A walk around Edinburgh, and a new jumper pattern

Around this time last year, I took a very short trip to one of the best cities in the world, Edinburgh. The fact I put it in that category is all the more remarkable given every time I go there it rains, and when it rains in Scotland, it doesn't muck about. Visiting Edinburgh, even for a short break, I have to take in 3 things - a great meal (Tom Kitchin's restaurant, this time & last), a pint in one of Rebus's favourite pubs (only managed the Cafe Royal, this time, didn't make it to the Ox) and a dram or two at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. All of which can fortunately be done indoors!

Anyway, the morning after our dinner at Kitchin, the rain lifted for long enough for a little pilgrimage over to Marchmont. Marchmont had 2 attractions - firstly, it is the (fictional) home of the aforementioned Inspector Rebus, and secondly, it's the home of Be Inspired Fibres which I had been assured by no less a knitting authority than Karie Westermann was very much worth the trip out of the city centre.

So we proceeded first along the Royal Mile, where even the road names make us feel at home - and it's actually spelled correctly:

My Talboys Wrap is doing a good warming job in the photo...

Turning off in the direction of Marchmont, we were then pleased to stumble across this:

Then this chap (and no, David isn't touching the nose).

 

 

The next stop, rather appropriately, was to buy some excellent sparkly Scottie dog Christmas cards in the Shelter stop, then on past the university (where Pollock Halls of Residence reminded me of long ago, when I ran a Pet Shop Boys fanzine & had readers there), across a green sward and into the austere tenements of Marchmont, where I found my way to Rebus's flat.

So, tourism over, I attended to the serious business of shopping for yarn. Be Inspired Fibres is an absolute gem, brimming with stuff I had actually never seen before, and knowledgeably and friendlily run by Mei. And oh, the fibres! Yak! Mink!! Copper!!! The shop received the ultimate accolade from David: "a knitting shop even I enjoyed" (he was especially taken with the Habu metal yarns)

Having indulged myself with the minky-coppery end of things, I had to buy some proper Scottish yarn, and so I found my way to Shilasdair. Their yarns are dyed in colours inspired by the Scottish landscape and, being a devotee of green, I couldn't resist a jumper-sized amount in a colour called Uig Sea Green.

And so, in the nearly a year since, I designed a sweater to suit the yarn, with a simple, wavy lace pattern like the green sea breaking on the shores of the Isle of Skye. Completely seamless, it comes in standard and curvy fit, to give a flattering silhouette to all kinds of figures. I've called it Marchmont Sweater

And the windswept beach it's photographed on... sorry, it's not Skye, or even Edinburgh, but the other end of the country in Whitstable, Kent (though it was doing its best to emulate Edinburgh's weather...).

Photography by David, & tech edited by Michelle Hazell.