North Mainland Notes
Taking Shetland to London
Contemporary textile students in their final year at Shetland College are looking forward to a great opportunity to profile their degree show, as they prepare for an exhibition in London.
As part of their drive to raise funds for the trip, they have devised a community knitting project, Maakin Flooers. I caught up with final-year student, Joan Manson of Mangaster, Sullom to hear more about the project.
This year, Shetland graduates will be part of London’s prestigious New Designers Show, giving them an amazing chance to showcase their work to a worldwide audience.
Travel from Shetland, and staging such events, is expensive and although students have received funding from the development department to help with costs, an additional £3000 is still required. As with most innovations, the simplest ideas are often the most effective. The innovative and enterprising students have come up with the idea of asking folk in Shetland, from school age to pensioners, to help raise funds by knitting a simple “flooer”. The flowers will be exhibited in Shetland and later sold to offset the cost of the New Designers exhibition. Joan said: “We hope folk will get involved in Maakin Flooers and that they will enjoy the flowers as they are easy to make. This means that folk of all ages can take part, using any old scraps of yarn they might have. “Needles of any size can be used as this will add variation to the flooers. This exhibition provides us with a tremendous platform to raise the profile of both Shetland and the incredible spectrum of creativity that goes on here, so we really hope folk will support our cause.”
To create the flowers simply follow the pattern below – or try your own!
Cast on 80 stitches loosely.
Knit eight rows.
Row nine – decrease to 40 stitches (knit two together).
Row 10 – decrease to 20 stitches (knit two together).
Row 11 – decrease to 10 stitches (knit two together).
Cast off by running wool through the stitches with a sewing needle, and sew securely.
Twist the knitting to form the “flooer” and sew together.
Donate your finished flowers by 31st March, either by post to: Joan Manson, treasurer, Mangaster, Sullom; or by hand delivery to the textile department at Shetland College.
Plea for BP monitors
The Brae Medical Practice now runs an evening surgery each Wednesday between 6pm and 7.30pm.
This is primarily for patients who work during the day or those who rely on relatives who work for transport, and therefore have difficulty in attending normal surgeries. Appointments can be made in the usual way by calling Brae (01806) 522543.
The practice also has a number of blood pressure monitors that are often loaned to patients to take readings at home. Staff would like to remind anyone, who still has a machine at home, to return it so that they can be used to enable other people to access this facility.
Northmavine kye meeting
Owners of cattle in Northmavine are invited to attend the annual meeting of the Northmavine Cattle Compensation Society on Monday at 7.30pm in Sullom hall.
As well as the usual business, the committee will also collect the annual fees from members and discuss potential fund raising events for the group over the coming year.
Running for Ollaberry
A former Ollaberry lass, now living in Glasgow, is preparing to complete her second international marathon.
Lesley Ann Ramsay completed the New York Marathon back in November 2008 and raised over £5,000 for the Breast Cancer Campaign.
This time she is gearing up for the Barcelona marathon on 7th March and will run the 26 miles to raise funds for the current refurbishment works at the local hall in Ollaberry.
If you would like to sponsor Lesley Ann, sponsor forms can be found locally or at the Ollaberry Shop.
Ollaberry concert DVD
For anyone who missed the Ollaberry school version of Hansel and Gretel, there’s now a chance to watch it on DVD, thanks to enterprising pupils at Ollaberry primary school. DVDs cost £5 and are available from the school.
Winter warmer success
The winter lunch held recently in Sullom hall was such a successful afternoon that it looks set to become an annual event.
Over £800 was raised for hall funds and the committee would like to thank everyone who came along and all those who helped the day run smoothly.
Gallons of tattie soup and mountains of reestit mutton and bannocks disappeared like snow aff a dyke according to one committee member.
The kitchen lasses breathed a sign of relief when the last person was served. Only two portions of tattie soup remained from the four huge pots available three hours previously.
Apprehension in the kitchen was more marked than usual due to the absence of soup and bannock maker extraordinaire Margaret Doull. The committee and kitchen lasses at Sullom hall would like to wish Margaret a speedy recovery and hope it isn’t too long before she’s back in charge of the soup pot.
Maet and music at Voe
If you’re heading to the Nesting hop tomorrow night, why not pop along the Voe hall for some food beforehand?
Suppers will be available to eat in or take away from 4.30-8pm. The menu will include fish and chips, chicken curry and rice, homemade pizzas and sausage and chips. Phone (01806) 588281 after 2pm if you would like to place an order or book a table.
A musical evening will follow the suppers at 8.30pm with music from Drewie Hawick and friends.
Vidlin suppers
Give the frying pan a rest tonight and call along the Vidlin hall for tea instead.
The kitchen staff is preparing a menu of fish and chips, chicken goujons or sausages and chips from 4pm to 7pm. Food can be eaten in the hall or there is also a take away service.
Please call 01806 577329 to order.
Hall helpers needed
The previously postponed extraordinary meeting of Mossbank hall will take place this Tuesday night at 8pm in the hall.
The hall will be at crisis point unless new office bearers and more committee members can be found to help run it.
The current office bearers are standing down but are willing to stay on the committee to help. If anyone in the area can spare some time to keep the hall running smoothly, hall members would be delighted to welcome you to the meeting.
Ticket reminder
Members of the Northmavine Up-Helly-A’ committee would like to remind folk that tickets for the halls open on Up-Helly-A’ night, Friday 19th February, will be on sale at the respective halls this Sunday from noon to 3pm.
Halls open this year are Hillswick, Sullom and North Roe & Lochend.
Maree Hay
