North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference 3

Saturday didn't finish with the Makers' Market - it was back to the Mart for a very special event - Fleece grading and sorting with Oliver Henry.

Oliver started off by showing us lower grade fleeces and what many more Shetland fleeces used to look like.  This wool isn't suitable for the fine knitting yarns that Jamieson & Smith produce but it isn't wasted.  It is used in a variety of products including carpets, beds, duvets, throws and the latest product,  numnahs.

 
 Then we saw some of the very fine fleece that some Shetland sheep produce - fine enough for even one-

ply cobweb lace yarn, and an absolute dream for hand spinners.

 Here are the two extremes of Shetland wool - you wouldn't think they come from the same breed.  Both though have their uses where their individual properties best match the required function.

Oliver does talks about fleece grading and sorting as a regular event at Shetland Wool Week, so you'll get the chance to learn so much from him for yourself if you come to a future Wool Week.

There was one final event at the mart - the opportunity to buy fleeces from the fleece competition.  I'd obtained such lovely and interesting fleeces from the Fine Fleece Store at J&S on the Monday morning, that I'd not intended to purchase at this point..........  but then it turned out that the rather special black Championship fleece was actually for sale........  Tom and I decided to split it and buy it between us.  (you'll know Tom from Wovember)  Even half a Shetland fleece will go a long way for spinning lace yarn, and it was just too special to go to one person only.  So, actually, as I'm writing this I'm realising that my purchase of half of this fleece was a sacrificial and altruistic action on my part.  Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 

Sunday was a very early start to get to the coach before 7.30am, but everyone made it.  We were going north for the day.  This involved two ferries there and two ferries back.

The journey to Haroldswick in Unst, driving through Yell, took us over 2 hours, but we did make time for a stop at the famous Unst Bus Shelter.

I think we were all very moved when we heard that the theme for this year of Sheep and Wool was in honour of the North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference.  What a wonderful honour and welcome to us from the people of Unst.

I see that Deb Robson has also blogged about the Unst Bus Shelter - you can see her actually knitting in the shelter here.

After being served the most amazing morning coffee/tea at Haroldswick Hall, accompanied by some seriously gorgeous home bakes, we drove on to Hermaness National Nature Reserve to meet some local crofters and their sheep.

They had brought off the hills a selection of Shetland sheep just for us to see and penned them in groups of rams, ewes, and male & gimmer lambs/hoggs - I'm not sure if in Shetland they call their weaned youngsters of around 6 months of age hoggs or lambs.  Also, I realise I didn't look to check if the male hoggs/lambs were castrated or not - if castrated they'd be called wethers.
There is a useful list of sheep terminology here, and a more comprehensive but international one on Wiki here.

Anyway, not only had the crofters rounded up these hill sheep - no small task, but they'd separated them into male, female, boys and girls.  Again I felt very humbled to be welcomed so fabulously by the people of Unst.

Above is a pen of ewes, including a couple of very old, but very healthy looking ewes.  Below are two  of the sheep from other pens that caught my eye.

We were able to spend a good amount of time observing the Shetland sheep and talking to the crofters, and I also observed that there were some glorious examples of knitting being worn by members of the group, and I think possibly nålbinding in the second hat from the left.

Here I got a very clear photo that shows the
characteristic tail that gives the North Atlantic
Short-Tailed group of sheep breeds their name.

Again I was most interested to see the huge variation in the types of fleece on the sheep.

The crofters explained that some of the fleeces looked different because they had been rooed rather than shorn since those sheep had been shown earlier in the year.  Rooing gives a better look to the fleece on the sheep for the show ring.

The other thing I learnt is that in Shetland sheep rooing is easier where the 'join' between the old fleece and the new growth is weakest and this is influenced by the sheep being not in the best condition at the end of winter.  It may be that there is a genetic influence on this as well.









Just before we left I couldn't resist this photo illustrating the story of Shetland wool from 'on the sheep' to finished Shetland wool hat - those of you with sharp eyes may spot that the person studying the sheep so intently is Deb Robson.

History of the Shetland Sheep
Shetland Sheep - A brief description
So we left Hermaness and drove back to Haroldswick through some stunning countryside.

 

At the Hall we were met with the sight of a wonderful buffet lunch made especially for us - a real treat indeed and it was as delicious as it looks.

 There was a craft fair on in the Hall as well, and musicians playing traditional Shetland music.  Many of us succumbed to temptation with the high standard of the different craft goods for sale.

 

On the opposite side of the road to the Hall is Unst Heritage Centre, and the wonderful welcome for us extended there where there were knitters and spinners demonstrating their skills for us to see.

 

There is a fabulous display of historic lace knitting held at the centre, together with examples of the equipment used to spin and knit the famous Unst lace.  Another place that is firmly on my 'must-see' list of suggested places to visit in Shetland.

One of the exhibits at the Heritage Centre that I really enjoyed looking at were these sheep made by the local children.  I think crafts skills and creativity must run in the blood of these descendants of the lace knitters of Unst.

We then left Unst and went to Sellafirth Hall on Yell for afternoon tea and talks from Andy Ross and Liz Gott on the use of Shetland wool in local textile arts and crafts.  There were some lovely samples of weaving for us to look at.

We then had time to look round ASF Shetland, Shetland Gallery and Bayanne House - all the linked websites have great images of the art and crafts we were able to see.  Yell is another island where creativity flourishes!

Just as we were leaving I spotted two Shetland sheep standing on the top of a bank which had partly collapsed to reveal the rock and peat below.  A very fitting image for the end of an absolutely fantastic day.

North Atlantic Native Sheep & Wool Conference 2

Saturday morning was as much about the sheep as their wool, and the opportunity to hear experts talk about Shetland sheep and what they were looking for in the best sheep and the best 'wool on the hoof' was most definitely a highlight of the day.  All the sheep at the mart that day were Shetland rams.  Addie Doull was one of the people talking about points for Flock Book rams and it was so informative.  It also appeared that for an individual deciding which ram to buy that there was an element of 'feeling' as well as going through the points.

Some was so practical, such as looking for a sheep with a mouth that wasn't too narrow - it means when daylight hours for eating are short in the winter that the sheep can get more food with each mouthful.

Oliver Henry took time out from his judging of the fleece on over 200 rams to give us a fascinating demonstration of what he's looking for in the very best fine fleeces - also known as 'kindly' fleeces.  Crimp and uniformity are just two of the desired characteristics.

Oliver also judged the Fleece Competition and it was the usual wonderful display of the very best fleeces from the clip this year.

High marks, as expected, for the white trio, but I was thrilled to see that the Championship fleece this year was a black fleece from a very fine coloured trio entered by Addie Doull.

 What I hope you can see in this photo of the black fleece is the fabulous crimp and exceptional fineness of the fibres, and the uniformity of this high standard throughout the fleece.

We also had a visit to the adjoining abattoir and a talk by Ronnie Eunson about how the new and modern facility was financed and is run.  This abattoir is now run by the community for the benefit of the community and replaces an ageing facility that many were reluctant to use.  The design ensures minimal stress for the animals and means that Shetland residents can purchase meat that has been entirely processed within Shetland.  I do eat meat and enjoy the wonderful flavour and health benefits of eating lamb/mutton from native breeds grazing on hills, but it's important to me that the sheep are treated with respect and with minimal travelling and other stresses, so I was very happy to see this facility for Shetland.

Some free time next meant some of us could go into Lerwick for the Makers' Market - what a wonderful selection of the incredible skills and creativity to be found in Shetland.  I'm just going to let you share my most enjoyable experience through a selection of photos of the event.

I think this comment, "Plenty of Character" sums up the entire Makers' Market.  As I've said before, if you ever get the chance to come up for Shetland Wool Week, then grab it!  And do include the Makers' Market in your itinerary.

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.