Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘More than just whisky’: 3 Bags Wool owner moves to Dufftown to showcase creative talents on Speyside

3 Bags Wool owner holding three thrum balls in her shop in Dufftown
The 3 Bags Wool owner wants to use her new Dufftown shop to promote local talent. Picture by Jason Hedges/DC Thomson

The owner of 3 Bags Wool wants to use her new store in Dufftown to promote local creative talent.

Sarah Fraser has just moved her shop from Aberlour after setting up the business 13 years ago.

Ms Fraser decided to move while keeping her existing Gather’n Cafe open after feeling the town was perfect for a wool shop.

She said: “I just felt Dufftown needed some love, it’s suffered a bit lately and it’s a nice commute to come over here. I thought if it works in Aberlour, it’ll work here.

The outside of Sarah Fraser’s store in Dufftown. Picture by Jason Hedges/DC Thomson

“I needed to separate the business because the cafe had just become too busy and it took over from the yarn.

“We had a consultation last year and thought both businesses would do better if they were on separate premises, so that’s what we’ve done.”

One of the store’s unique features is thrums, a by-product from Scottish woollen mills, that would otherwise end up in the landfill.

‘Keeping the skills alive’

Ms Fraser also provides workshops to teach others how to use these thrums with the hopes of inspiring creativity and sustainability.

She said: “Since we have a kind of a unique product with the thrums, we’ve done a lot of workshops to show people how they can use it.

“When we do them, we get a big bag that’s cut from the machine and we have to sort it out and process it, we roll it into balls and we make them into hanks after that.

“When you’re doing that, you might only find two balls that are the same or close, they’re very individual and sometimes you never see the same ones twice.”

Sarah Fraser holding a rug made out of thrums in her store in Dufftown
Sarah Fraser holding up a rug made out of thrum balls. Picture by Jason Hedges/DC Thomson

The business owner believes Speyside has a lot of creative talent which she wants to showcase and pass on to the younger generations.

She added: “I think Speyside has amazing artists, people who’ve developed things, great knitters, and I don’t think we do much about it and recognise what a skill it actually is.

“You have everything from the spinning to your finest knitted garment or sheepskin rug, I’d like other people to come in, then people can come to Dufftown for more than just whisky.

“Passing the skills on is something we should do to keep them alive, everyone’s so busy on their phones, working with your hands and being creative is a great expression.”

‘Knitting was just part of life’

Ms Fraser started knitting during her childhood after struggling with asthma and now hopes her granddaughter will adopt the same family skills.

She said: “I have four sons, but they’re all interested in cars and motorbikes, but I have a granddaughter who is five.

“I was looking forward to teaching her to knit, but she told me ‘No it’s nanny Dot who has to teach me’. That’s my mum and I thought ‘She’s right, she’s the oldest member of the family,’ so we’re going to follow that tradition.

Sarah Fraser knitting in her store in Dufftown. Picture by Jason Hedges/DC Thomson

“My granny and my mum both knitted, my grandad was a gamekeeper so granny would knit his long stockings and I’d knit the garters for them.

“My mum used to knit for the Japanese market in the 80s, it was beautiful cardigans with roses and things, it was amazing work.

“Knitting was just part of life in the house, I was quite poorly as a kid because I had asthma, so it’s something I got introduced to and enjoyed, there was no other distractions.”

Conversation