This is a simple Fair Isle Cowl pattern you can download for free. I designed to knit for The Woolly Thistle‘s 2022 Colorwork Accessory Knit-a-long. Though this chart has a couple of nine-stitch stretches, it’s a good learning project for catching floats without being overwhelming as most of the other rounds have five or less stitches of one color in a round.
A cowl is a great first project for knitters new to stranded colorwork. There is no shaping to worry about and it’s a fairly quick project. They also make a great “swatch” when trying new yarns or if you want to sample an old favorite on a new needle size as I did here. I usually knit Jamieson and Smith on 2.75mm, but wanted to try 3mm needles. I’m glad I did. I like the fabric very much. I may go a step further and try on 3.25 in another cowl.
How about a little of both sewing and knitting today? Not that I knit anything but I still have lots of knitterly pictures to share from Shetland. I kind of feel like that person that you go to visit and they pull out all their vacation photos and make you sit there looking at them for hours. At least here you can just scroll by if you want to and I’d never know it. 🙂
Back to Shetland….What we thought was wool all stuck to the grass was actually a common plant in Scotland called “Cotton Grass”. We didn’t realize it wasn’t wool until we saw a bookmark with a photo of it. I took the picture above with full intentions of posting all about the wool everywhere:
There actually was quite a bit of wool all over. There was quite a bit of something else the sheep left everywhere that Daniel had a very hard time not gagging over. lol Sheep poop everywhere was not easy on him. Nothing like ruining a perfectly beautiful photo by talking about poop, huh? You’re welcome.
Vest outside of the “Croft House” at the Isleburgh Exhibit:
Sheep on Fair Isle near the Bird Observatory:
Everyone is friendly in Shetland. Shetland Pony saying howdy near Eshaness.
Hap shawls at the Crofthouse Museum:
I did more sewing last night and today. Joseph’s kindergarten teacher moved away while he was in 1st grade and had a baby last year. I promised a quilt. You know my motto: Better late than never. Perfect timing for the first birthday actually! I finally finished it today. Yeah! The kit came from one of my favorite quilting sources who happens to be in cahoots with one of my favorite knitting sources. You guessed it… Connecting Threads and Knit Picks. See… my knitting sort of lead to my quilting. That counts for something doesn’t it? The kit was called Daisies, Ducks and Dogs.Â
Wendy (Catknits) asked about yarn purchases in Shetland. I know I was just talking about how I had way too much stash but I went to Shetland and you know what that means, right? No one would really expect me to go to *Shetland* and not buy wool or yarn, right? Seriously. That would just be cruel. Forget that I still have loads of yarn left from our first trip there in ’97.
At the shop in the Jamieson’s Mill, I couldn’t resist this tam. I’ll never wear it (I look like a dork in hats – especially tams) but I loved the colors and just couldn’t leave it. It’s machine knit but it was less than $20. Here are shots of the front, back and up close and personal:
We went to the Isleburgh Community Center where they have an exhibit each Summer. It’s so much fun to watch the ladies knit. You have never seen fingers fly so fast. Intricate lace or fair isle patterns…. their fingers are a blur.
I bought these handknit fingerless gloves for a mere $9.
I bought a kit for the Firs and Flakes Shawl and a kit for Dan, the Noss Jumper in blues. We saw a sample knit up and it’s gorgeous. Back at the B&B the next day I got to talking about knitting with another woman staying there. She informed me that I could buy a fleece at J&S also!! Back we went the next day. I picked out a gorgeous gray one. When she totaled it up at four pounds (about $8) you know what happened next. Even Dan said, “Go get another one!” Told you. He’s a good man. Here’s the gray one washed:
And the white one unwashed:
It’s in the washer right now, soaking. I had to skirt this one a bit more. Pretty gross on the back end. I had thought that I would process these completely by hand, but they’re pretty full of dirt and grass. I think I’ll just wait until we get to NY and take them to get processed. I have two others that I had no business buying this past spring that are still in the boxes they came in. How long can I leave them like that? Can it wait until next summer when we get back to the States? I should just bite the bullet and scour them. They’re both covered fleeces so it wouldn’t take much to clean them. But I digress….
Then at Jamieson’s shop on Commercial street I bought some beautiful denim colored yarn for another shawl. It’s bluer than in the photo. What’s with blues and purples anyway? They never come out in pictures quite right. Anyway, it’s way thicker than what I needed (insert hand backwards on forhead and martyr voice)…but I’ll make it work. I thought the yarn in the kit for the shawl was thicker and it was back at the B&B but who cares, right? It’s wool so it’s all good.
How long do you think I can milk these photos for? lol
Obviously, the highlight of our Shetland trip was our visit to Fair Isle. I knew the plane would be small, but holy cow! Where’s it’s mother? When you have to flip the seat up, like getting into the back of a car… well…. I’m just sayin’… it was small.
I could reach out and tap the pilot, John (who was very friendly… very young, but friendly), on the shoulder… and I was in the 2nd seat. I was just glad Joe didn’t keep asking, “Are we there yet?” like he usually does. It would have caused John great angst and we couldn’t have that. To tell you the truth, we didn’t talk much because you couldn’t hear over the engine anyway. For the first time in my life I was nervous in a plane. I love to fly. In real planes.
I forgot all about it the second we landed though. As I was getting off the plane a woman approached me, “Jean?” I assumed it was Florrie, the woman we were renting a car from (the island is small and walk-able but with two kids and unpredictable weather we wanted to be sure to see the whole island and have shelter from rain). Nope. It was a Kathy Coull whom I’d met online through the group that I went to Mull with a couple of years ago. I hadn’t emailed with her in months. She handed me a map of the island (don’t laugh – it actually came in handy for the two roads) and invited us to lunch! She’d spoken with Liz Lovick (one of the Mull group) in Orkney the day before and Liz had reminded her that we were coming in. I was very pleasantly surprised. She put out a very nice spread of breads, cheeses and tomato soup which was perfect for a misty, windy day. If you get the chance to go to Fair Isle, she does run the only B&B on the island so if you google her name and Fair Isle you can contact her. She’d just moved into the house she’s in now from another one on the island. There were a couple of nice young men staying at her B&B who had lunch with us. They were doing research on the social aspects of living in such a small community. I’d love to read the paper when it’s finished. The boys fell in love with Kathy’s dog. Another picture I forgot to take. I need to send her a thank you gift for her kindness.
I love this little photo from the war. It’s was meant to show how the soldiers built relationships with the islanders. Sappy, but cute. For such a tiny place, it actually saw a bit of action. The South Lighthouse was actually bombed a couple of times in WWII. You can read about it here.
What I can’t seem to get my head around is that this teensy little speck in the sea is known the world over for it’s knitting of all things. It’s incredible. They have a little museum that was open during the afternoon we were there. If you click on the thumbnail of the knitting display, you’ll get a bigger view.
If you look up in the right-hand corner of the museum photo and squint really hard, you can see a long knitted sampler. I’m a dork. I forgot to take a picture of it. I didn’t even get it in the video. But you can stop squinting. I tried cropping down to it from the museum picture for you:
You can also see part of a sign off of one of the older Good Shepherds. That’s the boat that brings mail and supplies to the island from Shetland. We thought about going this way instead of the plane but we heard it’s a very rough ride and it’s longer. We didn’t have the time this trip. I’d like to try it next time though and actually stay on Fair Isle for at least a week.
Here are more croppings from that museum photo:
I forgot one of the sheep pictures in the last post. We always try to hit Science Centers in cities we visit because the boys love them. This special sheep was at the Science Center in Aberdeen. You push a button and watch as the sheep eats some hay and then it either poops or pees. Sometimes you get lucky and it does both! 🙂 You could hear people yell, “Jackpot!” when that happened. Okay. I’m lying. Would have been funny though.
Some of you may read tea leaves or tarot cards but in our house we read milk spills. Okay… that’d be ridiculous but…. one morning a few months ago I poured the boys’ cereal. When I was putting the milk back in the fridge Joseph got all excited saying we had our own lamb. ???? I turned around and saw what he was talking about. Turns out that I spill milk in shapes. You be the judge:
In keeping with the theme here are some of the gazillion many sheep pics I took in in Shetland:
This shot was taken on Fair Isle. That’s one of the two little churches. They are really close to each other and apparently the islanders use both.
I watched a dog for some friends at church this past weekend. Her name is Charley, she’s old, very sweet but she does not like Aggie very much. Charley doesn’t get that the young whipper snapper just wants to play… really bad. And Aggie doesn’t get why the old woman snaps at her whenever she tries to get to know her better. I think they finally came to an agreement though because I found them somewhat close together for the first time in three days:
Aggie has that innocent “What?” look on her face and Charley just wishes she’d go away.
The Tooth Fairy visited our house Sunday night. We took this picture for Dan because the tooth was quite the topic most of the time he was home for R&R.
At bedtime it went something like this:
Joe: Mom… do you put the money under my pillow?
Me: WHAT?! Who told you *that*? I wouldn’t say that too loud, you’ll offend the Tooth Fairy.
Joe: Okay. I was just asking.
Santa, Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny all exist in our house until the day I’m pushin’ up daisies. If you don’t believe, you don’t receive. Daniel’s known for quite a while but he won’t admit it. Not to me anyway. I think he thinks I actually believe or he’s just smart enough to not want to ruin my fun. I’m pretty sure he’s had a talk with Joe, “Mom still believes in them so don’t tell her”.
So the Tooth Fairy must have heard Joe because she left him a note telling him how great the tooth looked and how if he brushed really well, he’d get more money because the better the teeth look, the more she pays. Yeesh. She never left me a note. Joe is one lucky kid. He’s also easily bought off so I’m hoping the promise of extra cash will get him to brush better.
We made it through the halfway point of the deployment! The rough patch is behind us and everything is looking up now. The boys and I took Dan back to the airport on Wednesday morning for his flight back to Afghanistan. There were lots of tears but we’re back to “normal” deployment routine and ready for the next five months or so to fly by. This picture was taken last week on Fair Isle. One of the local dogs greeted us as we walked North from the South Lighthouse.
School starts on Monday. Joe starts soccer practice the same day and Daniel starts Tae Kwon Do in a month. It’ll start looking like Fall in a couple of weeks, the Holidays will soon be upon us and before you know it, Dan will be home again.
The new Agent taking Dan’s place here at the office has finally arrived. He and Dan were in Warrant Officer school together and have been good friends since. I met his wife at their graduation but didn’t really remember her. She’s terrific. So are their three boys who are all around Daniel and Joe’s ages. Their oldest and Daniel will be in class together. Yes, things are definitely looking up. I’m in much better spirits than I was a few months ago when I had the wind knocked out of me and my self confidence took a nose dive. Dan sat me down when he got home and made me remember who I am. He tried over the phone but it was a lot different and much more convincing with his arms around me. No wonder I like that guy. 😉
Dan came home five days after the family left. He was a day late because he got held up in Kuwait but they extended his leave by a day so that was okay. He was home for a few days before we left for Shetland.  What a great trip that was. I’ll share pictures bit by bit. I took about 300 of them so it’s going to be tough choosing. Fair Isle was magical. We just flew in for the day on an itty bitty eight-seater plane. You could see the whole island as we approached the tiny little runway. I’ll fill you in on everything as I share the pictures. Here are a few to keep you in suspense for a couple of days:
The boys and I on Fair Isle
Fair Isle as we flew in. The big white spot on the tip closest to us is the North Lighthouse
Here you can see the houses on the southern part of the island, the South Lighthouse and the big rock in the foreground is Sheep Rock
For someone who knits as much as I do, I sure don’t wear my sweaters very often. I was going through my drawers yesterday looking at some of my old labors of love. Since I didn’t get much knitting done this weekend to share, I thought I’d share my blasts from the past.
My all time favorite garment is this one from Ann Feitelson’s “The Art of Fair Isle Knitting”.
It’s the Fridarey vest on page 120. I bought the wool for it and the Scalloway yoke sweater while we were in Lerwick, Shetland in 1997. Here’s the yoke of the Scalloway:
The nice thing about these is that they are the perfect souvenir of that trip and I’m reminded instantly of how much we loved Shetland. Dan had just come home from eight months in Bosnia and we needed family time alone. Couldn’t have picked a better place. It’s the perfect get-away. Enough to keep you from getting bored, but all relaxing and you are surrounded by natural beauty. We spent a few days in Edinburgh, then a week in Shetland and then back to Edinburgh for a few days for the Military Tattoo.
I still have about five sweaters worth of Shetland wool kitted up. It’s my favorite style of knitting. That trip is the best one I’ve ever taken in my life. We went to the mill where they used to spin the Alice Starmore yarns, visited bird sanctuaries, watched the Shetland women knit lace and fair isle at the speed of lightening and watched them spin cobweb weight yarn like it was second nature.Â
I was inspired by a sweater I saw in Shetland at the Sumburgh Hotel at the where we were staying and knit one similar for Dan. I bought the yarn at Jamieson & Smith in Lerwick.
When we first arrived at the hotel and got to the top of the stairs I almost was so excited to see a brass plate that said, “Fair Isle Room” Is that fate or what? It’s called that because you can see Fair Isle (25 miles away) from the window when it’s clear out. We couldn’t go to Fair Isle because we didn’t time our trip right with the mail boat that takes you there and back. If you look at a photo of the hotel from the front , we were in the room with the big picture window upstairs. It was gorgeous. The house used to be a family home of Robert the Bruce. The sea is just in front of the house and there’s a croft that you can walk to just up the road.  We happened upon a man shearing one of his sheep. Heaven I’m telling you. Sheer heaven (no pun intended).
Here are some photos of that trip:
Dan and I look a little shell shocked as we were pulling into Lerwick Harbor because it was about 5am. lol. As you can see, Daniel slept just fine in the tiny berth on our P&O Ferry overnight journey from Aberdeen. We couldn’t get over how it never really got dark at night. It looked like dusk at about 2 am. It was stunning with all the fog.
Here’s Daniel and I at the croft by the Sumburgh. You can’t see it very well, but the sweater Daniel has on was from my second project all from my hand spun. It’s done in 1×1 rib with a cable going up the sleeves. The yoke sweater I’m wearing was my own design based on Meg Swansen’s “Cardigan Details” video and EZ’s percentage system for yoke sweaters. I call it my one-week sweater. I knit it in a week while Dan was in Bosnia. Lots of knitting till the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep.
This photo of Daniel and I feeding a lamb is probably my favorite from the whole trip. It was taken at Burland on Trondra, a working croft you can visit. It’s run by Mary and Tommy Isbister. The nicest people. We had so much fun there we went twice. They had every kind of farm animal around. They invited us back for tea (hence the 2ND visit) and they gave a small toy to Daniel that is tucked away in his keepsakes box.
I think I’m going to go watch the videos now so I can fully reminisce.
