2013 is the year is the Year of Natural Scotland, so all over the country special things are happening. Here in Orkney, Enjoy Wild Orkney is putting on a Nature festival, with activities all over the islands. They arranged different days out, and yesterday was Flotta. the organisers came over a couple of times and worked out with those on the island what we would like. As a result of those formal and informal meetings they laid on boat trips round the island, walks – and I was doing felting.

I booked on the first boat trip of the day. The boat belongs to Magnus Spence, and is usually a dive boat. There were six of us ‘passengers’, including Steve and Nigel. The boat was crewed by Magnus and Magnus, one doing most of the driving and the other most of the talking!

Leaving the pier, we headed off round West Hill, and over the water to the island of Switha, a notable seal hauling area. We went fast, and Nigel loved it. When we slowed to look at the seals, he kept signing that he wanted to go faster again!

The seals were as gorgeous as ever. I never tire of watching them….

Then it was back to the coat of Flotta, to Stanger Head. Usually I walk across the top of the cliffs.

This time I could see that it was actually a land bridge I walked over, and there was a hole right through the rock.

We came along the coast, and the rain pured down. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was drenching while it lasted. While it rained, we passed another boat out fishing:

Flotta is a C-shaped island, with the population living on the bottom half of the C. The top half is the Golta Peninsular. Like the rest of Flotta, there are lots of concrete structures left from both World Wars, as Scapa Flow was a very important harbour for the Allies.

We went round to the north of it, to where a lot of war metal is dumped. This includes the remains of a torpedoed submarine, and tons and tons of the steel nets which were strung across the entrance to Scapa Flow to stop shipping and submarines getting in.

The next bit was the most ‘interesting’! We were landed at the old pier. The state of the tide was such that this meant getting out on to an uneven, slippery surface, about 3 feet wide, and to walk up towards land. I concentrated on getting Nigel to the end safely – that was MY excuse and I am sticking to it…

The day was being filmed, and here we met Graham (with the camera) and Julian, one of the folk who had organised the day.

We also met the other group who had walked over Golta and were to take the boat back.

I can’t walk that far, so I went along with Julian and Graham in the landrover (thanks Julian!) to see some of the sights. This included the Z batteries. These are row upon row of semicircular concrete structures with plinths between. They were rocket launchers, and could put up a barrage of fire power to protect the fleet.

Then it was back to the Community Centre for lunch. The usual Flotta ladies (and gents) did the usual fabulous food. They had also been up a long time the night before putting photographs of Flotta wildlife up on the walls, which was much appreciated by those who came.

After lunch I did the felting. There were some folk going off on a walk and they did the quick version. Those who were spending the afternoon with me, took things more slowly and felted both stones and made rattles – two limpet shells with a winkle shell inside then felted. These were made on some islands as toys for children, and they are equally love by cats!

Back at the pier the seals were hauling up on their rocks totally unconcerned by the ferry and people. In fact it looked for all the world as if they were waving folk goodbye…

Although I knit rather a lot (!!!) I don’t put my projects on Ravelry. There are several reasons for this, mainly that I am usually knitting for some kind of publication and I don’t want stuff on line before it is finished and published. In addition, time is precious and I prefer to be knitting or spinning than being on the computer more than is essential!  But I now have one…

For the same reasons I rarely buy patterns. But when I saw that Theresa Silver was doing a KAL alongside her Cooperative Press book Hat Couture I couldn’t resist. So I bought the KAL and downloaded my first Ravelry pattern. The pattern was for a hat, starting in the centre of the crown. After the first few rows there were options about the exact shape right through to the type of brim.

The pattern called for an aran weight yarn of a ‘rustic’ natural which would be firm. I was on North Ronaldsay at the time, and I had a couple of braids of fibre from Katie at Hilltop Cloud with me. I spun this up on my old Louet S10, working in the conservatory overlooking Nouster Bay, to give me the right tension. I deliberately spun it fast, giving a not-quite-even thread, spun fairly tight.

My first choice was a flat top (rather than rounded) followed by oversized (rather than snug to the head). Then I went for shorter, rather than longer, sides, and a full brim.

Before I started the brim the hat fitted perfectly. But changing to garter stitch for the brim pulled the bottom few rows of the sides out, making it too big. The shape was brilliant and I felt that pulling the bottom of the sides in with, say, petersham on the inside would spoil the shape.

As the fibre was mainly Shetland and merino, I decided to felt it in the washing machine. That worked perfectly, and the hat was exactly the right size.

The texture of the surface was also perfect!

My next problem was how to trim it. As the fabric was thick, it needed something substantial. And the many colours in the original fibre braid gave an almost tweedy effect. I tried a couple of Nichols brooches I had with me. One was too big and the other too small! I finally settled on a length of yarn, again spun on the Louet. The first I tried wasn’t right, and this second is quite right either, but it is working for now!

I have worn the hat several times. It fits snugly, and stays on in most weathers. It can be scrunched into a bag and comes out exactly the right shape again.

I am well pleased!

About 18 months ago Jane Cooper told me about a then-secret project to collect the fleece of Boreray sheep from all over the UK and produce yarns with it. I was asked whether I would be willing to design a shawl using the lace weight, which was to be a blend of Soay and Boreray fibre, and to be called the St Kilda lace weight.

The island of Boreray, an outpost of the St Kilda group

On the left, a map of Scotland, with the Outer Hebrides in red and enlarged. St Kilda is circled. On the right, St Kilda showing the islands of Soay and Boreray and the village of St Kilda itself.

Boreray is one of the islands of the St Kilda group. St Kilda itself was inhabited until the 1930s, and still is home to two rare breeds of sheep, the Soay and the Boreray. Both are old breeds, dual coated, with a fine, soft undercoat and longer, thicker guard hairs. And as with all ancient breeds, the fineness of the fleece varies hugely within and between fleeces.

Sheep by St Kilda village in the 1920s.

Soay sheep grazing by the deserted village street.

A Boreray ram.

St Kilda has long held the imagination. The jagged rocks rise straight out of the sea, looking like the story book dragon’s lair! (I have seen them from the deck of a ship, but not landed.)

The island of Boreray.

The wonder is that people ever lived there, so far from any other land. But there is evidence of habitation going back to the Iron Age at least. The population seems to have thrived until the early Nineteenth Century, when well-meaning, but inept, folk from the mainland UK came to ‘educate’ the islanders. The ‘progressive’ ideas they brought were not only useless on the island, they made the islanders’ lives worse. For example, the islanders had always built their houses as right angles to the street, giving shelter to the door. But the new, so-called better, way was to build them with the front door to the street. This meant the houses were colder and more smoky, with all the ill health that brought…

St Kilda village today, from the hills behind it, which are still grazed by Soay sheep. The buildings to the left are the modern base.

Islanders outside their ‘new’ houses.

The women of St Kilda used the fleece of the local sheep for knitting and weaving. The coarser fibres were used to spin yarn for weaving into blankets and shawls.

Hand tinted photo of island women. Notice that none have shoes. The one on the far right has straw tied round her legs for warmth, and the one next to her has a pair of trousers or long johns under her skirt. You can see the very bottom of both under the hem of the skirts.

The softer fibres were spun into yarn for knitting underwear. (Note that none of the women or children wore shoes, and therefore, no socks. Men would have worn course socks in their sea boots.) Most other clothing was bartered for, in return for fish, sea-birds or their eggs.

Women knitting. Note that the yarn is light coloured from the lighter-coloured, finer, undercoat.

There are pictures of St Kilda women using both a standard sloping bed wheel, and also a cross between a great wheel and a spindle. I suspect some inventive husband or son built it to make spinning quicker and easier for their womenfolk.

A day trip to St Kilda for the gentry was popular in the later Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Here a group of well-dressed trippers are posed watching an islander spin. In another, less sharp, photo taken at the same time, in a more natural grouping, a man is sitting on the step carding the fleece.

The cross between a spindle and a great wheel!

All St Kilda women wore shawls, often woven into plaids. I took this as the starting point for my design, and tried to evoke the over-and-under of the weave in the pattern of holes. I wanted something which could be used with different yarns, too, and so top-down, starting in the centre back, seemed the best idea. This could be fitted well with the ‘woven’ look – and added bonus!

We had no idea how far the yarn would go! It turned out that one ball made a good sized neckerchief, two a good sized shawl, and three a nice shawl with a border. I wanted a scarf in the pattern too, for folk who didn’t wear shawls. Again, there are several variations with the photographed sample being knitted up by Jane.

The first batch of yarn sold out very quickly.

Jane Cooper, who arragned the collection of the first batch of Boreray fleece, with a ball of the final product!

However, the seed had been sewn, the breeders of Boreray contacted by Jane had realised there was a market for their fleece, and Sue Blacker of Blacker Yarns, was able to acquire more Boreray to make another batch. This time some Shetland was also added to the mix, and it looks as if this will become a regular, though limited line.

You can buy the pattern from Sue here.

It doesn’t seem possible that I was on North Ron for 5 weeks. It feels like a second and for ever…!

I left yesterday. In the morning my car went off on the boat….

…. but Scottie and I stayed on and caught the afternoon plane.

I saw changes in the land and sea scape while I was there. For example, the daffodils were in bud when I arrived, but over the weeks gradually came out:

Throughout Orkney, people plant daffs of the sides of their tracks, and the road side outside their properties, giving a fabulous display in spring:

The number of seabirds also increased significantly. When I arrived, the fulmars were there, always the first to come back, along with oystercatchers and redshank…

but in the last week numbers of black headed gulls and eider ducks arrived.

The sheep were, of course, there all the time, as were the seals. But the seals, both commons and greys, were starting to move from their winter to their summer haul outs. This meant that the numbers in front of Nouster varied considerably…

It was a happy and productive time. I worked on three magazine commissions, the final samples for my book, a pi vest and a pi split shawl. I had three sets of friends to stay, and took hundreds of pictures. I met new folk, renewed friendships with many ushers, and brought home 12 kg of roving to dye.

I suspect Scottie and I might do this another year….!

Most of you know that the North Ronaldsay sheep live on the shore on a diet of seaweed, and many of you know that they are kept there by a 6 foot high dyke, or wall, all round the island.

Early in the year, a big storm from the east, coupled with very high tides, smashed a long length of wall, totally destroying it. Then a couple of weeks later, a storm from the west took out another long length from the west of the island. Several kilometres of wall are down and will have to be replaced – a huge undertaking.

And in that pic, see the sheep eating seaweed?…

Meantime, the islanders are replacing the dyke with shire wire fencing to keep most of the sheep off the good grass. However, the North Ronaldsay sheep are good at jumping fences (and walls!) and that is only a short term solution.

I went to take pix of the damage on the east side and on the way back down the island I came across a scene which typifies the breed. In places the new fence is a couple of feet inside the old dyke. There was a very cold easterly blowing hard, and there, between the remains of the dyke and the new fence, were a group of sheep sheltering from the wind!

Yesterday I went round to the west of the island. Here, too, long lengths of the dyke are down.

New fencing has been put up in places, but rebuilding will take years. Mark and Simon from the Bird Observatory were rebuilding by the Gretchan hide, but even with some of the fallen stone to hand, it is desperately slow – not any old stone will do – they need to sit firmly, and interlock with their neighbours. There is no point in rebuilding something which will be blown over by the wind – it needs to be done properly, hopefully to last for many more years.

 

Having torn muscles in my side (during a spell of cramp – talk about adding injury to insult) I haven’t been out and about as much this week. I have spent quite a bit of time looking out of the window:

The light here, as in the rest of Orkney, is fantastic. You never know when the sun is going to come out from under the clouds…

I did take Scottie round to the other side of the bay in the car, and then walked from there. So here is a pic to show exactly where Nouster is:

The buildings behind and to the left on the pic are the Bird Observatory, where I often go for lunch and wifi.

As we walked along the sheep dyke, which keeps the sheep on the shore, we came upon sheep. They are always VERY interested in Scottie – and he ignores them!

Several stood and looked at us for a while, before deciding we were no threat and returning to feed.

Another day I had been up at the lighthouse (wifi again!) and when I came back the sheep were just below the house, feeding on the weed which had come in on the latest tide:

Watching them, a few feet to the right, was one of the common seals which live in the bay:

Another day I took Scottie up to the lochan near the old lighthouse for a snoop about! Again, there were sheep….

…. and also an old boat. This design is known as a North Ronaldsay pram. Many islands had their own design of boat, specific to the needs of the waters around the island.

In this area there are quite a few stone structures from the past. These sheep are standing by a round pen which would have been used for burning seaweed. In the Nineteenth Century the ash was very valuable as a fertiliser and a source of iodine. Note the pair of fulmars to the right – they lay their eggs at the base of stone walls all over the island.

And finally, at low tide, you can see the rocks of one of the skerries which surround most of the island, making it so dangerous for shipping. Many ships were wrecked on the different skerries, and it was this loss of life and cargo which precipitated the building of a lighthouse.

Since Cathy and Steve left, Scottie and I are on our own. They had given him plenty of good long walks, so he was ready for a rest!!

Which was just as well, for the next morning we awoke to snow. Not a huge amount, but enough to make driving an unknown car out of the question. As well as the snow, there was a biting wind, and everywhere was pretty icy.

It did make for pretty pix, though. This is the laird’s house, still owned by the family…

… and here are some of the sheep on the beach outside Nouster eating seaweed…

… and a close up to prove it!!

 

The next day was much brighter, though still very cold. We went up to the lighthouse where they were punding some of the sheep. They were using a digger and a car to chase them in the right direction.  Then they release the ones they are not interested in, and keep the ones ready for market, to go on the boat the next day.

There were plenty of other sheep knocking about…

(The structure in the back ground is the old lighthouse – it is being restored, and the scaffolding is keeping it up meantime!)

Friday morning dawned clear and bright (as they say) – but more importantly, the wind wasn’t too bad. So the boat was able to come:

This is the Earl Siggard, and there were plenty of people at the pier by 08.30 to receive stuff that had been brought over (like FOOD!) and also with things to go back to Kirkwall. This included some of the sheep we had seen being punded:

On the other side of the pier, the sheep slept and ate on, knowing the commotion was nothing to do with them!

My car was the last vehicle off (click the pic for the video!)

Greetings from North Ronaldsay!!  This was written on Sunday night, but only posted on Tuesday as the net was down yesterday…!!

Cathy, Scottie and I got by plane on Thursday – but the wind was strong and the boat didn’t go, so I don’t have my car until next Friday or Saturday. Which means I don’t have a LOT of things. However, we are surviving… I have hired a car from Tommy ‘until mine arrives’ – a very accommodating man!

Nouster, the house where I am staying, is lovely. It belongs to June Morris, and she rents it out as holiday accommodation. It is very well appointed, and it is lovely to be able to watch the waves from my bed…!

We arrived as it was getting dark, and by the time we had settled in it WAS dark. So first thing Friday morning, Cathy was up and out walking along the beach. The wind was pretty strong, and the cloud cover thick, but she and Scottie had a good time – it was her first time seeing sheep on the shore…

… and a variety of waders, here Oyster catchers and Godwits.

Steve joined us on Friday evening, just in time for a dinner of North Ronaldsay mutton at the Bird Observatory. Delicious!

By Saturday the sky was brighter, and we saw the sun occasionally. We went up to the mill and Steve and Cathy learned how the fleece was turned into yarn. They then went for a walk while I caught up on the net (Wifi at the cafe there) and then we again eat the sheep – this time either mutton pie or sausages – and again delicious!

Later in the afternoon Cathy and Steve went up the lighthouse – 140 steps and 140 feet high. They were able to see Fair Isle, and most of the Orkney islands from the top. Unfortunately their pix are on Cathy’s phone…!

Yesterday morning Cathy, Steve and Scottie went for another walk along the beach. It is that sort of bay – you want to walk there. The seals were playing in the waves again and the sheep were eating sea weed at the far end.

And at one point, Steve captured alpaca over the dyke:

Lunch was up at the lighthouse cafe again, then in the afternoon we went round to see June and her animals. She has a variety of rare breeds – these are some of her rams with Cathy – see if you can spot the breeds!

It was getting near feeding time, so the male alpaca had congregated in the yard. They were hopeful that Cathy might have brought the food…

Also in the yard were some of the ewes. There are North Ronaldsays, Soay, Oussant, Icelandic and Herdwick here:

June has one field of ‘special needs’ sheep – the elderly or recovering. Some have recovered, but stay here because they like it!! They include this ewe and her lamb I took pix of last September – the mother had been very ill during her pregnancy, and the lamb has only one ear and its mouth is deformed. But it is very healthy!

Finally we went over to the female alpaca, with the one cria (baby) born last year. They again knew it was feeding time and were very curious to know what we had in our hands!!

And in the spaces between going outside, we have spent the weekend knitting – all three of us. Steve has finished another neck shawl and work on his first ‘real’ lace scarf. Cathy has been working on a bolero and on a crochet bag. And I have been working on samples and getting designs ready for a couple of project, none of which I can tell you about yet!!

Cathy and Steve go back this morning. As I write they are having one last walk on the beach with Scottie. I will take them to the plane, then go on up to the cafe to get this on line and catch up on emails. It is rather nice to be able to confine the net to one part of the day – it means I am getting a LOT of other work done!

And added now, a pic of Steve and Cathy walking out to the plane…

Flotta means ‘flat’ in old Norse, and Hoy means ‘high’. So that gives you some idea about the relative topography of the islands of Flotta and Hoy….

The Thorsvoe sailing between Fara on the left and Flotta on the right.

It is just 10 minutes by ferry from Flotta to Hoy, but because of the way the boats run, you can only go from Flotta on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. As Anna only got to Flotta on Wednesday, that meant Thursday was The Day.

The weather could not have been better. Full, glorious sun. OK, it was a tad nippy, but we could cope with that! Anna has been to Orkney three times now, and knows it really is ESSENTIAL to have a good, windproof coat!

The ferry docks at Lyness, in the middle of the north coast. It is the west end of Hoy which is high, and that is the way we went first, stopping a couple of times en route to visit Betty Corrigal’s grave (sad story, details here) and for pix.

The right along to the west, to see all the ‘hundreds of seals which can be found any day near Moaness’. Yeh, right. They obviously knew Anna wanted to see them, and there wasn’t a single one in sight. It was a pretty place, though…

As we were nosing about the small roads, we came across these ladies, in the lea of the almost sheer hills:

Then it was across to the south of the island, to Rackwick. This ‘village’ was once a thriving community, but now only 4 of the houses are inhabited all year round. There is also an outdoor centre, and a bothy, but the place is perhaps best know as the start of the walk over the hills to the sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy. This involves a good bit of steep walking, and several miles, so was off my agenda. Instead, we walked to the shore of Rackwick Bay.

Then it was east again, back the way we had come, and down towards Longhope. We had our picnic near the old lifeboat station, where they still occasionally launch the old lifeboat from the shed….

Then it was on in to Longhope village itself, to see the current lifeboat, the Helen Comrie, at her berth in the harbour.

A mile or two east and a couple of centuries back in time. This is one of the Martello towers, built in the early 1800s to defend the country from an invasion by Napoleon. There are two on South Walls, and this was the one we found!

Then, after a wrong turning, we followed the tiny road right along to the lighthouse at the very east end of the island to another place you ‘always see seals’. And, that’s right, not a single one in sight…

Turing west again towards Lyness and the ferry home, we stopped at the Osmondwall graveyard near the lighthouse. This area has a long history, going back to the Vikings. But I wanted to see a memorial to an event in 1969. It was in that year that all 8 members of the Longhope lifeboat were drowned going out to try to save a boat in trouble in terrible weather in the Pentland Firth. The lifeboat was hit by a gigantic wave, reckoned to be 100 feet high, and capsized. All her crew were lost.

The memorial stands in the centre of a line of the graves of the men who lost their lives. He fact that so many came from a couple of families shows how close knit the community was and still is. The figure of the lifeboatman, in all his gear, is beautifully worked, and he looks out to the waters of the Firth where the men and womaen of the Longhope lifeboat still risk their lives when called to do so.

GanseyFest seems ages ago… (It was October 2011) That was the big event organised by the Moray Firth Gansey Project. And now they have come out with what they call a booklet – but I call a book!

It is called Fishing for Ganseys, and in 60 pages it has more information than many books twice its size.

The project’s brief was basically to find out as much as possible about the ganseys of the Moray Firth area and to make sure this was documented and to do all they could to keep the tradition alive. This book gives a summary of their findings along with photos, and including a new gansey pattern.

There are old photos here from various sources, and photos of some of the ganseys they have found. I especially like the two double page spreads of ganseys where you can see the stitches.

The book also tells stories from the past, and the story of their involvement with local schools.

The fashion perspective is also present.

This book is one anyone who has even a passing interest in ganseys should acquire. It is available from the Moray Firth Project website, for the grand sum of £4.

Buy It!!!