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.
“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.”
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.
“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