Herring Seller 'Chinad'

Catherine had the tapestry last week and she worked on 'Chinad' (Caithness for Janet) who is the Herring seller on the bottom right of our panel. She would have had to walk up the coast for up to 15 miles into Wick to the market. She would have walked bare foot until she got to the cemetery at the south edge of Wick where she would have put her boots on that she carried around her neck.

Doesn't she look like she's got the world on her back? She wore an apron down her back to stop the fish leaking onto her. Catherine was looking at the stems and bushes in her own garden to gauge the colour of the wooden basket that would have been used.
Chinad's hair was stitched in Bullion Knots. The group all knew someone who has hair like this.

The jumper was designed to look like a Fishermans Rib Gansey pattern and was stitched in chain and stem stitch. The apron has an running stitch to give it texture. The sea was in a herringbone stitch. Catherine thought it took approximately 19 stitching hours.