Knitting content (Scotland trip)

Our Scotland tour was punctuated by knitting talks and workshops. We started out with a bang - famous Shetland knitter Hazel Tindall came by to speak with us after lunch on the very first day. It was so interesting to hear her speak about Fair Isle knitting traditions and techniques. One of my favorite parts was when she demonstrated how she knits with a knitting belt:

You can see a bulge just under Hazel's arm - that section of the belt is padded and has many holes in it. She likes to use 30cm dpns with her belt (though she says they are old and 40cm is a more common length to find now). She anchors one dpn in a hole on the belt and holds a second one in her left hand. She knits in the round this way. To my surprise, I realized she was working exactly as I work on two circulars, but with only three dpns total (two with stitches on them and one to work with) - not 4-5 as we typically use.

I asked what her favorite yarn is to work colorwork with, and she very tactfully said that she uses Jamieson's and Jamieson and Smith equally. She even writes patterns with color codes for both.

Before we left Edinburgh, we had a workshop with Emily of Tin Can Knits:

She began with a slide show about the Strange Brew pattern, which is a mix-and-match design-your-own-sweater kind of thing. It was great to see all the samples and hear about her design process. Here is one yoke that particularly appealed to me - it looks like stained glass:

After knitting my Humulus sweater earlier this year, I definitely envision more colorwork yoke sweaters in my future. Perhaps even a Strange Brew. But this workshop wasn't well-designed in terms of how we spent our knitting time. After the presentation, we had just over one hour to either swatch a project (any project - not a specified one) or to begin a sweater (but we hadn't been told to bring measurements, ideas, or yarn).

This workshop reminded me that the class I REALLY wanted to take at Edinburgh Yarn Festival (but couldn't get into) was Colours of Edinburgh with Felicity Ford. I am definitely planning to do some stranded work with Scottish yarns in the future!

Our next workshop was in Fife with designer Di Gilpin. Di has had a quite interesting career. In addition to doing a lot of hand knitting (she began by knitting sweaters for the wealthy), she has designed yarn lines for Rowan and now produces her own line of yarns. She also works with high fashion labels to produce two knitwear collections each year and employs dozens of handknitters.

She spoke with us about the history and construction of gansey sweaters, which were fitted fishermen's sweaters knitted seamlessly with gussets at the underarm to allow for movement. The sleeves were traditionally a bit short, so that they wouldn't get caught in ship's rigging or nets. Here you can see the trademark underarm gusset:

We each made a small gansey swatch with Di's yarn, and I was quite fascinated by it. It's made of lambswool, which is the first shearing of a sheep that is finer than later fleeces. Di's yarn is spun on local mills which were designed originally to spin cashmere, which is very fine. Her yarn is not breed-specific, but all the wool is below a certain micron count so that it works right in the spinning machinery. It has a soft but dry hand, and it is a cabled yarn. That means that there are two 2-ply yarns plied together. In this case, the second ply is quite loose:

I was fascinated that such a lumpy, bumpy yarn could knit up into such a smooth, soft fabric. I think it's because those two plies snuggle into one another and sort of lock together. (This is the same principle that two-ply yarn is best for weaving, because that structure locks together when held at a right angle.) Anyway, this pair of gansey mitts is made from a single ball of her Lalland yarn:

I found the miits both comfortable and attractive, and promptly bought yarn for three pairs!

Di and I talked about yarn structure for quite a while... enough that I felt just fine asking to get a photo together. What a fun stop!

Our final knitting workshop was with Sarah Berry, who came to our hotel in Fort Augustus to teach us. Our classroom was the same room we used for dinners, with lovely windows looking out into the Highlands. I don't think I've ever learned in a prettier classroom. Sarah really "merchandised" the class materials, too - she had little balls of yarn sorted into vases by color value:

Like many designers in Scotland, Sarah also does colorwork designs - using Scottish or Icelandic wools. She likes to mix them, too, as she feels that all island wool traditional blend well.

We had a distinct project for this class - a small, colorwork coin purse. We got a pattern but it only had instructions for total number of stitches - the colorwork design was up to us. She gave us a limited number of motifs, some graph paper, and colored pencils, and we got to work.

I haven't finished mine yet but I definitely plan to. I may need to enlist help sewing a lining and installing a zipper, but I know people who can assist me with that part.

She showed us a project bag made with the same principles but using Icelandic, Lopi yarn. Here are the two projects together:

She sewed a gusset onto the larger bag so it will sit upright. I could definitely use a medium project bag like this, and making it will be a great way to practice colorwork!

As you can see, we were exposed to a range of knitting styles and techniques, from traditional to modern, that are all rooted in Scotland. What a lovely way to learn more about a place.