Doune again

Hey!  Sorry I have been MIA yet again!  My sister is prodding me.  She's fed up logging in to the same page all the time, so time to do something about it.  Things just fill up my days.....

OK, let's see what I can write about today.  I have lots of photos of things that have been happening, and probably the best thing is my recent visit back to Doune  in Knoydart for the annual lacemaking week!  Yes, that time again!

We gathered once again at Mallaig one Saturday afternoon in September; were met  by Gavin, the boatman, and taken over Loch Nevis,in the boat Gripper II and round the coast of Knoydart to a very misty and dark looking Doune.

Always good to be back again, and almost immediately cares and worries seem to melt away, and it’s all peace and tranquility for a whole week.  We all got settled in our respective accommodation: some of us in the wooden lodge in its own little bay round the headland a little, and others in the stone lodge rooms right next to the dining room where we, obviously, have our meals, and also make our lace.  We had time to relax in the lodge sitting room before dinner, and just enjoy being back.  As always, dinner was wonderful and we were to find ourselves being used as guinea pigs for some new recipes!  Everything that is cooked in the Doune kitchen is so good, that there are never any worries about things not working out!  It was dark by the time we headed back along the path to bed but we are all used to that and are kitted out with torches, as it isn’t just dark, it is  black dark!  The only lights are little pin pricks from the scattered houses and the Gaelic college across the water on the south end of the Isle of Skye.  Little did I know that three of my friends had individually booked into the college on Gaelic courses!

Next morning we were all ready to start lacemaking.   Out came the pillows, the solid type of cushion things that the lace is made on, the bobbins, threads and pins, and we were off!  Here are some of the lovely things being worked on this year.

 

 

Joan and Sheila work on beautifully fine Continental lace – I think this is of the type called Binche (French pronunciation where the IN is a bit of a combination of IN and UN with a nasal N!).  Margaret was working a piece of English lace called Buckinghamshire Point lace (Bucks, for short) and Norma was finishing off a bookmark before starting on a piece of free(hand) lace in the form of a leaf.  I spent a bit of time contemplating how to work a piece of lace I had found in a picture.  I’ll show you a bit of the picture detail but can’t show you the whole thing as it is going to be a present – a surprise one!  That’s it below!

 

Liz, our lovely hostess, was working on a Honiton flower and finished it off this week.  Here it is before she took all the pins out and took it off her pillow.

Morag was sewing – beautiful panels of pre-printed (by herself) cotton.  This one was inspired by The Book of Nothing that her husband Michael was reading, and here’s another printed sheet below!

She made the felted spectacle case, (above) beforehand to give to Marge, via Margaret, and also brought the beautiful fuchsias to show us.

Lisbet was our “artist in residence” for the week, quite often to be found sitting sketching – us or the outdoors!  She drew a few with me in them so I’ll be vain and show them off!

We had a lovely American family there for the first half of the week and one day I gave the Mom, Ellie, a lesson in lacemaking, not realising that Liz was quietly sketching us.  Here’s the finished picture!

The family were lovely, and the two little boys very well behaved, but just like all little boys ready for some fun, down among the rocks looking for sea anemones, shells, crabs, and jelly fish!  One day Morag and I walked up the hill to the only section of road in Knoydart and were in time to take a ride down to Inverie with Gavin in the Doune minibus where he was collecting the family. We enjoyed the beautiful views along the route and had a quick glimpse of Inverie village before everyone piled into the bus for the return journey. 

 

 

At the top of the track back down to Doune is a sign -  a play on words.  Doune is pronounced Doon, which is also the Scots word for Down, so you have Down here to Doune!

The boys were off down the path through the grass and hummocks of heather like the proverbial shot from a gun, and were happily playing in among the stones on the beach when we got back!  It was a shame we had to say goodbye to them on Tuesday.

I’ll stop just now and write some more next time.  You shouldn’t have to wait too long for that!