Ben effe weg... I'll be gone for a little while...

Ik ben effe weg! Ik vind het allemaal verschrikkelijk spannend: vliegen, varen! en allerlei geweldige mensen die mee gaan, die we daar gaan zien en ... natuurlijk het eiland zelf. Ik heb gewoon heimwee gehad na de eerste keer.... Deze keer verwacht ik niet dat het anders word.

I'll be gone for a little while. I find it all to be terribly exciting: flying, boattrip and meeting / joining all sorts of great people and... ofcourse... the island itself.
I just was homesick after my first stay. I don't expect it to be any different this time...

Ik ben er volgende week weer (de 13e...) en waarschijnlijk kan ik dan voor een hele tijd maar over 1 ding praten: Shetland Wool Week!

I'll be back on the 13th and probably only able to talk about one thing: Shetland Wool Week!

See you all later!! 

12 times ...

 Scalloway

 Hamnavoe

 West Burra

 West Burra

 Fort Charlotte Lerwick

 St. Ninians Beach

 Sandness

Hermaness

East Burra

 Eshaness

 Unst

 Hamnavoe looking at Foula

Do you like these? I do! So.. my dad is making these pictures into a calender for 2013....
Thanks dad.

Plans

The  plan to go to Shetland was to see some lace for real. Not just from pictures, but with my own eyes. I have been staring at internet pictures for too long.

I wanted to go to the Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick, the Heritage Centre in Unst and any other place where there would be lace to see and take in.

But the island had other plans. As you have already noticed, the posts I entered so far have all been about the island. Rocks. Moors. Ocean. Roads. Silence. Not a word about Lace.

Monday I did get a quick look on lace in Lerwick, just before the workshop of Kate Davies would begin. Someone pulled out a display and there it was! The shawl I had only known from the internet and even had made a swatch from that picture! Can you see my reflection? It was so small. I kind of freaked out. Normally I would take time to sit, watch, take in, make notes and sit in admiration.

2012

I made this swatch 'ages' ago and now I saw that my swatch was 'fat'. Not even CLOSE to being as fine as the original. But that's okay.

2010

Or the Weddingshawl I had seen on the website of the Archive Museum and used as inspiration for my design for Jamieson & Smith: the Shetland Bound. (not bound as in tied up, more like: on my way to Shetland).

 original

Bound

I started noticing I didn't stick to the plan to take it all in. Only at home I found out I had also seen the Love Darg Shawl original when I looked back at the pictures at home.

I changed it a bit, because I wanted to add some hearts to the pattern (in one border).

The workshop by Kate started, finished and I was on my way back to find Amy. Didn't go back to see the shawls again for that day.
Soon it was Wednesday. After we'd been to Sandness, the evening had been planned for Talking about Lace with Mary Kay, Gudrun Johnston and myself. The designs by Gudrun are well known by many, but the fine lace by Mary was very new to me. It was VERY delicate; like knitting with hair. Only 2 ply. (sheep)Hair. Handspun.

Mrs. Mary Kay:

And all our lace on the J&S wool bed (very luxuriously handmade bed):

Mary's lace left top, Gudrun's lace left bottom, MoniqueB 's lace right

The next thing I knew it was already Thursday and we were on our way to Unst. Expectations were again véry high. The lace there was on the internet, but only photographed by people that have been there. Time to take my own pictures.

After a wonderfull trip, actually having a great time on board of the ferry to Yell and to Unst, thanks to the travelpills, we stepped out of the car at Muness. We had seen a sign:

 

It's a lovely little castle with a grimm past.
Back in the car, to Haroldswick: Heritage Centre. We drove past it once, in search of it...
Parked the car, went in, nice and warm. Hanged our coats and went in for a look.
I think my brain went left, while I went right. There was lace on display. THE LACE I CAME FOR (well, almost). OLD. FINE. Delicate. Handknit. The party begun.
I recognised a lót of patterns, but in an order I'd never seen. Some of the shawls were so delicate, we weren't even allowed to take pictures. The lady told us, she had one of her own, an real heirloom, and could photograph that one. Even finer than the lace by Mary Kay.

 Thanks to Amy, I now own my own knittingbelt. It's working out great!

Drawers pulled out show the most amazing garments in fine lace; socks, gloves and tops.

I had promised friends to also take a look at a shawl on display in the kabinets. The Williamson Stole. We have been working and swatching very hard to recreate it:

Picture Nita Bruce 

But it wasn't there anymore! The kind lady told us that shawls could only be on display for 2 years maximum and then were put back for several years. They are so delicate, the light takes away from it's structure and holes fall into the lace.
We did ask, and one of the ladies was so kind to help us find it. Taking out rolls of old lace shawls. The Williams Stole is still illusive, but we saw some darn fine lace. Imagne it being knit in a badly lit room, 100 years ago!

I was in luck. There were several other pretty shawls to see.
After I had calmed down, we had a lunch with the other ladies visiting and chatting with the locals about lots of stuff.

Amy told me we could do a bit of walking at Hermaness. It would be a short drive and decide to take a walk or not. I really wanted to see Muckle Flugga, but after a good hour walk, I realised that wouldn't be an option. I have to be happy with the postcard I bought at Baltasound.

And it was great! Do you notice the box with the blue top? Open the lid and there are folders with information about the location! And a guestbook! The piece of concrete on the left is an eyesoar compared to the two incripted rocks. We opened the gate and had the road to follow.

The brown on the left is dead bracken (fern). These were wet hills, pretty high up and again: silence. We did meet some sheep; one dead, others alive... hihi.

It was amazing, just like Sandness and Eshaness. I kind of 'understood' why it's said that people here 'are' frugal. You don't have a lot to begin with, so you better hold on to it, incase there comes a time when you don't have ány...

As you can see; we did A LOT. I can hardly fit all the pictures on my computer. My head is filled with impressions, thoughts, ideas, feelings, questions. I'm still thinking about it every day.. Not in a bad way, but it was an experience of (my) a lifetime. Doing something for this day, having a great time, and doing something different the next day, and having a great time again!
The weather was great. We've seen hails of rain, clouds, sun, blue sky, NORTHERN LIGHTS (although briefly). I dó want to go back. But I first have to get my head around this trip.

The travel pills did their magic again on the way back. I shed a little tear when we lifted of Sumburgh Airport, sad to go.. On Edinburgh we had a 4 hour lay-over and hung lazy on the chairs of the waiting area. Time to go home..

Sandness Heather...

When you're on Shetland, you're surrounded by Heather. All over the place.
The culture shock for me, the no-trees thing, wasn't as 'bad' as the heather thing. The compact heather makes peat over the years/centuries and that is cut in the fields. And once dried it's to light a fire.
When you're European, you know that when you go to the mountains (there aren't any in The Netherlands) you see a nice valley with a village or a town or a city in it. Think of Rome...
Not in the Shetland Isles. Heather. And Water.

And then.... the Silence. I live in a area which is called: De Wâlden, or the woody area. So I'm used to hearing the wind in the trees. Here are NO trees. (at least not much, I spotted some pines in Voe and Brae).
So... no sound. I know, the wind is there, but the sound is different. And what I also missed was the smell of the sea. Sorry, the ocean. It probably was so windy, it blew away. The only day I smelled the ocean was on Friday, when it was very windy and the waves had a great time playing around the rocks.

Back to the heather.
Wednesday it was time to go to Sandness. Next to Eshaness and Hermaness my favorite place in the WORLD. Again, utter the silence, the sheep, the wideness of the landscape and the way that single road meandered through the land. I saw it with my own eyes, but couldn't believe it.

Weisdale

Because I got sick on the bus to Voe, Tuesday, we decided to take the car. A lucky thing, as I will tell you later. The road to Sandness is one of great boredom, like the picture on top. Wide valleys, hardly any sheep because it's too wet. Once you pass Hellister, the road to Weisdale is the most amazing drive to do on the entire island. The way goes up, and just at the right spot is a passing place, eventhough it is still a two way road, to take in the view.
We were fortunate enough that the sun was shining through the clouds and all the way to the south it was isles and the silver water.

Then, when you pass Bixter and continue on to the Bridge of Walls, nót going to Walls, you steer away from life as you know it, and continue on a single road. Thére the happiness begins.
Heather, small streams, passing sheep. Silence. Silence, more silence. Infact, we were driving and you could SEE the silence. There just wasn't anything to make noise.

I was VERY impressed. We passed only a few four wheel drives (you actually need those over there, it's not a fashion statement) and started to wonder what would we find at the end of this road!

Picture by Amy

And we found a very small village, and a factory. And even thát didn't make much noise at all. Or they were having a break. 

picture by Amy

 The Jamieson's of Shetland factory, where they select, dye, card, spin, weave and handle wool. Lots of it. And amazing quality. We got to see the machines make fabric (like tweed) and knit sweaters. We got to see all the steps of selecting, processing and producing products from the wool. Garry, the kind young man who showed us everthing, gave us the knowledge the plant had even woven fabric for Ralph Lauren. So.. at the end of the guide tour, Cathy was so kind to ask him, if it was possible for him to show us the fabric... The first tour group was already seated in the bus! So we went upstairs for a 'quick' look.

My mother had asked me, if possible, I could bring her some tweed so she could quilt with it. I asked Garry if it was an option for me to get me some tweed. He told me I could point at a roll of fabric, they would cut the amount and sent it to me.
But that wasn't what I had in mind. My mother cannot quilt with anything 'single'. He pointed at the waste bin... I asked, he nodded and then 6 women went wild in the bin. Picking out fabric, nicely putting back the (large) pieces that were tagged.

The call came that the bus would be leaving, and because Amy and me were by car, we kept on 'grabbing' at pieces and parts of the tweed in the bin.
Thanking Garry a lot, we went back downstairs and smiling at our new required treasure.
We were already sitting in the car, chatting about our luck, when the lady from the shop came running.
Oh oh..

We opened the door, thinking about what to say. She said we forgot something. Our goodie bag... Oh my god, more??
We thanked her vèry much, covering our treasure and googling the new found goodies.
A pattern, (lace) yarn, a colour card and a fabric bag with Shetland language for english knitting terms.

What a day.
We had to speed things up, because I had to be back at Jamieson & Smith by 18:00 for the Let's talk Lace evening. (more about that later..)

I did manage to buy some yarn at Jamieson's of Shetland. They had to pull it of a shelf out back, it was not on display in the shop. I had glanced at the colour card and noticed a lovely orange.
The same shade of the shawl the lady on the bus was wearing, the day before. She drove us back from Voe and I had found here wrap amazing. It was fine knit, and because I couldn't find the same shade in the right weight, I had bought the Heather Gingersnap instead.

The road from Voe to Lerwick was long enough for me, to try and study the pattern of her wrap. It wasn't so difficult. I could remember that. When I casted on, and had knitted the first three repeats, I thought it might look a bit to much of a leopard print. So I knitted a plain center part. Then, my mother saw it, loved it, and didn't want it that wide... Mirrored the little squares and bound off. 

She can wear it doubled around her neck, and when it's colder, once around her neck and the other half around her head.
It's 29" wide (double) or 250 stitches (on size 4,5mm needles).
The yarn? Jamieson's of Shetland Heather in Gingersnap and Mirrydancers.

Monique on Shetland...

 Luminous Lights at the Böd of Gremista.

 One of the many bays on Shetland

 At Burra

 At the museum admiring the fine knitted lace knit by the lady I'm talking too at the Museum in Lerwick.

 Talking about my lace, I'm showing the Across the Beach at Jamieson & Smith Trunk Show by Kate Davies.

 At Charlotte's in the heart of Lerwick, quite sunny.

At the top of a moor at Hermaness, Unst. Furthest north I've ever been. 

 This cute little car made it possible to go anywhere (Bolt's Carhire).

 Showing my Across the beach shawl to Kate Davies and Cathy.

Talking with Garry at Jamieson's of Shetland, Sandness. Learned a lot!

With Amy holding up my lace shawl The One, so they could see how it looked overall. (Voe)

This is my most loved picture. For the very first time, I'm smiling on a boat! The pills for travel-sickness did their work perfectly. Finally I was able to travel like a normal person. This was the boat from the Mainland to Yell.

Thanks to Amy for allowing me to use her pictures.

WARNING: these will probably be the last pictures you see of me, I'm usually vèry camera shy..