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Shetland

Scatness Tam

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I’m not known for travelling lightly… My sister can travel for weeks with everything she needs squashed into a small backpack. So it wasn’t unexpected for me to go on holiday to Shetland and bring pattern books and shetland wool from my yarn collection with me. Of course I returned home to Belfast with even more! I however also had squared paper and marker pens for drafting patterns… you just never know when you’ll be inspired. As knitter’s I think we just like to be prepared.

Scatness Tam

I cast on the Scatness Tam on my 50th birthday after a wonderful day walking around Sumburgh Lighthouse and exploring Jarlshof.[Read More]

Shetland Ponies

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Shetland Ponies

One of the animals I really wanted to see when we were visiting Shetland were the Shetland Ponies. I’d seen the cute pictures of Shetland ponies wearing fair isle cardigans. Neil bought me a birthday card with the Shetland ponies wearing fair isle cardigans while we were wandering through Lerwick. Very cute.[Read More]

Shetland Sheep

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I was really looking forward to seeing the Shetland Sheep when we visited Shetland. I love Shetland wool, it is so soft and beautiful.

Shetland Sheep

I’ve knit accessories for myself as well as garments for the Sasha dolls. I adore wearing the wonderfully soft, light and warm hats, fingerless mitts and scarves that I knit using shetland wool.[Read More]

Shopping in Shetland

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When we visited Shetland, I knew I’d want to bring some wool-related souvenirs home. But I’m sure that is on the top of every knitter’s wish list when they are going to the home of Shetland sheep and Shetland wool… Especially if they love doing any fair isle or colour work knitting.

Jamiesons Lerwick

So please join me on my week of Shopping in Shetland…[Read More]

Sumburgh Lighthouse and my Tam

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In the week before we left for our holiday I knit a fair isle tam. I chose 15 different Shetland yarns using a triad colour scheme in purples, teals and a hint of orange to add a little bit of zinginess.

Fair Isle Tam Sumburgh

The pattern I used was Tam No 12 designed by Mary Rowe and published in her book Knitting Tams: Charted Fair Isle Designs. I adore this book. It has a short section at the front on the construction of a tam followed by the charted patterns for all 17 tams. I had so much fun deciding how to use my colour choice in the pattern.[Read More]

Journey to Shetland…

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In September we went for a long anticipated holiday to Shetland… I’ve wanted to visit Shetland for a very long time and eagerly read blog posts about Fair Isle knitting, the Shetland Wool Week and also love reading 60 North Magazine. October is going to be Shetland month on the Knitting Squirrel as I share the wonderful experience of a week spent walking and exploring Shetland Mainland.

“60 North Magazine – A quarterly publication which covers stories about all aspects of life in Shetland – bringing you inspiration, interesting information and stunning photography.”

We’d decided to treat both of our long drives as road trips. Why you are probably wondering, did someone who gets sea sick decide on a holiday involving four ferry journeys when she could have flown? Well it really all comes down to wool… Shetland wool… and how much you can squash into luggage for a flight? So we needed to bring the car. It also gave us an excuse to spend a week in the Cairngorms National Park on our way back! You’re going to love November… red squirrels… lots of red squirrels!

So join us for our Journey to Shetland! We left home in Belfast at 2:00 am to drive to the Stena Line ferry terminal to take the Stena Superfast VII to Cairnryan. It sailed on time at 3:30 am and we arrived in the port at Cairnryan pretty much on time just before 6:00 am. I usually take sea sickness tablets but made do with wrist bands on this leg of the journey. I curled up under my quillo and tried to snooze on the ferry. Neil couldn’t sleep and spent most of the time reading his novel.

Ailsa Craig

We drove north along the South Ayrshire coast for about 30 minutes, pulling into a car park near Girvan with a view of Ailsa Craig.[Read More]