Although it has been relatively quiet on our blog for the past few months this by no means reflects the buzz of activity that the wool season brings to J&S each year. This always involves taking in around 250 tonnes of wool from around 700-800 individual crofts, hand grading and sorting it for quality and baling it up into around 850 bales for being sent off to the scourers; all whilst preparing ourselves for Shetland Wool Week in October. So before I have to run off to take in more wool, bale it up or work on a pattern or two I have put together a little picture blog giving a tiny insight into J&S in the middle of this crazy season
Under a typical Shetland summer sky, our big green doors are open to welcome in more wool at any time
The unassuming façade of the J&S shop gives no hint of the myriad of woolly treasures stocked within
Comparing the middle of the wool season to its beginning in June gives a stark contrast to the amount of wool passing through the wool store each day
Derek (who will not thank me for taking his picture!) sorts through some of the 3 tonnes, or so, of wool coming in per day
As we get through the wool, baling it up and stacking it in columns, the crofters' wool bag bundles characteristic of the second half of the wool season pile up in every nook and cranny
The Middle (or Coloured Wool) Store
After spending all day baling up coloured wool it is still bursting out of its stalls
Coloured Shetland wool: natural, undyed, versatile, unique
Some of our very best wool, laid to the side for hand-spinners
A moorit fleece drapes beautifully whilst waiting to be collected by a hand-spinner
The shop is busy as ever with boxes full of exciting goodies arriving the whole time to be unpacked onto the shelves and sent out all over the world
Designs and patterns, new and old, grace the shop with kits being made up for any customer needing a new project
Some new friends, the ill trickit trows, have joined us in the shop and new garments hang upstairs, waiting for their patterns to be finished
Down in the old police station all is quiet as the whipping machine, used to transform our range of undyed wool carpeting into floor rugs, lies dormant waiting to be worked again in a quieter time of the year
