Having a yarn

We are always delighted to welcome visitors to the Stromness Library, and even more delighted when they come back for a return visit.

In the last couple of weeks we've had visits from two former writers in residence at Stromness Library, Jan Natanson, and Nalini Paul , as well as our Ravelry friend Westendangela.

While Jan and Nalini shared news of recent writing projects - Jan has a community play in production, and Nalini has a poetry book coming out soon - when knitters get together the talk soon turns to work in progress and recent projects on the knitting needles. 

We were rather pleased to be able to show off our library cushions, and Becky even posed for a photo beside the windows which were the inspiration for the design. 

photo by Westendangela

Watch this space for news about the date of our move to the new building, but in the meantime here is a sneaky preview of the cushions in their new home.

Now doesn't that look comfy?

Just perfect for relaxing with a good book, or even a bit of knitting!

The Knitter Scientific

It's been a wonderful week of weather here in Orkney, with visitors and residents alike enjoying sunny strolls along the street in Stromness. We've enjoyed meeting those who have taken a break from the sun to visit the library, both new visitors and familiar faces. 

It was particularly nice to get chatting to a regular visitor who turns out to be a fellow knitter and Ravelry member Westendangela from Dundee. Combining her job as a biochemist with her passion for all things woolly she has been using knitting to bring her research to life. 

Her most recent project,  as part of the Women in Science Festival, involved creating a knitted display for her local yarn shop representing the human  blood stream when dealing with the sleeping sickness (her area of research) , with knitted red blood cells, white cells, Trypanosomes, the flu virus, and the DNA helix. 

knitted Trypanosome being attacked by antibodies

We are hoping Anglea might be able to join us at Yap and Yarn on a future visit to Orkney, but in the meantime she has very kindly left us a knitted Trypanosome of our very own. 

While researchers like Angela are studying the behaviour of the Trypanosome parasites, in the hope of developing more effective drug treatments, charity MSF (Doctors Without Borders) is responsible for supplying and distributing the drugs currently used to treat Sleeping Sickness, the disease caused by the Trypanosome parasite.

Sleeping Sickness is a devastating disease spread by the Tsetse fly, which  poses a risk to 60 million people in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. To find out more about Sleeping Sickness and the role of the Trypanosome parasites visit the MSF website, where you can also donate to support the work of MSF in offering treatment to those suffering from this, and other, neglected tropical diseases.