views of shetland

October 11, 2019October 11, 2019 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

Contrary to the evidence shown in this blog over the past few days there is actually a lot more to Shetland than wool and knitting. I saw only a fraction of it (which is why we are planning to return in June … as well as Wool Week 2020) but here is a taste of the non-woolly beautiful world that is Shetland.

The view from Da Peerie Hoose as I stood outside in my pjs with my cup of tea and appreciated the magical morning light.

Channerwick south of Sandwick.

Birthday dinner at The String. Cannot recommend it highly enough though you will have to book (even if you aren’t there during Wool Week!) Live music upstairs to round off the evening. I started with scallops and belly pork.

Followed by Shetland halibut

And rounded off with one of the best cheese plates I have seen in a long while. Proper homemade oatcakes and a chutney good enough to eat on its own.

Memorial in Scalloway to the men who died on the Shetland Bus bringing agents and supplies in and out of occupied Norway during WWII.

Boat carving in the Delting Galley Shed. The Delting Up Helly Aa began in 1970 as a Senior School Festival and is now a huge festival including the communities of Voe, Mossbank, Muckle Roe and Vidlin.

The bill heads are attached to the ceiling but the sunlight streaming through the skylights made it impossible to photograph them. Here are some of the stunning shields.

Blue on blue. Small boat in Hay’s Dock outside the Shetland Museum and archives.

Waiting for a plane to land at Sumburgh airport in the south of the Mainland.

And here it comes

This is the view just to my left … note the beginning of the runway!

Looking down at the rocks below The Sumburgh Head Lighthouse.

While pretty northerly, the title of the most northern lighthouse in the UK belongs to Muckle Flugga lighthouse. The fishing up there is quite good too. This is Stuart’s 40lb cod.

View of TM Adie & Sons in Voe, for over a century one of the largest employers in the north east mainland of Shetland. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wore jumpers woven by Addie when they scaled Everest in 1953.

And finally, thank you to NorthLink Ferries for making the journey there and back so pleasant (even if everyone else did look a little green the following morning!)

See you in June Shetland.

Love Gillie x

ferries and fair isle

October 1, 2019October 1, 2019 ~ Gillie ~ 3 Comments

There are several signs that you are grown up:

Snow has the ability to be a pain in the arse as well as quite pretty;
You no longer get excited by an envelope with your name on, in fact frequently quite the reverse’
Christmas comes around jolly quickly these days.

Fortunately, whilst Christmas may rock up with greater speed each year, so does Shetland Wool Week. It is almost a year ago that I returned from Loch Ness Knit Fest with the knowledge that there were three other knit festivals that definitely warranted attendance. Today I am tucked up in Da Peerie Hoose in Sandwick on Shetland after my first day at Shetland Wool Week and I am still pinching myself (I’m getting quite sore actually!)

Accommodation was booked first (I can highly recommend Da Peerie Hoose, it wasn’t finished when we booked it back in October last year, but it’s already a popular cottage and rightly so). I registered for the summer sailing alert on NorthLink Ferries and then waited anxiously for the morning in March when I could book tickets for the vast array of workshops, tours and events that comprise Shetland Wool Week. For those old enough to remember, it was like a hybrid of the first day of the Harrods Sale and opening your A-level results; mad chaos and intense anticipation.

One of the advantages of a couple where one is a yarn and fibre lover and the other loves to bother fish is that both activities can usually be accommodated in similar geographical locations. Note – Shetland Wool Week, Loch Ness Knit Fest, Fanø Strikkefestival (Denmark), Iceland Wool Week. Stuart has ample opportunities to dangle a line in fresh and sea water whilst I indulge in some fibre love. Consequently this is Stuart on Sunday morning at the start of our travels to Shetland.

This is the equipment I took with me.

Hmmm….

The ferry crossing was pleasantly uneventful (I gather crossings earlier in the week were a tad bumpier, I am glad I missed them) I was faintly amused by this sign.

I wondered if it referred to bad weather when perhaps walking up and down stairs was replaced by a more rapid “transit”.

Monday morning was bright and clear and we managed to pack all of Stuart’s fishing tackle/bait/goodness knows what into our little hire car and went to explore. Our priorities were:

Check location of Fishing Tackle shop (no prizes who that was for)
Obtain 1 x 2.00 mm 40 cm circular needle (even I was surprised I didn’t have one!)
Obtain hearing aid batteries. Whilst I am quite happy to potter around in semi-sludgy silence when it’s just Stuart and me (!) I did want to be able to hear the workshop leaders and chat to all the other knitters from around the world (New Zealand is the furthest travelled I have met thus far) and I had forgotten my spare set.
Breakfast.

It was in forgetting the hearing aid batteries we met Tommy who is the Lerwick equivalent of Six Dinner Sid and was planning his adventures for the day whilst chilling out in Boots.

Breakfast at The Dowry and this was our view.

The food was pretty darn good too and after a potter down to the Hub we returned for lunch and met Stuart’s partner in fish bothering crime, the lovely Adam from Connecticut. His wife Anne, who I met through the SWW facebook page also has a fabulous knitting podcast, I thought I knew how.

We also spotted these

Are they not quite beautiful? Currently on my needles is the Twageos Tam O’Shanter from The Vintage Shetland Project by Susan Crawford.

When I have mastered that, I may try some of the other glorious vintage patterns, but whether I achieve the delicacy and intricate colour work of these is debatable!

Then time for our first workshops. Stuart was playing with fused glass and I learned to knit my first ever afterthought heel. I am so impressed with myself, I kept having to stop and admire this thing of beauty.

Front

And back.

This is where I have to confess that I didn’t knit the sock itself, that was prepared for us by the wonderful Lesley Smith who made Fair Isle Afterthought Heels a complete breeze!

Finally we arrived at our home for the week. Oh my, it is like living in the little house you dreamed of when you were a little girl.

The welcome.

Our cosy and very comfortable bed.

The amazingly well stocked kitchen.

The instant meals are ours – we weren’t in the mood for cooking!

This morning we are up bright and early after a night knitting (me) reading and planning fishing (him) by the fire.

Have a great day wherever you are.

Love Gillie x

hats

November 22, 2018 ~ Gillie ~ 2 Comments

On my return from Loch Ness Knit Fest in October, I showed the Boss my purchases. Yes, all my purchases! One of them was this gorgeous little number from Tine and Floyd.

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The Boss took a shine to it and suggested it would make a fine hat. In particular it would make a fine hat with ear flaps. A fine hat with ear flaps that would be perfect to keep his head and ears warm whilst out fishing. Since the wind off the North Sea is pretty piercing if you are on land I can only assume it is vicious when out at sea.

So I disappeared down the rabbit hole that is Ravelry and found this wonderful pattern by Mitzy Moore

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Obviously I am doing it in one colour way, but after a month or so of lacework I am loving the speed with which it knits up! I’m not sure about the bobble though. Not quite his style I don’t think!

What’s on your needles today?

Love Gillie x

foraging

August 11, 2013August 11, 2013 ~ Gillie ~ 1 Comment

In a journey towards less, there is more to contend with than removing things from your home. You must also consider how and why you let things into your home, and indeed your life in general.

I have long been a supermarket avoider. I am one of the founder members of The Durham Local Food Network, and have over the years made my own butter, cheese, soap, shampoo, furniture polish, cleaning products, face creams as well as the more usual, preserves, breads, wines, fruit brandies etc. All were a huge success with the possible exception of butter, which though it tasted delicious was really not worth the effort. If I had to make all my own butter we would never bake again!

I have always loved foraging. I am not particularly knowledgeable, but have always been eager to learn. I have never poisoned anyone, but there have been some less than successful experiments. Acorn coffee tasted rather good, but like the butter, was a faff to make. Adding cleavers to salads enhanced it in my view, but not in that of the rest of the family. Rowan jelly is delicious after two years, it is vile in year one.

Imagine my delight to discover that the Boss and I were going on a two day coastal foraging course with Rose and Chris Bax and Caco from Taste the Wild. We went out mushrooming with them in October last year and it was such a fantastic day that when I opened the voucher on Christmas morning I was devastated to realise that I had to wait until August. It was well worth the wait.

I have pondered whether to give you a blow by blow account in one post or not. Fearful that some of you might not be able to contain your excitement and could suffer an unexpected early onset life threatening condition through sheer joy I shall sprinkle the reports over the next few weeks.

However, as a small taste of what is to come.

This is me fishing for whiting and cod on “All My Sons” with Sean. Day one was not a great success for me (though great for the others). I caught up well enough on day two. On the first evening I was also suffering from a touch of sea sickness and spent the latter part of the journey, whilst they were emptying the lobster pots, with my eyes firmly fixed on the horizon…

This is supper on day two… in addition to which we also had two HUGE lobsters, a guarnard, winkles, limpets and some shore crabs. Anybody recognise anything?! With the exception of the bread, the salad and salsa verde we caught or foraged all of it.

I would hazard a guess that depending on where you live, at least half of the “weeds” you are trying to eradicate from your garden you could eat one way or another.

chickweed
rosebay willow herb
fat hen
hogweed
grape plantain
Everlasting sweet pea (NOT the annuals)
Ground Ivy

And that doesn’t even begin to include all the things that probably don’t grow in your garden …..