Shetland Wool Week 5

After the Wild Wool workshop it was a quick dash back into Lerwick for the Many Strands Make Interesting Yarns lecture from Felicity Ford and Tom van Deijnen about their collaborative work, followed by a workshop with the most intriguing title of Aleatoric Fair Isle.  

 Aleatoricism is the creation of art by chance, exploiting the principle of randomness.

Here are some of the samples Tom and Felicity have produced using their aleatoric method.

Now I have so say some of them work very well as examples of Fair Isle, and some of them contain combinations of colour and pattern that wouldn't appear in any book on designing Fair Isle.  Although it was clear to see that unexpected combinations of colour together, that I would never have thought of creating, did actually look rather interesting.

So after the fun of looking at the samples it was time to turn on logical minds in a big way as Tom and Felicity explained how their aleatoric method was applied to the creation of Fair Isle and what the rules were.

I have to be completely honest and say that, at that hour of the evening, my powers of logic and understanding left a lot to be desired.  Fortunately Tom and Felicity were more than willing to go over things and they were so lovely about it that I felt completely comfortable asking for help.

So the group I was in set to with rolling the dice and working out the colours we were each to use, and in what order.

It was lovely to spend the evening chatting to people doing the workshop whom I'd not met before and once we got down to it, the knitting was rather fun - until the rules required you to add in colours that wouldn't otherwise have been chosen.  The acid yellow became notorious - it may be some time before I'm comfortable using that colour again.

However, despite the chatting sometimes slowing down the knitting, I did manage to knit the first half of a large star motif, and I found the whole process rather interesting.  I can quite see myself trying some aleatoric knitting in future, but probably modifying the 'rules' and probably not having acid yellow as one of the colour choices!  Although, being honest with myself, letting go and making myself do things with colour I wouldn't normally consider could well lead to some very interesting discoveries.

I was very interested to see the effect of using several quite different coloured yarns for the star motif, but that were very similar in tone, where normally I'd have used one colour or a carefully selected group of quite different colours and tones.  A possibility for a future project that I've tucked away.  An exhausting day, but I'm so glad that I chose to go to both events.

Today saw me back at Hoswick Visitors' Centre for a second workshop with Nielanell.  This time it was Felt Memory - making a felted wall hanging to remind you of Shetland.

Again we were met with a vast and enticing supply of fibres to use in our felting - the baskets didn't seem any emptier after our mammoth batt making of the day before.

We learnt how to make felt and then it was time to choose the subject or inspiration for our panel/hanging.

Having enjoyed so much using the colours of the dead nettle plants for my batt and spinning, I decided to revisit that source of inspiration and see how I could work with it for making felt.

I'm beginning to embrace the greens and browns that I previously wouldn't have considered using in a creative craft.  That rather fabulous container of rich reds and purples was left to others today.

We didn't just have wool to play with.  There was also a shelf full of exotic fibres, glittery bits, lustrous silks and much more besides.

I went out again to remind myself of the colours and form of the nettles - and this time took photos as well.

I hope these photos show the full range of colours to be found just by closely examining a bit of dead nettle plant.

And this was my Dead Nettles felt - which I'm rather pleased with and really enjoyed making.

Sadly the photograph doesn't really show the texture I was able to achieve by using linen threads and locks of fleece which came out from the surface of the felt.

It's very hard work making felt, but I was delighted that I was able to translate so much of my vision of what I wanted using a new craft.  I'm not sure if more felting is going to give me huge biceps or be rather useful in reducing the flabby bits at the back of my upper arms.  Sadly ageing isn't all the fun of red hats and sausages, but the inevitable rule of gravity over the most unlikely parts of the body.

Felting is however another way of allowing myself to be insanely inspired just by playing with colour and texture.  Opportunities for such life-affirming happiness should never be ignored.



Just look at all the felted pieces created by everyone in just one day - such a riot of talent.  Niela is very good at releasing the inner creative genius in people.

I did make a second piece - this time of the sea at Hoswick - it's on the bottom row, second from the right, and I very much like this one too.

Finally, as we left, I decided to photograph my Sonic Yarn and Dead Nettles felt actually with the nettles.  A lovely way to end my 2013 Shetland Wool Week.

I am very pleased to say that this year has been even better than last year and my main problem has been having to make choices and to accept not being able to do All The Things.

One thing that has struck me about this year is how strands have woven themselves between different events and different speakers and teachers to bring me an experience that has been so much greater than the separate parts.

I must remember to book my accommodation for Shetland Wool Week 2014.

Shetland Wool Week 4

Yesterday was all about colour and texture and exciting the senses.

I went down to Hoswick Visitors' Centre for the Wild Wool Play Day with Nielanell.  Wonderful venue for the class and well worth a visit for the permanent displays and the cafe - the food!  Fantastic.

The room was filled with baskets and bags of a multitude of types and colours of fibres for us to card and spin - we could have carded for a week and there would still have been fibre left.  Wonderful to have so much choice and no limits on our creativity.

Niela showed us some yarns she'd spun and very helpfully, the batts she'd made to spin them.  The day was all about enabling us all, each in a very personalised way, to discover and release a new level of creativity within ourselves and to enjoy and embrace what we could create.  Lots of technical expertise from Niela if we wanted it, but where we were being pushed was in using our senses to translate experiences, sights, sounds and emotions into a yarn.  It was very exciting and I was being pushed further than I realised at the time.

The red batt on the left was what I made and spun in the morning.  We were just given baskets, told to choose fibres we loved and have fun with the drum carder.  We then all spilt our batts and shared them out so that we were spinning a yarn using carded fibre from everyone in the class - a great way to loosen us up with the fat singles spinning and not be too precious about 'our' batt.

Some of the results here - ignoring the yarn on the bobbin

In the afternoon it was time for hard mental work and in my case I chose to go outside to the grass verge and listen as much as look.  After Felicity's presentation the evening before I was totally focused on experiencing for myself the sound of Shetland.  There were some dying nettles that had a multitude of colours in them if you looked past the 'brown' and the sounds they made rattling against each other in the gusts of wind were something I'd have completely missed before the talk.  Also a splash of a brave, late little purple flower.  I knew I needed to create a structure to the yarn that had firm, almost hard sections with blowsy airy light sections and a little hard edge for that sharp tapping rattle.

The batt, shown on front and back is above next to my red batt, and the yarn is on the bobbin above - here it is shown more clearly.

I was absolutely thrilled - colours I'd never have worked with otherwise and pushed to use over spun and verging on underspun sections in the single to embrace the qualities of the wind.  Little pieces of cut linen for that spiky edge to the dead nettles.  I totally adore this yarn and can't believe I created it.

Shetland Wool Week 3

Now this is where I'm going to say to anyone thinking of coming to Shetland Wool Week in future years - yes come, but do make the difficult choices regarding booking classes and events and don't try to go to EVERYTHING!

Yes, I'm having a fantastic time and my head is brimming with new creative ideas and inspirations, but I'm going to have to sleep solidly for a week when I get back home - except I'll be up to my knees in cleaning out hen houses etc ;-)

For those who know about my growing livestock interests on the farm, yes, daily updates from Assistant Shepherd are that all are doing well, including the Boreray Boys, and the chicks seem to have finally got the hang of going up the ramp to roost safely tucked up under their broody mum.  But he is leaving the mucking out to me when I get back and just adding clean straw when needed.

Now, back to things that don't require old clothes and wellingtons.

I started off Wednesday with Creative Art Yarns Spinning with Deborah Grey (ASF Shetland)
I had my trusty, well-travelled Sidekick with me, but couldn't resist the opportunity to try one of the Hamish Polson wheels.  I felt enormously grateful to the Shetland Spinners who had lent their precious wheels for people in the class to use.

 Then I went on to do some colour blending to make beautiful and interesting colours for the singles for my art yarns - I totally love playing with colour.  My family used to despair of my exclamations of delight when out together if I saw some particularly enticing combination of colours in the landscape and environment around us.  It could be anything from a traditionally beautiful view to peeling paint on a door or oil in a muddy puddle - the offspring had a particularly trying upbringing as they attempted to distance themselves from me in public.  I'm sure it built up their character ;-)

So, this was my colour blending - and I'm very pleased with the results.  I believe colour-blending is one of the things that will be appearing in Deborah's new book, not yet released.

Then onto the serious stuff - and I actually managed to produce a tail-spun yarn and a loopy one.  Great fun and new things I can experiment doing at home.

 The evening was the lectures at Shetland Museum with Di Gilpin and Felicity Ford.  Not only was this a wonderful opportunity to meet so many of the people who were attending Wool Week, but both lectures totally entranced me.  So much so that I had a total fail on the photography - well I got the one photo below which is of Felicity (on the left) performing the song she'd written as her response to the effect Shetland had had on her.  You can just make out some of Di's exquisite and exciting designs, and of course there is a Shetland Sheep featuring prominently.

It takes a lot of concentration to take photographs at this sort of event so that you're not distracting other people at all, and I was so absorbed in what both Di and Felicity had to say that it just wasn't happening.
You can however see more photos from the event on the Shetland Wool Week fb page.

What Di had to say about her life and work was very personal and I felt privileged to have heard it.  If you're not familiar with Di's work, then I urge you to look at her website and her blog.  It would be hard to listen to Di speak and not be itching to pick up needles and just knit something totally creative.  I knew that Di used some Scottish wool in her garments but I'd previously failed to realise how great her passion is for Scottish wool and promoting more processing of the local wool in Scotland.  Most of her garments are made with Scottish or British wool and she is a wonderful international advocate for the special qualities of Scottish wool.

Felicity continued to inspire me and move me emotionally through her talk as she described the effect that working in Shetland and with Shetland archive recordings had had on her.  This isn't going to be Felicity's last trip to Shetland I don't think!

If you're not familiar with Felicity's work, then this page has all the links you'll need.  Felicity is also one of the people behind Wovember

One thing that came out of both talks for me was how powerful the sense of place was for the creativity of both Di and Felicity, and how in Shetland the hardships imposed by the environment have shaped the people.  And of course, how intrinsic the Shetland sheep and their very special wool is to the Shetland of the past and the Shetland of the future.

Di told us about how wool processing/spinning operations in Scotland are taking on new young workers and expanding, which is such an exciting thing to be happening.  Shetland Wool Week itself, as it attracts more and more people from the area and as far afield as Australia and everywhere in between, reflects the growing interest and appreciation of Shetland sheep and their wool.  This is, of course, very exciting for me.

Shetland Wool Week 2

Monday evening was the opportunity to meet many of the people at Wool Week - and to buy the new book just published, Shetland Textiles 800BC to the Present edited by Sarah Laurenson. 

 There was also a very special cake to be cut - and eaten - and talks from some of the people behind Shetland Wool Week.

Tuesday was an early start for the From Sheep to Shop - Textiles Tour.  First stop was Burland Croft at Trondra, where we were met by Mary and Tommy Isbister.

We started in the barn where they had wonderful information boards about all the rare Shetland breed animals on their croft, including their Foula Shetland Sheep.

I also really enjoyed seeing the British wool garments that their daughter produces

and of course had a little feel of some of their Foula Shetland fleeces

Then it was time to meet the sheep - rounded up by their lovely sheepdogs - a mother and daughter pair working together.

As you can see the Foula Shetland sheep, believed by some to be a more primitive sheep, come in a vast array of colours.  The white sheep in with this flock are mainland Shetland sheep, and they were rather more amenable to being herded by the dogs than the fiesty Foulas.  I'd not expected to be able to see Foula sheep without braving the crossing to the island, so this was particularly exciting for me.

The Isbisters also have other rare breed Shetland animals, including the intriguing Shetland ducks.

 

After some extremely delicious home-made cake it was time to drive across another inter-island bridge to Easthouse on Burra

There we got to see the fascinating displays about local people, produced by Burra History Group, and see some wonderful Shetland knitting.  We also had a lunch consisting entirely of local produce, including bannocks - freshly made while we were there and a delicious mutton soup.

Then we had a lovely afternoon learning Shetland knitting skills - and more cake - and a chance to chat.  I shouldn't be amazed that our group included someone who had travelled all the way from Australia just for Shetland Wool Week.  Every year there are some Americans, Europeans and people from all around the world who come to Shetland just to enjoy everything that Wool Week has to offer.

We finished our time on Burra with a walk to the beach - deserted except for a few sheep in the fields beside the beach.

A wonderful day that gave me so much more than I'd expected.

Books about Sheep and Wool

Today is a proper murky day, stuck in a cloud with lots of rain, so I'm inside sorting through my books.

The ducks are enjoying the rain on the lawn, the sheep are getting on with grazing despite it.

I've put all my books about breeds of sheep and using wool from different breeds together on one shelf.  I thought it might be helpful for anyone new to the joy of knitting, spinning and crafting with wool from different breeds if I had a quick run through of my 'breeds library'.

I'll start with the books that I took around the country for Woolsack stuffing events, where we also had a display about British sheep and their wool.

I've written before about the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deb Robson and Carol Ekarius - there are now lots of reviews of it, some of which are here.

British Sheep & Wool is a British Wool Marketing Board publication (ISBN 9780904969108).  The National Sheep Association describes it here (scroll down).  I can't find any reviews so I'll do a brief description here.  It's a book of over 70 of the breeds of sheep farmed in the UK with some great photographs of the sheep and a lock of fleece from each breed.  It's divided into sections according to the classification of the fleece and/or the sheep.  So sections include 'Fine', 'Mountain', 'Naturally Coloured' and a useful section titled 'Cross' that has some of the common mules farmed in the UK.  The essential alphabetical index of breeds is on p178 at the back.

It's a great book to have on a display table because of the size and quality of the photographs and the small amount of written information for each breed.

 For certain information, such as when the breed and the breed society were established it's the easiest place to quickly get the dates, and it's very good on the cross breeds or mules as they're usually called.  If you're sheep spotting out in the British countryside then you're more likely to see mules and crosses than pure breeds, so this book will help you with breed-spotting.

Next a little pair of books by Jack Byard: Know Your Sheep and Know More Sheep.  Postcard sized and with a photograph and brief description of over 80 breeds of sheep found on British farms between them.  I've managed to track down some reviews of the books here:  Know Your Sheep and Know More Sheep.  The information is mostly about the sheep with brief mention of the fleece.

Next two books that include patterns for knitters and one full of inspiration for knitters, spinners & weavers.    The Knitter's Book of Wool has been comprehensively reviewed since it's publication in 2009 - here are details of the book and reviews.                    A more recent publication by a British author with vast experience of working with wool from British breeds of sheep is Pure Wool by Sue Blacker.  There is a really detailed review of the book here.  I must confess that now Pure Wool has been published, I tend to refer to that when choosing which breed's wool to use for a specific project.  I've learnt a lot about how to swap breeds for particular patterns from this book, which I can highly recommend.

The third book may need to be ordered from America, but it's a wonderful read and very inspiring.  Handspun Treasures from Rare Wools, ISBN 1883010845.  This is a description of the Save The Sheep Project which lies behind the book.  The description of the book says:  "Bringing together the art of spinning and wools from rare breeds of sheep, Handspun Treasures from Rare Wools catalogs the 29 touring pieces from the Save the Sheep Exhibit.  It also includes photos and information on endangered breeds, plus photos of several dozen other pieces that illustrate points about the rare-breed fibers and what makes them indispensable for contemporary handspinning.

I've just spotted while googling that there is an e-book of Selections from Handspun Treasures.

In Sheep's Clothing, below, is information about spinning with wool from different breeds of sheep. and reviews of the book can be read here.  (ISBN 9781931499385)

I'm also including two books that I've really enjoyed reading, Ryder's Sheep and Man and Alan Butler's Sheep.  The latter being the much more approachable way to learn about the influence of sheep on the development of civilisation over 1000s of years.  And no, I've not read every page of Ryder and I'm hoping it comes out an an e-version one day so I can read it away from home and when travelling.  It's heavy!

Next a book and a little treasure of a booklet.

 Real Shetland Yarns is about Shetland and its sheep - it is what it says on the cover:  a collection of woolly tales and memories.  There is a review of the book by Kate Davies here.

If you're curious about the seaweed eating sheep living on North Ronaldsay, then the booklet by Liz Lovick is a must-have read.  Liz has thoroughly researched the island and its sheep and combined this with her knowledge and love of working with North Ronaldsay wool.  The result is a delightful and fascinating read that will leave you wanting to visit the island yourself as you share Liz's enthusiasm for these little sheep and their wool.  The booklet can be purchased as a booklet or pdf download from the Northern Lace website.

Next a look at some European sheep - most of which cannot be found in the UK, but through the Blacker & Beyond with FFSB group on Ravelry, my interest in sheep breeds doesn't stop with British sheep.

Schafrassen der Alpen, or Sheep Breeds of the Alps, is in English and German and can be ordered here. It is just as it describes - detailed information with photographs about breeds of sheep found in the Alps.  The discussion about it on Ravelry is here.

Wools of Europe is the multilingual catalogue of a travelling exhibition in 2010 that highlighted one hundred European sheep breeds.  For each breed there is a photo of the sheep, part of a fleece and an article made from its wool.  It can be ordered here

There is a discussion about how to get hold of it from around the world here

Finally, the newest addition to my library - The Field Guide to Fleece by Deb Robson and Carol Ekarius.

As you can see, rather easier to carry around than the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (FFSB).

A great little pocket book at a price that makes it a definite as-well-as rather than instead-of the FFSB.  The photographs of the sheep and a lock of their fleece are superb and the information is just what you need if planning a project with fleece, fibre or yarn from a breed, when out fleece buying at a fibre-fest or even when deciding what breed(s) of sheep to keep with a consideration of their fleece in mind.

I would also like to draw people's attention to the entry for Brecknock Hill Cheviot.  That was the one British breed that Deb didn't have a sample of.  It is entirely due to the chain of farmers who passed around my request for a sample of fleece last winter, long after all the Brecknock's wool had gone to BWMB, that a few locks were found in time.  I was thrilled when an envelope containing the locks arrived for me to wash and send on to Deb in time for the photography.