I'll sail her up the west coast...

Readers, I have taken a little pause from blogging to travel up the west coast of Scotland, and across the highlands to Inverness, over the past week or so. Here is a little summary-in-yarn of the trip:

Our first stop was the historic mill town of Paisley, home of Paisley Shawls, and the Coats/Patons crafting empire, just outside of Glasgow:

This is the now defunct Anchor Mill - the last mill closed in the early 1990s, but you can see the largest exhibition of 19th century Paisley shawls in the world in Paisley Museum's Shawl Gallery - exquisitely beautiful, but of course I couldn't take photographs due to the delicate nature of the silks and wools used to make them. Despite the closure of the mills, there is still one weaver left in Paisley (Whitehill and Wilsons), and I purchased one of their wool shawls from the museum shop, and am wearing it in this rather poor photograph, taken in a hurry just before we braved the rain and went out for dinner.

I also finished an object in Paisley - the Sand and Sea Shawlette from Coastal Knits, made from the two skeins of sock yarn I bought in Helsinki in February:

It doesn't really go with the striped tee, but here is a pic from the back:

I am really pleased with how this turned out - the colour combination looks just like waves on a shingle beach.

We left Paisley for the west coast, and were busy cycling, sightseeing, and swimming there so I didn't progress that much on my other WIPs. But in the beautiful town of Oban:

I made a little purchase of a skein of pure, undyed wool from an Isle of Mull sheep grower, spinner and weaver (Ardalanish), being sold in a local handicrafts store. In a soft brown shade, it is very likely to become a hat for the husband. There was another store selling yarn in Oban, but when I tried to visit (at 11.40am) it hadn't yet opened. Time was getting on and we couldn't wait, so it went unvisited.

Passing up along the west coast, we briefly stopped in the town of Gourock, where we swam in the (heated) open air pool and I spied this yarn shop:

They sell spinning supplies and run spinning courses as well as knitting, and I lingered for a while at their lovely window display:

Shortly after, we left the west coast for Inverness, where I was again the victim of Scotland's eccentric opening hours, as the main yarn shop In the Victoria Arcade there decided to close early yesterday. However, I popped into the craft store nearby and bought two metres of pretty tartan ribbon, possibly to use on the Apple Strudel Cardigan, which I worked on in the car all the way home.

Knitting, and Reading About Knitting, For Me

I enjoy knitting for other people, although tend to choose only those who appreciate the effort that goes into handmade work - which means my family and a few close friends usually. But I have set aside Sundays to knit for myself at the moment, and this is my current WIP for cool, rainy Sundays at the moment:

This is the Apple Strudel cardigan from Yarn Forward, December 2008 - an aran weight, top down, cabled cardigan which I am knitting in budget-friendly Windermere wool-blend aran (800g for £12). Sure, not the best quality yarn in the world, but a lovely tweedy grey and soft to the touch. If I work hard, I will finish it in time for our summer trip to Scotland in August, where I know from past experience I will need it!  I do have two other projects OTK - if it ever gets warm again in the UK, I can switch back to the American project, which uses the immensely beautiful (and beautifully named) Hempathy yarn.  Also, I am having, as they say in German, a kleine Pause with Spring Cloud as I am sure it is a little too small and I am debating with myself about whether it will block bigger or whether I should just reknit the body...boring.

My exciting news this week was the arrival in the post of a book I have been lusting after for some time - Coastal Knits, a self published book of 10 patterns by Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig. I want to knit everything in this lovely book, which is superbly presented (although if you already have New England Knits, by MacDonald and LaBarre, as I do, it does tend to continue this theme, as many of the designs echo each other. This is not a criticism, as both are happily living on my bookshelf - but if you are budgetting you probably could get away with one or the other of these two lovely books). However, for me, yet another to put on my bookshelf for browsing through when I don't feel like knitting, or have nothing to knit (rare!), and also for pattern design and layout inspiration!  Highly recommended.