A Scottish Photographic Competition

To anyone who has travelled to Scotland: you may wish to take part in a photo competition called "My Scottish Experience". It is sponsored by the luxury hotel group called The Town House Collection. Those who have come to Scotland on a Scottish Skeins & Skerries Tour will recall two of the properties, Channings and The Bonham.

You can read the details of the competition on the hotel website: http://www.townhousecompany.com/townhousecompany/scotland/index.aspx. The deadline is November 30th to upload an image and send it along, with a brief description of your 'experience'. There are a number of desirable prizes for the winners.

Have a look at the hotel site and get out your photos!

A yarn shop in Edinburgh

A number of travellers on our Scottish trip (naturally) found their way to a lovely little yarn shop in Edinburgh--in fact, while we were there, several other fellow travellers came in at the same time. We walked from our hotel--an easy downhill route which passed below the walls of Edinburgh Castle. The shop is K1Yarns and is located in the Grassmarket area, just off Victoria Street. The address is: 89 West Bow and their website is: http://www.k1yarns.com/. I bought a 100 gm. skein of lace weight yarn in a beautiful lilac colour. The yarn came from Wales.

The shop had a small, but interesting selection of yarns, books and buttons, and I came across several brands from mills which I hadn't known of before. One thing which especially impressed me was that the shop used attractive bags of recycled newsprint from India for purchases. Not only did they have the purpose of helping the poor, but they were also sturdy. You can learn more about the project at the site: http://www.theindiashop.co.uk/.

Something to plan for -

An event to put on your calendar for 2010 is the U.K. Knit Camp, which will be held at the University of Stirling in Scotland from the 09 to 13 August. The details are in the planning stage but it promises to be a special get together of and for knitters.

An international group of talented tutors have been booked and space reserved at the university, which is ideally suited for a gathering of this kind. There is ample onsite accommodation, meeting rooms and recreational facilities. A number of other activities have been planned: yoga, whisky tasting, a ceilidh, dinner with the tutors. As long as a minimum number of children are registered, there will even be a Kids' Camp, offering child care for those from 6 months to 12 years.

Saturday, 14 August will be U.K. Ravelry Day at the same site--a good reason to stay on.

Have a look at their website to get an idea of the plans: http://www.britishyarn.org.uk/

Only three places left!

For anyone who has been thinking about coming on the first Maritime Memories Tour, don't delay as there are only three places left.

It has been my personal experience (and that of the travel industry in general) that people are delaying finalizing their travel plans until close to the time of departure--however, don't leave it too late to make your decision. Due to the special places we visit and the talented local people we meet, the size of the group will not be expanded. This unique itinerary won't be repeated next year, as I have other destinations in mind.

You can read about the details and highlights of this trip on my website: http://www.joycejamestours.com/ then click on Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island at the top. Please contact me with any questions you have and if you wish to register. My telephone number is: 613-695-0889 and email: knitting@joycejamestours.com.

Don't miss out!

Back from Scotland

I apologize for the gap in posts--somehow once I've been away, it takes me awhile to get back to a routine. The trip to Scotland last month was memorable and I'll share more of our experiences in future posts.

Members of our Scottish Skeins group in July were privileged to have workshops and to meet with talented members of the Shetland Guild. As we looked at their beautiful lace in detail, it gave us all a deep appreciation for the talents of the Guild members . We even made the local newspaper, The Shetland Times, which featured a photo of our group with members of the Guild, and an acknowledgement of our contributions to the building fund of their new museum.

One day on Orkney we visited the tiny village of St. Margaret's Hope, locally known as 'The Hope'. It is the site of an excellent little craftshop, called the Workshop, which carries the creations of a number of local artisans. Many of our group went home with North Ronaldsay yarn, jewellery and other treasures.

We also met with Liz Lovick at her home, which is just across from the Workshop. Liz has produced two CD-Rom discs, "Knitting Ganseys" and "Knitting Shetland Lace." I've just had a quick look at them and intend to view them in detail--they have a lot of history, instruction and patterns. Liz's website is: www.northernlace.co.uk/

I was reading the latest KBTH today and in addition to the many positive comments about an Estonian book of lace, there was a link to a submission Liz prepared for the KBTH Lace Virtual Conference, dated March 2006. Have a look at:
www.knittingbeyondthehebrides.org/lace/SameButDifferent.pdf. It is subtitled 'Shetland Lace in a European Context'. A lot of work and research went into this paper.