Blog
5ply Shetland Cones
Hello everyone! A quick post from us today to let you know we recently got more stock of our 5ply Shetland Cones, this is our newest range of yarn which we launched at Wool Week in 2023. Its a lovely yarn (if we do say so!!) made from 100% Real Shetland Wool and inspired by our maritime history and environment here in Shetland. Although we are rightly famed for our bright Fair Isle and Lace knitting there is also evidence of Gansey/Guernsey type jumpers worn in Shetland which makes sense when you look at our location, we are and have been for many years a main port in the Fishing industry so people often travelled up and over from places with their own Knitting tradition. The 5ply cones are 250g so for an average adults Gansey in 1 colour you will need between 3/4 cones. Cones save you some ends and some money over buying the balls, we currently have stock of all 20 shades so if you are interested this is the time to purchase! You can find the cones in the shop or online here and for more information about the yarn see our earlier post here and another we wrote about the colours in the range here. If you miss our more regular updates make sure you are signed up to our newsletter, we send one out once every month with updates of new products, patterns and news from Shetland. Happy Knitting!
Learn more
5ply Colours
Hello everyone, thank you for the great response to our new Yarn, 5ply Shetland! Today we thought we'd show you a closer look at the colour palette we chose to produce. The yarn is available in 20 shades, 14 solid and 6 natural/overdyed. As discussed in our last post the colours were inspired by our maritime history, Shetlands landscape and those classic seafaring colours: We knit up a square of each shade, so today we thought we'd go through them: We had to include two Navys, both a mid and dark - these are timeless nautical shades. The blues continue with Turquoise and Marine, two blues that lean towards a greeny, jewel tone. Then we have Airforce, a very grey blue and Olive, a rich mid-green. Marsh is a lighter yellow-green and Mustard is a bright golden yellow. There is the rich warm Rust and the super bright Scarlet As well as the refined Maroon and luscious Aubergine. The final solid shade is the purpley grey Lavender, and the base for all these shades is the lovely creamy White. We also used a mix of undyed wool to create the Natural, this light grey is then overdyed to create the Twilight shades - such as Turquoise Twilight Mustard and Rust Twilight And Scarlet and Lavender Twilight! We can't tell you how delighted we are with how all the shades came out. We wanted to create a well-rounded group of colours and the Twilight shades really add something special to the range: It's amazing how much the 5 colours change depending on the White or Grey base! We've also spent a lot of time over the last few weeks working on redoing our Yoal Gansey pattern, seen here modelled by Oliver and knit by Sandra using the shade Turquoise. Originally it was designed and knit in Shetland Heritage holding the yarn double. But as we found out two strands of Heritage matches the gauge of 1 strand of 5ply! So we have extended the size range and fixed any mistakes. We have ordered paper patterns but the pattern is available digitally on Ravelry and Payhip now. If you are interested in how much yarn you would need for a Gansey using the Yoal here is an estimate: Chest inches 37 (40.5, 42, 45.5, 47.5, 50, 51, 56.5) = 640 (680, 730, 770, 830, 850, 900, 960) grams The stitch definition is clear to see, we are so happy with this yarn! As a reminder here is the Yarn information: Yarn Information 100% Real Shetland Wool Worsted Spun 5ply/Sport Weight, wpi 16 115m/125yds per 50g ball 575m/625yds per 250g cone suggested needle size 2mm-3mm Available in the shop and online here If you own or have a Local Yarn Store that you would like to carry it in the future please contact wholesale@shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk - We are looking to make it available to stockists very soon! Happy Knitting!
Learn more