One last bit of The Shetland Experience

In making my booking with FlyBe, I chose to sit on the left-hand side of the plane so that I could see Fair Isle as we came in to land. I forgot that airplanes have wings which stick out in the middle.

It was a small plane, not many more than a dozen of us – my dears, it had propellers. We asked the stewardess about Fair Isle and she promised that the captain would let us know. The announcement, if it came, was completely inaudible. But the man sitting in front of me turned around at the right moment and said, “That’s Fair Isle”.

  

I don’t have a PhotoShop program (or the skills) to draw a circle around it, but there it is, on the horizon near the tip of the wing, rising to a height on the right. Here's a close-up.

What Comes Next?

I began by looking at the yarns for the Rams and Yowes blankie. An immediate problem: Kate Davies identifies them by their wonderful Shetland colour names. The ball bands have only numbers. The J&S website has put that right.

Two shades are missing, I was told, and will be sent on later. So today’s job is to work out which two. Do I have the yarns to get started with? Do I have a sufficiently wonderful circular needle of the right size?

I hadn’t at all grasped how J&S has moved quietly into the 21^st century. All their yarns are now balled – knitting a Fair Isle sweater used to involve a week of skein-winding. The range of Shetland Jumper Weight colours  is somewhat reduced, but the new (to me) lines more than make up for it – the Shetland Heritage yarns with their old Fair Isle colours; Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight, in the undyed colours as they come off the sheep; Shetland Supreme lace weight and 2ply lace weight. There are heavier yarns, too – I don’t think they were offered at all, in My Day.

The other thing I want to think about is my Fair Isle vest. Shall I sign up for Mary Jane Mucklestone’s Craftsy class, now that I have gone in for stashing Craftsy? I think I will probably order a Shetland knitting belt. I thought about it while I was there, but decided that that was an easy enough thing to order later.

I gather from a bit of internet exploration that using a belt doesn’t have to dictate one’s knitting style. In fact, they are used sometimes to help stroke victims knit again – an encouraging discovery for me.  In the brief demonstration we had, Doreen knit with both yarns in her right hand – “One above and one below,” she said. I always knit Fair Isle with one in each hand, dropping-and-throwing as usual with my right hand, and knitting-continental with the left.

So I could get a belt, and proceed in my own clumsy way, while trying to learn a better technique. Mucklestone discusses the holding of yarn. She’d have to. But the pattern that comes with the class Won’t Do At All – because the Fair Isle patterns repeat. They ought to change each time, even the peerie ones, while remaining so harmonious that you have to look closely to determine that fact.

Meanwhile, Milano proceeds. It is hard to keep winding skeins fast enough. I’ve done six – six more to go.