North Atlantic Native Sheep & Wool Conference 1

Friday evening was the start of the North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference, which this year is being held in Shetland.  You can keep up with the events at the conference on facebook and there is more background information in this blog post from Jamieson & Smith

First we all took the opportunity to look at the wonderful exhibits in the touring exhibition 'Sheep and Wool Around the North Atlantic Region' which can be seen in the Shetland Museum and Archives.

I shall let the photos speak for themselves - if you can get to the Museum then I can highly recommend seeing it.

Faroe

 Greenland

 Iceland

 Norway

 Norway

 Orkney - the beautiful Orkney Gansey on the left was designed and knitted by Elizabeth Lovick

 Outer Hebrides

 Shetland

 Shetland

Then we moved into the lecture theatre.  Robert Hunter, Shetland Lord-Lieutenant set the tone in just the right way with his welcoming Opening address.  The introduction by Karin Flatøy Svarstad, the founder of the conference was really interesting and a lovely reminder of how one very determined person can make a real difference.

Eric Wilson, past-master of the Worshipful Company of Woolmen and Director for Campaign for Wool spoke about the Campaign for Wool and its origins and reminded us how the international aspect of wool trading and production cannot be neglected.

We then listened to a fascinating lecture by Ronnie Eunson and Lyall Halcrow titled 'Carbon Kind Lamb' about the benefits pure Shetland hill sheep can have on the biodiversity and carbon sequestration of Shetland peat bogs to such an extent that their meat becomes 'carbon neutral'.  The research will be published in full next year and I'll be very keen to read it.

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.

Shetland Wool Week 1

I left Orkney in the rain last night and it seems I brought the rain to Shetland with me - yes, you can just make out the sheep on the hill where I'm staying.  They don't seem overly concerned about the rain though - they have thick wool fleeces to protect them.

I've arrived in a Lerwick that seems to embrace Wool Week even more each year.  You don't have to walk far to find a shop window featuring Shetland wool and Shetland knitting.

It brings a wonderful atmosphere to Lerwick - even in the rain!













Before I did anything else this morning though I headed straight for Jamieson & Smith, where I was the first one through the door.  I think they were half expecting me and were probably getting out the black bags ready.  Yes, it was straight down the stairs to every handspinners dream room - Oliver Henry's fine fleece store.  The room soon filled with other spinners keen to find that special fleece, or two, or more.....  Oliver joined us and we were soon hearing fascinating information from him about Shetland sheep and fleece.  This is a post by Oliver for Wovember and gives you an insight into his vast knowledge, experience and passion for Shetland wool.

This is a little glimpse into the fleece store - before we all started finding our special fleeces .

I am going to decline to say how many may have called to me and are now in the boot of the car - yes, there is a good reason why I endure the crossing to Shetland by ferry.

Then a quick dash upstairs to wash my hands and join Hazel Tindall for her workshop on knitting with colour.  Hazel is described as one of Shetland's finest knitting teachers, and I can now certainly agree with that.  As is usual with Shetland Wool Week workshops, all materials are provided which makes it very easy for all the overseas visitors who fly into Shetland.

I may now have conquered my aversion to knitting with double-pointed needles, having learnt from Hazel how to overcome my 'issues'.  It's certainly quicker to knit small diameters in the round on dpns than my usual method of 2 circular needles.

I celebrated my new skills by treating myself to a browse through the basket of Shetland Knitting Belts on the counter - all in the most fabulous colours ever!  I was totally spoilt for choice, but in the end chose a bright purple with pink stitching.

We knitted wrist bands, choosing our own colours - yes, just look at the walls of yarn in the background - and were inspired by seeing all the beautiful samples of Fair Isle knitting that Hazel had brought with her.  I was thrilled to actually finish one of the pair just in the morning class.

After the class another wander round Lerwick and into the now open shops, including Shetland Organics with their usual lovely display of Shetland wool and knitting.

Tonight there is the opening ceremony to look forward to, and lots of catching up with friends, including meeting Ravelry friends in person for the first time.