdal Sweaters - the History of the Norwegian Lice Pattern, and Invisible Threads in Knitting. All of these are available direct from Annemor herself. Her website if worth a visit just to spend time looking at her treasures in her flickr gallery. If you are into history and historic knitting - do visit the photo gallery of the Shetland Museum Archives - between the photos of people wearing knitting and photos of knitting itself here is more than enough to look at.

The best bit was I summoned up enough courage to be a real knitting groupie and ask for a copy of Everyday Knitting - Treasures from the Ragpile to be signed - and it was, with my name!



Also at the museum I picked up these two treasures, the University of Southampton Guide to the Knitting collections was a conference bag gift, and contains more information on the three significant collections they hold. It is now the repository of the collections of Montse Stanley, Richard Rutt and Jane Waller, and it contains not only printed knitting materials but artifacts and tools as well. The little volume underneath is the brand new Guide to the Shetland Museum Textile collection - which is full of beautiful images of old and new textiles, many of which are knit.

Then there was the fibre shopping - I bought fibre, both yarn and combed top ... all of which are souvenir fibre, the kind that will bring back fond memories as I spin and knit. At Jamiesons I asked if they had any fibre for spinning and they answered they did. They said usually they just gave out a plastic bag and took you out to the back room where there was a few boxes of mixed mill waste - and I could help myself. Oh my, just like at the mill in Milton - Mill scraps! The plastic bag was huge - well it was a large black garbage bag ... which I knew I couldn't fill and fit into my suitcase .. so I carefully selected some fibre that I think will spin into something for colour work. I tend towards muted colours .. but tried to give myself a bit of contrast in this selection.


At Jamiesons and Smith, the 'other' Shetland mill on the islands - the combed Shetland top was on display - and this pale blue just felt like one I would easily add to my fibre stash. This is the colourway Haar . and is a mix of white, medium blue and grey - greyer than it is here.


The knitting mis-hap that occurred, occured early in my trip, we had five planes from New Zealand to Shetland. Some where on the 3rd plane I slept, and I stowed my knitting project in its knitting bag on the floor by my feet. When I woke I could not find it, I didn't panic but I was hampered by the chair in front being reclined so I had little room to search and bend in. Those economy seats - are not called cattle class for nothing. When we went to disembark .. my knitting in its bag was not there. The flight attendants, Lorna and I searched the section of the plane around where we sat .. but could not find it. Either it rolled far away during the flight and landing .. or some one else scooped it up amongst their belongings.

Either way - I keep thinking what use is 160g of handspun perendale part knitted into a centre out blanket to most peopl? especially as I was making it up as I knit so there was no pattern. As a result the first yarn I bought was a replacement for the baby blanket, 4 balls of Lace weight from Jamiesons and Smith, in white. This was to provide my 'conference knitting', you know the mindless project that I could knit on whilst I listened.


Then after seeing the museum collections, and many many inspiring shawls and blankets in the books I bought and in some of the talks .. well I decided to add a lace border, in medium grey, dark grey and blue so added these to my travel stash.

At Jamiesons I added these to the stash ... loving the colour selection, not knowing what I wanted to make but feeling that I couldn't ignore having so many colours in the same weight of yarn to choose from.





At every knitting shop they sold knitting belts and at the conference there were on going knitting lounges with demonstrations of how to knit in the Shetland way. So I came home with a belt, and plans to practice.





And I'm still thinking of knitting Wintergreen by Kate Gilbert .. so these colour might just the the ones. This is the only yarn that I bought with a plan in mind.





And finally the knitting, I finished the second Theodora sock whilst I was away and wore them. They are now in the wash ... its been wintery here I'm waiting for drying weather before they are washed, photos next time I promise. I did finish one of the mittens intended for Toby ... but it is to small in the thumb. My plan is to knit the second mitten and make the thumb longer, adding more of the fish skeleton pattern to do so.











And I'm still loving the paw print on the reverse of these. They were mostly knit on the plane trip the the UK .. but it was a little bumpy on the return trip so I opted to knit the blanket. Plus I was tired by then, I didn't want to have to worry about charts bumping around on my knee.









so ... all in all a little more than I expected to buy, especially the books, but nothing I regret, and a lot to look forward to reading and using.
take care - conference report next post :D
Stella

I'm bön tae Shetland

Which translates as I've been to Shetland ... and I loved it. We, the we being Lorna a fellow local knitter, and I stayed in Lerwick for 9 days. Lerwick is a small town of about 8 thousand people and has at least 7 yarn shops. Our kind of town, the perfect town to hold a knitting conference in. The trip there was trouble free, the trip back home was extended by fog at Sydney, a detour to Melbourne for refueling, back to Sydney for an unforeseen 12 hour stop over and arriving home a day latter than planned. All that leaves me happy to be home and tired, today the post is a summary of the trip .. next post I've cover the conference and update you on my knitting. Its been 2 weeks since the last post so there is a lot to write about and report on.


On our first day there, we decided a little grocery shopping was in order .. so we headed off to town to search for food, we needed to as we were staying in a self catered flat. The town is old, the building very old, our flat was only 2 minutes walk from the main post office, this was the walk that faced us every morning. The first morning we found our bearings and about 9am headed off to town to search for provisions .... it was sunny, and warm and there was hardly any wind.

While we headed off at 9am it was in fact around 3pm before we found a grocery shop ... we were distracted by at least 5 yarn shops, the visitors center and coffee. With a knitting conference in town we were on the look out for 'others like us', knitters, and at the visitors centre we spotted some and made our introductions, Annemor and Kirja. We meet them again at at a coffee shop latter in the day .. and they discussed their plans to rent a car and drive out to the Jamisons factory the next day, which was a few hours from Lerwick. During coffee we all decided to split the cost of the rental car and head off the following day. We checked that Kirja's and my phone could talk to each other, worth checking when traveling internationally, and Annemor gave me her card.


Then we headed of again to look for groceries, the next yarn shop we found just before we found the grocery shop ..... outside there was a workman shifting fleece from bales into a wicker basket.


Beside him the name of the shop ... a factory shop, Jamisons and Smith.


Inside it was like a magic cave ... lace and 2ply yarns in so many colours, and shetland fleece to spin.I didn't buy anything that day .. now we knew where the shop was I wanted to spend some time thinking and selecting carefully rather than rush in. I knew we had 8 more days to visit and shop, and I knew my suitcase had to weigh less than 23kg when I left so I had to be careful adding to it. (on a latter visit we discovered the amazing lace display in the basement .. if you are ever there, remember to ask to see it).


Later that night, back at the flat with stocks of food, we unpacked and went over the plans for the next day. I dug out Annemor's card and realized who she was .... Annemor Sundbø, author of one of my favorite knitting history books, Treasures from the Ragpile. Oh my .. it took me a wee while to calm down, and probably was much better that I didn't know that earlier or I would have been tongue tied in awe.


So the next day we met up with Annemor, Kirja, and Anne (a lecturer from the Rhode Island School of Design), and headed off to the Jamison factory. Here in New Zealand factory visits mean signing health and safety forms, going thru a checklist of dos and don'ts, and being restricted to areas that are safe. At Jamisons they asked if we wanted to wander around the factory first, or visit the shop first ... being slightly sensible adults we elected to wander the factory first, knowing the shop would distract us.


The factory was like no other I've been in, a mix of fleece, raw and dyed, at least two cars undergoing restoration, each with a sofa near by to sit and admire the work from, a large flat screen tv above one car, working looms and working mill equipment. We were allowed to wander, free access every where, and we did. We were adults, we didn't fall into the machinery or damage ourselves or it ...
I knew that much of the Sheltand knitwear was produced by machines, sophisticated colour work machines .. but seeing the huge piles of colour work knit fabric ready to be made into garments was still a surprise. This is Lorna my travel companion, as hand knitters the scale of the pile of knit fabric just awed us both.



Near the dye room there was the obligatory sample storage, where yarns of different colours are stored and kept to use in matching each batch to the right colour. Little skeins of tagged yarn sit in each cubby ... guiding the dyer.It is one of those places that looks old and exciting, the original wooden shelves, and the little trial skeins of yarn .... one of those images that one expects to see in a book about yarn, or as a designers inspiration on their workspace.



Then in the factory shop, those same colours reappear in lace, and spindrift and aran weights ...... waiting for hand knitters to turn them into garments and accessories. I can not lie, some of these came home with me ... but there were so much to choose from and my suitcase was only so big ... the selection was hard.

After leaving the factory we made our way back to Lerwick, via a beer in Scalloway(we were looking for a cafe for coffee but found a local museum and pub first), and visited some local historic buildings ...

and found ourselves close enough to eyeball a shetland sheep. There was of course knitting, and knitting talk, then the day after the trip to Jameson's the conference started ... all of that I will catch up with and cover in the next few posts.

take care
I'm off to do family things, cook meals and tidy up ... I'm already back to being a parent after 2 weeks away, but its all good.