WK382 Diligent

My journey stone sampler as part of the Spirit of the Highlands and Islands Tapestry is of the WK382 'Diligent', which was built in 1912 to sail to and from Stroma in Caithness.

It is one of the first tapestry samplers that I have stitched since resuming stitching after several decades. I was taught to embroider at Pennyland Primary School, Thurso, in the early 1980s when we were taught to knit, embroider and sew by hand .At school, the sewing teacher showed us how to make decorative items like a lined sampler bag, which I gave to my Grandma, a knitted purse, a tray cloth and other decorative items. We were also shown how to knit a dense cloth from string, for when we needed a sturdy cloth. There was no great choice in the shops in Caithness then; people weren’t so keen to throw things away and replace them immediately from a shop.

I was part of the generation of children that were born in Caithness because my family moved up to work at Dounreay. Back then I was called an “atomic” but over the years we have become local.

I chose the Diligent as a subject because I spend many years living in Upper Gills and my house looked over the Pentland Firth. I brought my children up there and it still feels like my home, even though I don’t live there anymore. There is a saying that “there is no place like home”, well, Caithness is my home no matter where I am.