Remembrance of Holidays Past. . .

Roughly this time last year, I had returned from the most fabulous trip to Shetland, and was anticipating an equally glorious week in the Outer Hebrides.  These trips were full of inspiration and memories and I have tried to recapture them in two recent projects.

This is my finished Bressay, designed by Marie Wallin from her book Shetland.   It's knit mostly in natural shades and though the body is a Wensleydale from John Arbon, many of the shades in the yoke are Jamieson and Smith's Shetland Supreme, jumper 4ply or Jamieson's Spindrift.  There's nothing like knitting with Shetland wool to evoke those islands with its history and knitting heritage.  Especially if you are also working on some fair isle too.

I did add one line of yellow as a nod to the actual island of Bressay and its iconic lighthouse which featured in a wonderful walk we did.   This is surrounded by a colourway called 'Peat' which also abounds in the Shetland landscape.

I've also been knitting with Hebridean wool.  I've just finished the Areto hat by Rachel Coopey as a gift for our walking guide on that Hebridean holiday as he's also going to be leading us on our upcoming trip to the Torridon area of Scotland.  This will hopefully be the warmest hat he's ever owned and I just love the rich chocolate of hebridean wool.  This is from the Birlinn Yarn Company and I bought a skein of their DK from a ferry shop on the Hebrides. It is so lovely to work with.

I can't be too sad about the past though - September is going to be filled with lots of other woolly adventures to look forward to. And with the cooler weather, it's so nice to be taking the knits out of storage and wearing them again.