Blog
Videos
Hello everyone! You may remember during 2020 and 2021 when we had no in-person Shetland Wool Week we decided to produce along with Keiba Clubb online videos, featuring some of the classes we usually host at Wool Week. They are a great source of tips, tricks and information, so we thought we'd highlight them here! In 2020 we had two videos from Wool Week patrons, one being the current one, Alison Rendall and Fair Isle Cuffs and Thumb Gussets and Knitting a Fair Isle Bookmark with Hazel Tindall, this is one of our most popular classes we hold at Wool Week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CZmq60jkSA&list=PLE1uY31y5ZbdrvBhuZSwNKyzjm7PcsmJ_ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cygWM1e_sw0&list=PLE1uY31y5ZbdrvBhuZSwNKyzjm7PcsmJ_&index=3 We also have two videos from J&S staff, one from Ella all about our yarn ranges, and one from Oliver about sorting and Grading Shetland Wool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rCR3WHHSIs&list=PLE1uY31y5ZbdrvBhuZSwNKyzjm7PcsmJ_&index=6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nMMpv-k2p4&list=PLE1uY31y5ZbdrvBhuZSwNKyzjm7PcsmJ_&index=5 in 2021 we added more videos, one from Alison about Edging and Ribbing in Fair Isle, another from Hazel about Belts and Basics, a great all-around tips video and a great video about knitting glove fingers in Fair Isle with Lesley Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoY6ypmFfpc&t=878s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YIPTy26vmI&t=1783s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAqJy76a1Bc&t=524s We also had a few more videos from J&S, one about Speed Swatching for Fair Isle with Ella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbE4XL8QiI&list=PLE1uY31y5ZbcXGS7ROlKZuFaZPXHmZezS&index=4 And two videos from Oliver all about his working life at J&S: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSGp1e4FTls&list=PLE1uY31y5ZbcXGS7ROlKZuFaZPXHmZezS&index=5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-R3bc5vYOs We hope you agree there are some great tips and stories in these videos, you can find these and all our other videos on our Youtube Channel here, happy knitting!
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The Power of Sorting
Hello everyone, today we are discussing one of the more hands-on aspects of the wool side of our business: hand sorting. This is physically sorting each fleece into different grades for its intended final use. If a fleece is not sorted and split into its different grades and then the wool is used for making knitting yarn you will end up with an inconsistent yarn - it will be thick and thin and may break easily. This is because there has not been uniformity in the wool. You can see how different it can be in the examples above - these samples both come from the same fleece, the fine soft yarn on the left and the much rougher wool on the right containing the longer guard hair. This guard hair can be and is combed out but if it goes into yarn along with the finer wool it becomes an irritant and changes the balance of the wool. We grade and sort into 5 grades 1 being the finest. Within the same fleece you can find all five grades, we recently filmed a video about preparing a fleece for shows here in Shetland but the information might also be helpful here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D0EpiOVl1Y So for an example the boys in the Woolstore took a typical Shetland fleece we would receive and we laid it out.. We then sorted it and removed all the rougher grades.... Leaving behind what we keep for knitting yarns, you can see how much is removed... From a 1.5kg fleece we were left with: Off Sorts, not for knitting yarn: 800g Finer wool for yarn: 700g So in that fleece there was more to be removed than was kept for yarn. None of the yarn not suitable for hand knitting yarn is wasted, our parent company Curtis Wool Direct is able to either comb (to remove a lot of the longer guard hair) and use in a Worsted Spun Yarn or clean (dirty, heavily soiled or full of vegetable matter) to be used in carpet or even wool insulation products. Neckband wool, you can see how fine and high quality the wool is but due to its location, there is a lot of vegetable matter! We sort the neckbands on their own and keep them all together so once cleaned this wool can be used for yarn. For our woollen spun yarns like 2ply Jumper Weight to name one this sorting process is extremely important, even in a fine fleece you can get areas with both a long and short staple which is why grading alone is not enough. Due to the volume of wool we take in we are able to be more discerning with our sorting to ensure only the best graded and sorted Shetland Wool is used for our knitting yarns, because of this volume we are unable to sort it all here on-site but once it gets to Curtis Wool Direct what's not is sorted and the wool for knitting yarns goes into our 'Wool Bank' which we then create our yarns from. During the winter and quieter months, we also sort here alongside our everyday grading. We have had a busy summer here in Shetland, the wool season is fully underway and we had the Tall Ships Race in Lerwick last week, if you want to keep up with what's happening at J&S be sure to sign up to our newsletter, Happy Knitting!
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Knitting With Cones
Hello everyone, thank you for the good feedback on our last post! Today we will go into something else we always get asked about - knitting with cones! cones in our new back-shop area. We offer quite a few of our ranges on cone but by far the most popular is our 2ply Jumper Weight, this is our traditional Shetland 4ply thickness wool that we have been producing since the 1960s. It's available in over 100 shades and we often have most of these available. We produce them in 500g cones. This is equal to 20 balls – approximately 2500 yards/2300 metres Two shades we took back last year, left 9 and right 8 What is the difference between the yarn on cone or ball? Nothing at all – when we order a shade we get a certain amount on cone and the rest on ball but initially the whole order is made on cone, the yarn to be turned into balls is then scoured and balled. What would I use it for? Lots of things! In Shetland cones are probably mostly used for knitting the body and sleeves of Yoke cardigans and jumpers and it is perfect for that but anything which needs a substantial amount of one shade will benefit from using a cone. Also if there is a shade you use a lot – it might be worth investing in a cone to always have to hand. Why would I buy a cone over balls? Cost: Because there are less production costs (no scouring, balling, bagging etc) the overall cost of a cone works out a lot cheaper than buying the balls - its over a 45% discount if you purchase it directly from us! Ease of knitting: you just plop the cone down and knit! Compared to balls there are less ends, and within the cone you should find few if any knots which means a seamless garment will be just that. Knitting Machine: If you have a knitting machine a cone is by far the easiest way to knit and because we sell the cones in oil (meaning the yarn is oiled with a synthetic oil – like sewing machine oil) that means the yarn will glide through the machine and not catch, and therefore break. FC11 Can I handknit with a cone? Of course, because the yarn is oiled it doesn’t feel the same as the balls but once washed it feels exactly the same. Anything made with the oiled yarn must be washed – we would advise this for any item made with Shetland Wool anyway but for the oiled yarn it is crucial, the oil is not meant to be next to skin and may irritate it. Some people do not like the feeling of the oiled yarn to knit with so you can hank/skein the yarn, wash then wind it into balls if you prefer but it is not necessary. The only time we would advise taking care would be if you were knitting with a very strong colour (black, red, blue etc) alongside a lighter colour as the stronger pigments can attach to the oil and bleed when first washed. In this case, we would wind off and wash or use a colour catcher when washing. 1281 What about swatching? If you need to swatch you must wash the swatch – the gauge is not reliable until its washed as with the oil it can look much thinner and therefore not give you a reliable tension. How do you wash out the oil? To remove the oil you need to submerge the item in very hot (not boiling) water along with a wool wash or hand wash wool detergent. You will see a lot of grey water which is the oil and perhaps some of the colour of the yarn as the dye can attach to the oil. Its best to leave the item (without agitating for up to an hour. Then rinse and repeat until the water runs completely clear. We also offer our undyed Jumper Weight range on cone too - Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight is completely undyed and available in 9 Natural shades. Because this is a rarer fibre we don't always have all the colours on cone available but as is the case with any product on our website you can add your email address to an 'in-stock alert' and it will email you as soon as we add more. Sometimes there can be a long wait between us getting more of particular shades or ranges on cone, its important to understand that the cones are something we have chosen to offer to our retail customers as an extra to balls. We have to order large amounts of individual shades, and we are always trying to find the balance in ordering enough to sustain our physical shop, online shop and all our stockists. This is all done by us here in Shetland so we are grateful for your patience and understanding. If you are a Lace knitter we also sometimes have our 1ply Cobweb, 1ply and 2ply Supreme Lace and Shetland Heritage ranges available on cone. You just need to keep an eye out on our online shop if the shade you want is not available. If you have any more questions about knitting from a cone - just ask. Happy Knitting!
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Garment Patterns
Hello everyone, a few weeks ago we launched Sandra's most recent garment pattern - the Joseph Slipover: This tank top features traditional motifs and techniques but uses 10 zingy shades of 2ply Jumper Weight, we have the sample in the shop and everyone comments on just how bright it is! It's knit completely in the round using steeks for the neck and armholes, you might recognise the motif and colours from the Parrots of the Rainforest Mitts, Sandra just wasn't finished with it.. We thought we'd go through our other single garment patterns we have available at J&S, knitting a full garment can be intimidating - especially in fine yarn but we have a wide range of styles to make your entry (or re-entry) into garment knitting as easy as possible! Our heritage and traditions here in Shetland are important to us and our main focus will always be Shetland/Fair Isle or inspired styles so we have a number of Allover garment designs which are as the name implies patterns featuring an all-over pattern: Roadside Allover Lynsey Jumper Fair Isle V-Neck Jumper Antarctica Allover Click here to see the patterns: Roadside Allover, Lynsey Sweater, Fair Isle V-Neck Jumper and Antarctica Allover As well as the Joseph Slipover we also have the Cruden pattern, if sleeves are not something you fancy (unfortunately there are usually two of them..!) Cruden Click here: Cruden and another popular Shetland style - yokes! Adenia Yoke Eid Top Moorie Cardigan Ola Yoke Winter Yoke Sandvoe Hairst Click here: Adenia, Eid, Moorie, Ola, Winter Yoke, Sandvoe and Hairst Yoke Bairns patterns are something we also have a few of - this can be a great introduction to Shetland Garment knitting, all the main skills being used just on a smaller scale: Natalia Bairns Crofthoose Peerie Lynsey Gremista Gansey Perrie Bairns Jumper Click here: Natalia, Bairns Crofthoose, Peerie Lynsey, Gremista Gansey and Peerie Bairns Jumper So that's just some of the garment patterns we have available at J&S, unfortunately, our website doesn't have the capabilities to have kits for all the different sizes but it means you can change colours, add extra balls or just purchase the pattern if that's how you feel! We have the amounts and shades listed on the pattern pages so you can just make a list and add the colours to your basket. Please note: many of these patterns are available digitally either from us on Ravelry or payhip or directly from the designer. If you are outside the UK you might find the p&p is expensive for just a pattern so we would encourage you to see first if it's available digitally or add the pattern to an order. Happy knitting!
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Elizabethan Cowl and 50g Jumper Weight
Hello everyone, you may seen our post on social media last week but we thought we'd share more detail about one of our new patterns and the perfect yarn pairing to go with it! Sandra designed this cowl - The Elizabethan Cowl in 2ply Jumper weight to use two shades in a fully reversible design, the motif is inverted from one side to the other. It's worked in the round - you cast on, work one side then switch the colours and work the other side. It's then cast off and seamed together. For the yarn, we had a balling mishap recently whereas 8 shades of 2ply Jumper Weight were balled into 50g instead of the normal 25g BUT our mistake is your gain and we are offering them at a discount individually here or in a full pack for a bigger discount here. They ended up working perfectly for the Elizabethan Cowl because you only need one 50g ball (or two 25g balls) of two shades so you can find the paper pattern here, or the kit or if you already have the wool the pattern is available digitally on payhip and raverly. So if you fancy any of these slightly bigger balls this is your chance to pick them up - we dont think they will last long.. Happy Knitting!
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New Colours
Hello everyone, today we are posting about a few new colours we have got back in over the past while in Jumper and Lace Weight, we are lucky that because we have been making yarn since the 1960's we have a huge bank of shades from over the years that we can refer to. We are always looking at what's missing from the 2ply Jumper range and we have recently added 4 new colours: 92 - bright marigold yellow 135 - mid navy 1285 - bright rust mix FC13 - dark red mix We have all 4 shades available on cone and ball at the moment, we are waiting for Shade cards to be printed for the new shades so for the moment they are not on the cards but they will be soon and they are on our digital shade card which you can find here, this is good for looking on a device (phone, laptop etc) but I wouldnt suggest printing it as it wont be accurate. The new shades really add to some of the blending options for Jumper Weight - you can see below how they give just a bit more dimension which works great for Fair Isle knitting. 96, 23 and 1285 21, FC41 and 135 FC55, 87 and FC13 FC38, 122 and 1285 We have also taken back two shades of 2ply Lace Weight: L38 and L62, thes shades round out the 2ply Lace really well: L38 - Bright Sherbet Orange L62 - Marled Blue Purple Mix You can see below how well they go with some of the other lace shades: L-R: L40, L69 and L62 L-R: L125, L38 and L53 And last week we took in a batch of 2ply Lace in L1a - this is our natural white 2ply lace shade which we discontinued a few years ago, so if you are interested in a more 'off white' look for your project in the Woollen Spun 2ply Lace this is a great option and we are not planning to take it back in permanently so grab it while you can! Below you can see it alongside the other 'Natural' - (all shades in the 2ply Lace are Dyed) colours, L-R: L1, L1A, L202, L3, L78, L4 and L5. So thats a few new colours for us, we hope you like them - happy knitting!
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Wirsit Inspo February - March
Hello everyone, happy weekend - today we are sharing here more of our weekly Wirsit Inspo (wool inspiration) pictures that we post on Facebook and Instagram, these cover what we posted in February and March so next week we'll be back with rest of March til now: Beach Finds, 2ply Jumper Weight Shades: 1, 203, FC6,FC7, 9097 and 81 Bog Cotton and Sunshine, 2ply Jumper Weight: 1, 16, 121, FC11, FC12 and FC44. Powerful Sea, 2ply Jumper Weight: 1, 203, FC61, 54 and 81. Charisma, 2ply Jumper Weight: FC47, 16, 1, 91, 23 and FC21. Wild Flowers, 2ply Jumper Weight: 23, FC22, 9097, 202, FC11 and 118 Fladdabister Sheep, 2ply Jumper Weight: 122, 4, 1281, 203, 14 and 1A. We hope you like seeing these posts as much as we like putting them together, they are to give you ideas for Fair Isle, colourwork, stripes, lace - anything. It shows how much our colour palette is inspired by our surroundings here in Shetland. Happy knitting!
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Da Crofters Kep Kit Pre-Orders
Hello everyone, you may have seen that today the new Shetland Wool Week hat pattern - Da Crofters Kep was launched!! Sadly again this year Shetland Wool Week will be online (keep an eye out later in the year for more on that!) but this means that Wilma Malcomson has continued her reign as Patron for another year and designed another beautiful hat, Da Crofters Kep. Unfortunately, even with planning and ordering ahead, we are out of stock of one of the shades (FC38) in the J&S colourway :( Lockdown, coronavirus etc etc has really impacted our production chain as it has for many people and businesses but we are offering a pre-order option for our colourway. If you order it you will pay for it now but it will not be posted until we have the full kit in stock - we are hoping it will be less than a month but we cannot guarantee this, we are asking for your understanding and patience with this and you can be sure AS SOON as that missing shade appears we will be getting those kits out! 2021 Shetland Wool Week Hat J&S Colourway: 2ply Jumper Weight FC46, 82, FC38, 122, 32 and Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight 2005 Shetland Black. As always with the Wool Week Hat patterns we love to see the variety in everyone's finished hats and for this design you need two balls of your main shade (one if you use Shetland Supreme Jumper weight) and one ball each of 5 contrast shades of 2ply Jumper Weight. We cant wait to see everyones Crofter Keps! Happy Knitting! UPDATE 30/4 We now have kits available and have fulfilled all the pre-orders. You can order kits here
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More Wirsit Inspo
Hello everyone, As promised on our last Wirsit Inspo blog here are all the inspiration pictures we have posted on our Instagram and Facebook. Every week I (Ella) scour my photo archives for pictures from all seasons and match them up with 2ply Jumper Weight (mainly due to the shade range but I am always looking to use other ranges too!) So here they are and as long as you keep enjoying them we will keep posting them: Puffin in Fair Isle: FC21, 54, 91, 125, 1, 77 and FC12. Wintery Walks, Lerwick. Shades 1, 75, FC34, FC38 and FC44. Laburnum and Aliums, Lerwick Flower Park, Summer 2020. Shades 23, 123, FC24, FC11 and FC12. 2020 Lerwick Up Helly Aa Galley, shades 1, 121, 1403, 132 and FC41. Stenness Haaf Station, Eshaness. Shades 1A, 90, 142, 78 and 54. Sandy banks of a Shetland Beach, Yell. Shades FC15, FC12, 121, FC43 and 202. Wild and Windy Seas, Lerwick. Shades 1280, FC61, FC35, FC41 and 81. Sea Pinks on the Rocks, Fair Isle. Shades 1, 54, 81, FC11, 52 and 1284. Ronas Hill on Boxing Day, shades 1A, 14, 121, FC55 and FC44. Kegord Trees in the Summer, shades 1, FC11, FC12, 82 and 4. A wintery day on the Westside, shades 14, FC61, 1281, 122 and FC44. Wintery Shetland Pony Foal, shades 122, FC44, 5, FC24, 14 and 1. I hope you enjoyed that, happy knitting!
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