Day 1 - Monday, 01 September 2025

Welcome to Edinburgh, Scotland

Make your own way to your accommodation.

The rest of the day is yours to discover Edinburgh at your leisure.

This evening we will meet up for our Welcome Dinner at hotel restaurant

Day 2 - Tuesday, 02 September 2025

We will spend a couple hours with a renowned knit designer who has worked with many Yarn companies over the years and created the Rowan Scottish Tweed, which was made at the Harris Tweed mill in Carloway, Isle of Lewis. She wrote a book of designs in this amazing yarn, 'Shorelines" with patterns focused on intarsia, colourwork and gansey knitting. The really exciting news is that with Sheila Greenwell, her right (and left) hand woman, they worked on a new book! It is a fabulous source book for Gansey Knitters with 10 new and exciting contemporary designs in a range of yarns including our special Lalland Lambswool, Frangipani Gansey 5ply and Rowan yarns. 

We'll enjoy a wee talk which embraces the history of Gansey knitting in Scotland. We'll have time to explore their own Lalland Lambswool in DK and Aran weight spun in Scotland as well as her fabulous designs, patterns, accessories and even Harris Tweed knitting bags.

After lunch, we will be dropped off at the Edinburgh Airport in time to check-in for our flight to Shetland.

This evening we will enjoy a group dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Day 3 - Wednesday, 03 September 2025

This morning we will visit two local Shetland yarn producers and learn about their sheep farming methods.  We'll have an opportunity to purchase some lovely Shetland yarn.

Afterwards, we will arrive in Lerwick to check-in to our accommodations for the remainder of the week.

Afternoon is free time to explore Lerwick at your leisure.

Day 4 - Thursday, 04 September 2025

This morning we will visit the Shetland Museum and meet with a local Fair Isle Knitter who has been knitting for longer than she's been reading and writing, and has no memory of learning to knit. It's nearly 60 years since she knitted her first cardigan for herself and over 50 since she knitted her first Fair Isle cardigan. Since then she's knitted hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of knitting. She loves knitting Fair Isle - so many colours and patterns to choose she will never run out of ideas. She is also the world's fastest knitter.

This afternoon our first Knitting class will cover the history of the Shetland knitting belt.  We'll learn its uses and step by step instructions on using the belt, first with 2 needles then moving onto knitting in the round with 3. Plus, we'll have an opportunity to add a second colour to knit fair isle with the belt. There will be plenty of time to ask questions.

Day 5 - Friday, 05 September 2025

This morning we will visit the Shetland Marts and watch the sheep sales.

After lunch our second Knitting class will take place when we'll learn how to select effective colours for beautiful Fair Isle creations and put those selections together and begin knitting a small Fair Isle Yolk Bag.

Day 6 - Saturday, 06 September 2025

Today we will visit local Shetland knitwear designer, Nielanell. Nielanell was founded in 2008, in the Shetland Islands, by knitwear designer Niela Nell Kalra. 

Nielanell builds on the traditions and quality of Shetland-made knitwear, but follows its own design path. Through connection with place, history and world culture—and a passion for colour—they create unusual, contemporary Shetland knitwear. 

Nielanell has become known and appreciated for its cornucopia of colour and texture, and their knitwear is often described as art that you can wear. Many pieces are offered in a dazzling array of colours, made in small editions.

Intriguing design narratives, from unexpected sources, invite the wearer to add their own layer of meaning or memory.

We will also visit Burra Bears and Donna Smith's studio. 

Happily based in their small home studio on beautiful Burra Isle, one of the many amazing islands that make up the archipelago that is Shetland; we are Wendy & Robyn (Wendy is the one with the pink hair). A mother & daughter team who spend most of our week days laughing & working together to create the Original Shetland Teddy Bear.

In 2015 Donna Smith was invited to be the patron of Shetland Wool Week 2015, a fantastic event held in Shetland each year in autumn to celebrate Shetland wool and the crafts associated with it. She designed the Baa-ble hat to help promote the event and she never imagined how many people would go onto knit it! That was her first ever written knitting pattern which sparked off her journey into knitwear design and pattern writing.

Day 7 - Sunday, 07 September 2025

After a sleep in, we will travel across to Bressay Island to enjoy a Sunday Roast Lunch.  After lunch we will visit Garths Croft Bressay; a sustainable agricultural holding run by professional archaeologist and historian Chris Dyer, focusing on native and traditional breeds, within a landscape of spectacular natural beauty and historical heritage. This promises to be a highlight of your retreat.

Day 8 - Monday, 08 September 2025

Unst is as far north as you can possibly get without leaving the UK!

Glorious scenery and teeming wildlife are just two of the many reasons to visit these unspoilt remote islands. Both are part of Shetland– Unst is the most northerly of the British Isles, while across the Bluemull Sound lies Yell, famous for its birdlife and dramatic, rugged wilderness.

The Trust looks after seven parcels of land on Unst, the nearby small uninhabited island of Daaey and some croft land on Yell. The islands are of special interest to geologists, botanists and birdwatchers.

Unst is the ultimate Shetland destination - the absolute end of every Great North Road in Britain, it has the northernmost of everything. It is also one of the most spectacular, varied and interesting islands in Europe.

Unst is one of the richest Viking heritage sites in Europe, with over 60 longhouses uncovered by archeologists at Underhoull, Belmont and Hamar. At 61 degrees north, the island was said to be the ideal resting spot for Norse travellers on the trading route between Scandinavia, Greenland and Newfoundland. Many Norsemen settled in this northerly outpost, working the land and making it their home.Thanks to its extreme location, Unst has always played an important role in the nation's defences. The remains of a very early Second World War radar station can still be seen and the Ministry of Defence radar base on top of Saxa Vord, visible from much of the island. The base was reactivated in 2019 and new equipment installed.

Many Unst families are still involved with the traditional crofting life, but there's a variety of other work , including quarrying, fish farming, craftwork (fine knitwear in particular), wildlife tourism and even space exploration.

Yell is a rectangular-shaped island much of which is covered in peaty moorland and grazing sheep, who often quite happily wander out onto the open road – so drivers beware! The untouched moorland is interspersed with coastal crofting communities, the largest of which is Mid Yell.

The island has been inhabited since Neolithic times and there are 12 known broch sites. The Vikings settled during the Norse period, as is evident in placenames like Dalsetter and Gossawater. In the 17th century, Burravoe in Yell became an important Hanseatic trading post and the fishing industry was an important part of the island's economy right up to the 1950s.

More recently, in 2014, Yell became the site of the world's first community-owned tidal power generator in Bluemull Sound, in the north of the island.

Day 9 - Tuesday, 09 September 2025

Today we will be spent exploring the South Mainland.  We'll visit the Jarlshof Prehistoric & Norse Settlement, St Ninians Beach, Shetland Croft Museum as well as the Sumburgh Lighthouse.  If we're lucky we might spot a Puffin or two.

Day 10 - Wednesday, 10 September 2025

Today we will explore the North Mainland.  We'll have time to visit Becky at Silly Sheep before making our way to the rugged coastline at Eshaness.

This evening we'll enjoy a farewell to Shetland dinner with the group.

Day 11 - Thursday, 11 September 2025

Today we say goodbye to Shetland and fly back to Edinburgh. One we arrive, we will be tranferred to our accommodation to enjoy lunch at the hotel restaurant. 

After lunch, our final Knitting class will take place in the Library Room.  We'll meet with a fascinating Scottish Knitwear designer and learn how to construct a Shetland Hap.

Day 12 - Friday, 12 September 2025

Today is all things Outlander.  We'll travel to some of Outlander's most famous filming locations in the Kingdom of Fife.

Day 13 - Saturday, 13 September 2025

Did someone say, 'more yarn please'?  Today we will travel to Perthshire for the Scottish Yarn Festival.

Day 14 - Sunday, 14 September 2025

Today, we say goodbye to Scotland.  We will be transferred as a group to the Edinburgh Airport for our international flight back home.