Shetland Textile Museum — Attraction in Lerwick

What a lovely place. It's tiny, an old home, 2 rooms down, 2 rooms up, with a gift shop of hand-knitted goods where you enter. Everything is, at one time or another, in use by local fiber artists as demos. Downstairs there is a huge loom, and upstairs there are two rooms with historical lace and patterns from prolific knitters of the past.

There are current knitters working on projects and available to chat with. There is also a massive scarf project to which visitors to add a few rows while visiting. There are also, at other times, spinners demonstrating.

This does not, as I rather expected, cover the sheep-to-product process or the historical wool processing process.

It was lovely to visit, despite the space and displays being small.

It should be noted that this space is NOT wheelchair accessible, but if you have limited mobility and can climb the (steep!!) stairs, there are chairs to sit on and rest while chatting or reading...

This museum is out of the way if you're on foot so I would take a pass on it. If you're driving by, you could stop in but you'll see a better display in the Upper Gallery at the Shetland Museum and Archives on Hays Dock and admission to that one is free. Here you pay £3 to see some knitted items and a floor loom, a couple of pieces of tweed and a couple of rugs in two rooms without interpretation. (We did see the emtire three rooms and read the boards but. , honestly, didn't find it...

What a great little museum. So good to learn about traditional Shetland textile production. Particularly liked the items the islanders had donated. There was a pair of gauntlet knitted gloves which I would like to try to recreate. The custodian was very knowledgeable and pleasant to talk to. I would recommend visiting if you go...