Maakin and Yakkin was available again this year as an all day activity on 24^th and 25^th May.  Pupils could do one or both days.  Each day started with a knitting session in the morning at school. Mrs Hunter brought along her fancy coffee machine so everybody was treated to posh coffee or tea and some homebakes. In the afternoons there were visits to a local wool shop and cafe.  On Thursday afternoon the knitters met up with the local knitting group at Mareel and everybody had a great time sharing ideas and admiring each others handiwork.   There were a few “FO”s during the two days with both Millie and Rhiannon finishing phone covers. Rhiannon then went on to start and finish a fair isle pin cushion for her mum.  Very impressive!! Other participants were introduced to fair isle and knitting in the round for the first time.

Summer arrived last Thursday and all agreed it was too nice a day to be inside so the Maakers and Yakkers headed outside to knit in the sun. Some of us were needing our sunglasses on to see what we were doing.   We’re hoping for many more days like this!!

Last night we held the last Tak Your Sock night for this Winter and the last one to be held in this building.   We had another lovely evening with good company and plenty of interesting knitting projects on the go.  Violet was demonstrating her crochet skills and Mrs Hunter took in her spinning wheel to show us her latest, newly acquired skill.   True to form she is an absolute natural and provided a relaxing background sound.  As usual there were plenty of tea and homebakes to go around.

At this time of year there is a beautiful array of Fair Isle on display everyday at Anderson High School.  This is testament to the many talented grannies, aunts, mams out there who are busy knitting up these beautiful and sometimes unusual garments.

In celebration of our rich heritage and local knitting talent we decided to hold Fair Isle Friday, a day where everybody was asked to wear something Fair Isle to school.  The response was great with all ages digging out their ganzies and yokes for the occasion.

At lunchtime members of the local Knit and Chat group, run by Alzheimer’s Scotland, were invited along to see the Fair Isle.  The Home Economics Department had made some scones and fancies for the occasion and some S5 pupils served tea/coffee and homebakes to the ladies.  At 1pm, pupils and staff began to arrive at the staff room and this created quite a spectacle in Fair Isle.

Some of the visitors judged the competition for most beautiful Fair Isle and also the most unusual garment.   Eleanor Hutcheon won the most unusual garment with her Fair Isle boot cosies, made by her Whalsay granny.  Although there was much debate about most beautiful Fair Isle, the prize eventually went to Mr Redman/Mr Robertson for their rather…ahem… “striking” ganziesJ.

Knitting is a great pastime, not least because it has a way of bringing the generations together with a common interest.  Every garment in that room seemed to have an interesting story of how the wearer had inherited it or had got it as a present when they first arrived in Shetland.  Some of the Burra boys, too shy to attend themselves, had loaned their ganzies to friends who were modelling these on their behalf.  There was a great atmosphere in staff room and all ages enjoyed themselves.  Some of the AHS Maakers and Yakkers were in attendance with their knitting and said they were inspired by what they had seen.

John Coutts attended, also wearing a beautiful allover, and took a group photo of everybody.  There was a silver collection on the door and £50 was raised for Alzheimer’s Scotland.   This is something we may well organise again in the future but next time we’ll try to do so when the weather is not so mild as everybody was roasting in their outfits.

Alyssa Gair has produced another beautiful FO.  This time it is her interpretation of the Wool Brokers Socks – designed by Lesley Smith.  Alyssa’s outstanding eye for colour is obvious here as she has used a subtle blend of earth colours to produce these wonderful socks.  She has now started another pair, using the same colours but in a different combination… watch this space for her next installment.

The next Tak Your Sock Night is planned for Wednesday 22 March 2017 from 7-9pm.  There will be the usual tea and homebakes.

Please come along and take a friend.  It would be great to see you!!

We’re so lucky here at AHS to be treated to a beautiful selection of Fair Isle garments around the school on a daily basis – especially this time of year.   There are some VERY talented grannies out there!  To celebrate this we have decided to hold Fair Isle Friday on Friday 3rd March 2017.

Pupils and staff will be asked to wear something Fair Isle to school that day.  There will be prizes for the most beautiful garment and the most unusual garment.  There will be a group photo at lunchtime to gather everybody together.  Members of the local community Knit and Chat group (organised by Alzheimer’s Scotland) will come along for a visit to see the fair isle display at lunchtime and to judge the competitions for us.   A silver collection will be taken and any money raised will go to Alzheimer’s Scotland.

Just one example of the beautiful garments we see around our school on a regular basis.

The Knitter’s Neuk at the Christmas Coffee Morning was a huge success.  Knitters of all ages joined in on the day.  Some came along and knitted for the whole two hours, others dropped in and did a few row on one of our dish cloths just to pass the time and say “Hi eye”.  Even Mr Walls from Craft and Design popped along for a quick lesson!

The Christmas Cards, made by the group, flew off the shelves.  Other items for sale included fair isle headbands, babble hats, baby hats and knitted cotton dish cloths and even a fair isle hot water bottle cover knitted by our very own Alyssa.  The stall raised over £300 which made all the hard work worthwhile.

A big thank you to the tea ladies who kept us supplied with tea and homebakes throughout 🙂