Ready for an adventure? Join us for a vintage knitting tour through the Shetland Isles! Led by knitwear historian Sydney Roseweck and local Shetland crofter and tour guide Helen Hart, we’ll spend 8 of our 10 days weaving through this incredibly unique cluster of islands rich with knitting history.

Some highlights of our time together include:

• A three night stay in a 16th century Laird's house

• Design-your-own Shetland fair isle beret workshop

• A day trip to Unst, the most northerly isle in the U.K.

• Time spent getting to know the crofters and sheep behind Uradale Yarns

Initially gathering for one night in Aberdeen, we’ll have a wee tour of Aberdeenshire before flying off all together to Shetland! We will leave no stone unturned as we wander through the north, south, east, and west of these magnificent islands. From time spent in the museums to exploring ancient archaeological sites, a fair isle design workshop to walks along the scenic cliffs and seaside, there is something for everyone on this tour! Joined periodically by local guides and Shetland knitwear designer Ella Gordon, you will find yourself immersed in Shetland culture from past to present. Both lodgings on Shetland have been chosen for their distinct history and charm, including a 16th century laird homestead! With delicious local food, visits with sheep, and plenty of yarn, you and your fellow knitting enthusiasts will leave the island a Shetland expert. 

This trip needs at least 10 participants in order to proceed (i.e. the trip is "guaranteed"). We strongly advise you to wait to purchase your flights until the trip is guaranteed by us to go forward. Unless otherwise stated, our regular Terms and Conditions apply to this trip and for any cancellations.

Please Note

Rowan Tree Travel reserves the right to alter any part of this itinerary in order to address weather conditions, unforeseen circumstances or to improve the participant experience.

While our Tour Activity Level describes what to expect on a tour, our Mobility Comfort Level is personal to each traveler.

We would describe this trip as a Woolly Wander with a mobility comfort level of 2+. This tour includes:

• Visits to archaeological sites with uneven ground

• Some accommodations will not have ground floor rooms or elevators

• Plan to walk on average about 1 mile per day

• Optional nature walk of 5 miles / 8 kilometers which can be either shortened, or skipped in favor of relaxed knitting time

Rowan Tree Travel highly recommends purchasing travel insurance. You may purchase through our preferred partner Arch RoamRight here or through your own provider.  

*Arch RoamRight is an affiliate of RTTF and we will receive a small commission for policies bought through the provided link.

In order to gather easily for the tour, we provide an arrival and departure "window" at a major transportation hub - typically an international airport at your destination country. Flights scheduled outside the provided windows may result in additional transportation costs and/or missed tour activities. For this reason, we greatly appreciate your cooperation in booking travel that accommodates our specifications. 

This tour will start and end in Aberdeen, Scotland. Flight details will be provided upon registration and confirmed once the tour has been declared a go.

Please do not purchase airfare until the tour is guaranteed by RTTF to go forward.

ABERDEEN

Welcome to Scotland!  Our adventure begins in Aberdeen, two hours northeast of Edinburgh! We’ll have time to get to know one another and do a bit of sightseeing around Aberdeen, the most populated place we’ll be for a while. Let’s roam through a couple of local shops or museums and soak in the delights of Scotland. We will have a welcome dinner all together this evening before resting our heads at our beautiful hotel in downtown Aberdeen. 

SHETLAND & LERWICK

We’ve made it to Shetland! After arriving at the airport, we'll make our way up north to our home for the next four nights, St. Magnus Bay Hotel. This historic wooden hotel sits overlooking the bay; take a stroll and try to spot some seals before we come together for dinner.

Our first full day will be in Lerwick, the most populated city in Shetland - a whopping 9,000 residents. There will be some free time to explore Lerwick in between a trip to the Shetland Textile Museum and Jamieson & Smith (or "the Wool Brokers," as it is colloquially known) - the mothership of Shetland wool! Surrounded by countless colors of yarn, you will be led through an afternoon workshop learning how to design your own vintage fair isle beret using traditional Shetland motifs and patterns! You’ll have guidance with color choices, chart ideas and beret construction, but now is your moment to be the yarn artist and bring your own traditional Shetland fair-isle creation to life! 

HILLSWICK

Choose your own adventure!  Since yesterday was a jam-packed day, we will start things off slowly today. Enjoy a lie-in or a leisurely breakfast down in the restaurant this morning, or perhaps get a few rows of knitting in! In the late morning we will meet up and walk around the corner to the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary, a non-profit organization that gives aid to injured or abandoned otters and seals. We will learn about all the amazing work they do on Shetland, and say "hi" to whoever is currently residing in their care.

From here, you can choose to stay back and relax at the hotel with your knitting, or you can join in for a guided hike around Hillswick Circle! This walk will be approximately 5 hours, with 5 miles / 7-8km walked in total, including a lunch break in between and stops for photos along the way. This is classified as a "moderate" hike, with rough terrain at times and some steep inclines, but nevertheless with breathtaking views of the island. We'll meet back up at the hotel for dinner all together and to share stories from our day! 

UNST

It’s time to head to the most northerly part of the British Isles: the island of Unst! We’ll take our time making the journey northward, stopping for a cuppa and a wander on the island of Yell before the short ferry ride to Unst. Here we’ll travel way back in time to the Viking era, and explore the Unst Viking project with in-person demonstrations of what Viking life would have been like. Lunch will be provided by the delightful Victoria’s Vintage Tearoom (with quite possibly the best scones you'll ever eat!) before we visit the Unst Heritage Centre, which showcases intricate and awe-inspiring displays of antique Shetland lace. If we're lucky, we may even get to spend some time with the renowned knitters who live on Unst! 

ESHANESS & LERWICK

Though we must say farewell to our first hotel in the NW corner of the island, we'll do a bit more exploring before we depart! A journey further northward will bring us to the Eshaness cliffs, with breath-taking views out to the sea. Then we'll pay a visit to the lovely Tangwick Haa, an old home that has been turned into a museum. Be sure to take a look at the 1840s wedding dress upstairs and the free-access archives before passing through the excellent gift shop chock-full of handknit items!

Then we are back to the "big city" of Lerwick for a bit more exploring! You will have time to explore the shops you haven't peeked into yet, or choose to get in a second yarn shopping fix at your favorite local fiber shop. With full shopping bags, we'll hop back onto the bus and head towards the aptly named Sunshine Oo Croft. Here, we'll get a look into the real life of a Shetland crofter, with plenty of time to meet the sheep flock, the farmers, and enjoy a cup of tea around the peat fire. While we all daydream about having our own croft, we'll make our way to the hotel for the remainder of our stay on Shetland: Busta House.

With the original house built in 1588, Busta House Hotel boasts of a rich and lively history with the families who have resided there over the centuries. We will roam the halls and have cozy evenings for knitting in the “long drawing room” after some fabulous meals made in-house over our final days in Shetland. Perhaps we’ll even encounter a ghostly knitter!

SCALLOWAY SWAP!

On Sunday, we will separate into two groups to allow for the best experience at both stops - a day that we fiber ambassadors lovingly call, the Scalloway Swap!

We start our journey in Scalloway at the special organic Shetland sheep farm: Uradale Farm. Ronnie will meet with us to give a talk about contemporary sheep farming on Shetland. We'll have a meet-and-greet with the sheep before getting some time to shop the Uradale yarn.  Believe me, you’ll want to have a shopping list at the ready before looking at all of their stunning, special colorways made from the sheep visible just out the window! While one group meets with Ronnie, the other will head to Deborah Smith's weaving studio for a fascinating tour and talk through her studio that is surrounded by a rainbow of color! She'll guide us through an interesting exercise about blending colors, which is sure to help all of us with our future Shetland knits!

We'll cap off this woolly day with a talk and showcase of historic Shetland knitwear from Ella Gordon at Busta House!

SOUTH SHETLAND & ABERDEEN

Our last days in Shetland, then back to Aberdeen!  We are down to the final days here, but we are going to make the most of them! A slight drive down the coastline will bring us to Hoswick, where we will explore the visitor center with its historical knitting and textile artifacts on display, as well as some artisan shops from local knitwear designers and jewelry makers. We'll make a visit to the Shetland Museum and Archives and explore the knitwear exhibited at the museum, where there are hundreds of years worth of knitting history! Hearing about the varied and rich history of knitting on the Shetland Isles is sure to inspire us to cast on about 10 new projects afterward (thank goodness there is a yarn shop nearby). After dinner this evening, we will regroup in the Long Room for some live traditional Shetland folk music. Bring along your knitting and a dram while listening to the lovely tunes of the island. Perhaps we can even lure a troll or two out to listen along with us! 

Then the time has come to leave for a final adventure through the south of Shetland. After we say goodbye to Busta House, we'll head to the Crofthouse Museum, where the smell of the peat fire will lure us inside the traditional Shetland croft and glimpse at the old way of life. Conveniently located near the airport is the stunning archeological site of Jarlshof, where we will have time to explore the ruins and the many centuries of lives that occurred here. We'll then eat a delicious lunch at the Sumburgh Hotel before we set off for the airport. With our hearts full and our suitcases fuller still, we will bid our final goodbyes to the island, and take the short plane journey back to Aberdeen where we’ll stay for the final night.

Farewell! 

Sadly, we will bid farewell this morning and send you all on your merry way. Thank you for a wonderful trip! 

Sydney is a voracious knitter, designer, and knitwear historian. She has been knitting and studying fashion history for over fifteen years and recently turned her passions into a career at Squid's School of Vintage Knitting, an online school devoted to the education and love of historical knitwear. Her work in the knitting world is also supplemented by her academic background in film history, and she tries to combine the two as often as possible. In collaboration with Rowan Tree Travel & Fibercraft, Sydney works to develop tours that have a historical or vintage bent, often with elaborately themed and niche activities! With over ten years of working in the fiber industry, Sydney continues to love meeting other knitters and sharing fiber experiences with them more than anything else. You can find her at patreon.com/squidschool or over on Instagram as @squidneyknits. 

Helen’s love of fibre started early, back when her grandfather taught her to make tiny woollen dolls complete with miniature sweaters knitted on toothpicks. It’s fair to say she’s been wool-obsessed ever since, and life on a croft in the Shetland Islands has only encouraged the habit. With a flock of native Shetland sheep in every natural color imaginable, she’s never short of inspiration… or fleece.

On any given day you might catch Helen spinning, knitting, weaving, felting, crocheting - or occasionally all of the above when she’s meant to be doing something sensible. She’s equally passionate about the Viking period and ancient textile skills, especially nalbinding, which she teaches at Shetland Wool Week. When she’s not tending sheep or playing with wool, you’ll find her out on foot, roaming Shetland’s rugged moorland and wild coastal paths: the remote landscape that inspires her craft and that she loves to share with visitors.

If you’d like to discover more out more about Helen’s life amongst the peat smoke, sea winds, and sublime beauty of the Shetland landscape, you can find her on Facebook and Instagram as Hart of Shetland.

Dale S says...

"A Wooly Wander in Shetland checks all the boxes for a fiber enthusiast. I left Shetland with a better understanding of its history and how sheep, wool and fiber played a part. I fell in love with the people and the landscape and can't wait to return. What a magical journey!"

Joyce B says....

"It makes a difference when the guides are passionate about the places and subjects they are guiding you through. Fiber Ambassadors Sydney and Helen each truly loved what they shared with us about the crafts, materials, history, culture, etc. of Shetland. Their love showed, and having that love and passion shared with their group was a real treat."