WrapWool-WarpWeave
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Published: October 6th 2023
Saturday, September 23, 2023, Lerwick The first workshop has been completed. It was a weaving project that once profeciency was attained could possibly produce a “snood” which in ontario english is a cowl. To get to the Sport Complex we asked the bus driver about Broch of Clickimin thinking that the two were one and the same thing. Of course the Broch is a bronze age structure and the sports centre bears its name.
Let the walking begin. Luckily we had enough time for myself to hobble behind Sherry and get there in time for two o'clock.
And what an impressive sports centre it turned out to be...what a pool. Children of all ages were enjoying the water slide, large swim instructing pool and the spacious snack bar sesrving soup,crisps, salads and drinks.
Sherry and I enjoyed the homemade tomato soup and discounted the too white flabby wonderbread.
The weaving workshop was attended by ten enthusiastic Wool Week attendants.
Emma, the instructor provided the weaving frames, the warp, the wool, the colour graphs and the patience of Job during the three hour workshop.
Eight ladies were able to complete a visibly successful
piece. One lady struggled mightily and I had to keep asking for help because I could not remember if the needle was to go over or under ...this was no walk in the perk for someone unable to deal with slips, slides and turns.
Emma brought all the materials necessary...wool, frame, instructions. At the end of the class ALL was given back except that piece of weaving that was cut off the frame. After bathroom break and walk to the bus stop we encounter bad news. We were
intent on taking the bus back to the hotel. We were able to stop the #1. Sadly he was at the end of his run....at the end of his day ... at the end of picking people up and we could not get on the bus. We walked to the hotel. No point A is far from point B here in Lerwick. Each distance become far when hampered by a wonky knee and with the idea that each step taken harms the knee in some irreparable way.
Since we were already ambulatory stopping at the COOP made sense. We bought chicken slices, potato salad, yogurt,
big green local apple, real cream,instant and decaf coffee for our dinner.
Sunday Sept 24 Shetland Museum On Sunday everything is closed. No busses ...no shops... no cafe.
Apparently some exceptions are made during Wool Week. With the taxi we visited the Shetland Museum, spoke with people from Iceland, Japan, the US and then went to the map with the pins where we all put our names on the place from which we came.
Dinner at the hotel ...a lovely piece of haddock – battered not buttered. The polish server was not pronouncing battered properly?????.
Sleeping is always not a problem. The bath tup was a bit dangerous....no safety bars and a bit high, especially for my wonky knee...shades of 2019 when I could hardly straddle the tubs with the right leg. Maybe Lerwick affects my legs?
The question is when will I return again.
Monday, Sept. 25 This notebook is not charging...so what if the little thing that fits into my ...I was going to say bullet proof but actually ...thief proof satchel....it can not be termed a “purse”... too ugly and too big for that! ... getting back on track....
the notebook is four years old...it came to Shetland in 2019...A calendar sticking on its back is proof.
With y wonkey knee walked to the I.T.S.. The man tested my cables and it was the cable that is on the fritz. Have bout a new one with a UK plug at its end. And absorbed the news that the battery was weak so am keeping it all plugged in whenever a plug is available.
Continued with the walking and dropped into Harry's Hardware to return the two plugs sold to me the day before. My three pronged canadian number could not even be pushed into this adapter. The woman at the counter of course heard my tale of woe ...the wonky knee...and her immediate advice was to go to the hospital to have it looked at in case of blood clots.
After having a lovely lunch of panini and soup in a small restaurant on the Esplanade I take a taxi to the hospital.
Flashing my canadian health card the particulars are recorded and I wait....first for blood taking...that was an ordeal that left a bruise on the inside of my elbow the size of
the circumference of a teacup...never had that happen before ...the guy just stuck straight head on into the vein, took out three vials of blood and then mopped up but not fast enough. Blood was flowing down my arm and a stream even hit my satchel AND the floor.
The doctor was a much more pleasant experience. There is no restriction of movement. The bloodwork came back clear with no danger of clots. The prognosis was muscle tissue inflammation. My knee is two inches bigger than the right knee.
She recommended rest, elevation, ice/warm packs and PAINKILLER!
From the hospital I went by taxi to a pharmacy/chemist (
the taxi ladies suggestion as opposed to go to Tesco and have her wait while I go in and search) to buy more than one package of the painkiller ... Paracetamol 500gm. At .99p for 32 capsules I am wondering how effective the will be.
With the same taxi I returned to the Shetland Hotel. The lady at reception gave me an ice pack and I retired to the room feeling totally angry and pissed off that I should have to deal with a bum knee on
this the first big trip since damned covid started.
Left overs made dinner...left overs ... from what you ask....probably from ready made something or other available at the COOP close to the hotel.
Sherry and I watched a movie on her Netflix account and I started to knit a fish.
At the Shetland Museum where all the WoolWeek attendees hung out there hung a mobile of small 15cm fish knit in various Guernsey sweater patterns.
So ends another day.
Tuesady, Sept 26, 2023 Again with the walking to the Textile Museum. This stark grey building I had avoided the other two times I had visited Lerwick. NO excuse this time even if it meant walking the distance. In the parking lot of the Museum we encountered James. On his dashboard was a black and white work in progress and I asked him about the patterns being used. He was knitting a scarf... and that began the conversation and a connection that lasted he rest of the day.
The Museum is a treasure hold of vintage knits, old looms, lace examples galore, tools of the knitting trade and various newly made objects
for sale to the intrepid visitor that longs for a wonderful reminder of a grand visit. I have no idea why I had not come here before... it made for a great visit. Upstairs an opportunity presented itself to be part of a humongously long scarf that had been knitted upon for the last 20yrs. There was a small queue but eventuslly I was able to add four rows to the project ...and the queue continues.
I bought only a small square that had been machine embroidered with the words love to knit.
James was still in the building. He was also having an outing day and he kindly offered to take us along. I invited him to lunch. He made reservations at a perfect spot and we ate fish by the sound of waves dashing against the shore. The setting of the Fjarea
https://www.fjaracoffee.com/ ...ok... so I spelled it wrong... Cafe Bar was excellent. Sad to say I will never eat fish stew in tomato sauce again. Am off tomato sauce for a while....not even on spaghetti!The coffee was PERFECT...hard to say that about some of the coffee we have had this far...and it is only day
four!
With James driving we begin the days adventure. We hear his suspension from teaching story and commiserate about the fact that a nine year old child could have such an effective ability to create lies and cause such harm.
Along the way to Scalloway we stop to pet and feed grass to two Shetland ponies. We drive past the school where James will agin be teaching because today he received the good news that accusations had been dropped.
We stopped on a VERY windy hill, the home of Donna Smith, a wool dyer. Her lawn sign has come with a guarantee to withstand the strong winds ever present in her location. I bought her book of designs and three skeins of her sheep wool in the natural colours of the sheep ...black, brown, grey... no whit ...yet... she sells on line. I particularly love the brown....reminiscent of the wool I bought ages ago in Iceland.
From here we drove to Bara and visited the creator of bears made from old sweaters that hold memories of relatives or special occasions...
https://www.burrabears.co.uk/ ... her studio was a confusion of baskets filled with woolen bits and pieces waiting to be made into her one hundred british pound creations. Good thing I am not into bears and my friend in Montreal no longer collects or I would have had to buy a bear!
And then we visited a woman who knit a fence...
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We took pictures of ourselves her giant knitting needles.
https://returntonow.net/2019/07/25/woman-knits-lace-fence-with-giant-needles/ All round it was an exciting totally unexpected and very rewarding day. Thank you James.
Back at the hotel by 17.00 and dinner of venison sausage, more ice pack treatment, another netflix movie....the TV is B-O-R-I-N-G!
There was a lovely drink made with the Cadbury's packet of hot chocolate and cream with hot water .... the sugar fix was instant and delish.
In disgust I unraveled my fish. Am saving the most interestingly flecked brown wool for a pair of gloves...albeit the wool is already on its way by post.
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 If its Wednesday it must be time for Wall also known as Waas ...
https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/shetland/walls/index.html ...
The taxi dropped me at the Esplanade where all busses pass eventually having begun their run at the Viking Bus Station there just before Charlotte Fortress.
I needed to go to the post office to post the first package back to Canada. Had a panic attack when I found the doors locked. Did discover that the post office had moved to the back of a convenience store that sold a lot of candy. After weighing and packing into a cardboard box my treasures headed for Sudbury cost 40GBP to ship...the slowest possible cheapest possible way.
Trudged-hobbled to Boots to buy more painkiller because I had forgotten to bring a days supply. The small cafe on the Esplanade provided water and even in a state of anxiousness about missing the 09.20 bus to Wass I was able to hobble over in plenty of time after taking two painkillers.
The bus took an hour to travel the roads thru small collections of houses, past incongruous golf courses, past an as yet invisible windmill farm of 130 tower strength, around green fields populated by beige woolly sheep, along small rivulets brown with peat seeping, stark cuts of peat bog, brown heather covered hills and the occasional passenger waiting at a bus stop.
The bus stopped at Wall/Wass beside a bakery and what looked like a post office. People got off some people got on...I stayed in my seat...Wass from the bus window looked sooo small. I could have gotten off and walked around because a picture of the place looks most inviting...
https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/shetland/walls/index.html For 2pounds 90 paid, a second time for the return trip, I was happy to view the landscape from the opposite angle as went before.
Back in Lerwick I treated myself to lunch at the small cafe with lovely soup and another panini. Half the panini I saved for later and eventually ate it by the time I had tea in Unst but that is bringing the story a few days forward.
While sitting comfortably at the corner table I wrote my post cards, knit a few rows on the basket project that stood on the counter and generally enjoyed the ambiance of the tiny place.
At the book store I took pics of books that would look interesting on my bookshelf. Trouble is I will probably have to order them on Amazon since Amazon bought out the Book Depository.
Have broken down and bought 25gms times two of mint Jameson Wool to use with the bits and pieces Sherry shared with me from the bag of goodies she picked up.
Back to the hotel by taxi. And another day ends.Its October the sixth as I write and I have no idea what I ate or if I had the service of another bag of ice cubes. All in all it was a good day at Wall.
Thursday , September 28, 2023 to Unst • taxi to Shetland Museum at 07.00 to meet tour bus
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-grab banana, mandarin and yogurt from breakfast bar
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on arrival at the Museum ask Jane and Anne for a ride to the hotel upon our return from Unst. There are 42 people on the bus tour.
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-met Behate from Bremen in the line for the bus and sat with her for the rest of the day
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the windmill farm came into view
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- there were many collections of small communities in the distance under the shadow of a green hill or past a curve in the road.
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- because of misty conditions little was discernible on the horizon
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-and then the single lane road began...exciting when seeing oncoming traffic...but the pass space was always close at hand and one cold see in the distance if something was coming towards.
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The bus past thru Yell and thru Brae
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Two ferries had to be taken to get to Unst...one trip long enough for a bathroom break and the second so short all stayed on the bus.
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-at Unst we were welcomed in the community hall with tea and cakes. Then we had free time to ramble along one of the trails or to go to the former school where a geological display explained the exsistence and makeup of this part of the island.
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From Google....
Unst was an important source of chromium during the 19th Century, and today you can still see remains of the quarries and the horse mill where the rock was crushed. At Norwick beach you can see the junction between the two main rock units of Unst, with the continental rocks in contact with the ophiolite.
https://www.scottishgeologytrust.org/geology/51-best-places/unst-shetland/
Unst, Shetland: Ancient ocean floor rocks
A fascinating combination of ancient continental and ocean-floor crustal rocks on Britain’s most northerly inhabited island.
As continents drift across the globe, the actions of plate tectonics normally mean that ocean-floor crust forms and then disappears again, recycled back into the mantle. Sometimes however, a sliver of ocean-floor rocks escapes the process of subduction, and ends up being added to continental crust. That’s what happened here.
In the old school a fascinating exhibit of life on the croft, tools used to bring in the harvest, representation of the variety of sheep found here by various fleeces, life size dioramas depicting family life and selected knitting and lace projects displaying the creativity and industriousness of the people living in the most northerly point of the UK. After the viewing and sitting for a while in the weekly knitting circle of this community. I chatted with a woman who had been a W.R.E.N. So as to get away from her mother, married, had one daughter and now has seven great grand children...and her brother has none she said. It was back to the Hall for a lunch of squash soup and sandwiches on brown and white bread. I had eaten my leftover panini during the morning tea and cake session. I bought a booklet of the famous Unst lace patterns and a poster enumerating all the varieties of sheep found in Shetland.
The bus retraced the route and dropped me off at the Hotel, since it was passing that way. I think I ate dinner although I am not sure. When checking out in the morning only one dinner was listed on the hotel bill. I am sure Sherry and I ate at least four dinners ...halibut , venison sausage and I do not know what else.
All in all once again a satisfying experience in Lerwick... too bad the hotel was a bit out of the way across from the ferry terminal...tooo bad I could not wander about freely exploring nooks and krannie of the town and too bad that for some reason or other we did not stay until the end of the Wool Week dates...i.e. October 1from Sept 23...am still questioning myself about that arrangement.
Anyway sad to say am not planning a return in the near future...if I had made a good local friend that could be a possibility but no such friendship developed so will not be hurrying back....although I do LOVE Lerwick....but whats to do but wander the nooks and crannies and drink coffee in a french cafe run by an Englishwoman. That was quite the place...we could order coffee if we could drink it in fifteen minutes because that was when she would clear the place and set up for lunch ... loved that line of hers.
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