Scotland!

I spent the last week in Scotland with two friends ...

Melrose Piper's Competition

Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott

Self-Explanatory

Baa-aaa

Why is the steering wheel over here...? Is it even possible to shift left-handed?

 Partway up to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh

Melrose Abbey

Hadrian's Wall

The only knitting I did was at the airport en route and in the plane coming back. I had a great time! We went just to see castles and abbeys and ruins and such, so there were no knitting-related activities, except for this: 

Working mill near Edinburgh Castle

Black thread for .... 

...threading onto the giant wheel. 

I couldn't take a lot of pictures of the mill, because it's a working mill and they don't want the workers distracted. This guy is winding colored threads onto a giant wheel, in preparation for making a tartan. Each tartan is different and has its own pattern; this one has a lot of black in it, so he is threading a lot of black onto the wheel. I wasn't there long enough to see the next color. But I understand the idea is that he'll thread the colors onto the wheel in the order of the weaving. I should have taken more pictures around the mill, I only have these three. 

I had no idea there was such history behind the tartans. There were dozens of gift shops with tartan-patterned purses and such. I bought one wool wrap in a lovely purple plaid ... It's still upstairs and I'm lazy, so I'll show it off next week. 

Back to the knitting! I'm still working on the skirt I have such high hopes for. 

Cheers from the HMS Britannia crew mess!

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis,who is unfortunately suffering from a bad wisdom tooth, to see what everyone else is up to!