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Fair Isle Designs from Shetland Knitters Vol. 1
In March the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers released their latest book of patterns - Fair Isle Designs from Shetland Knitters Vol 1. The book contains 15 original patterns by designers and knitters in the Guild and based at the time of writing in Shetland. It's an inspiring group of patterns ranging from small items up to garments and features a good range of adult and children's items: Seaness Phone Cover by Irene Copperwheat, Quarwall Triangular Shawl by Lauretta Robertson and Quarry Hat and Mitten Set by Alice Pottinger Clover Brimmed Hat by Ina Irvine, Jemina Hot Water Bottle/Ipad cover by Wilma Couper and Kae Waistcoat by Susan Johnson When you think of Shetland knitting the most common weight of yarn used is what we call Jumper Weight - a woollen spun 4ply weight yarn available in lots of colours which make the shading of colourwork pop, these patterns in the book either use our 2ply Jumper Weight or Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight: Sandison Yoked Jumper by Hazel Tindall and Pole Star Mittens by Joan Poleson Meenie Wristwarmers by Barbara Cheyne and Hvarfi Gloves by Pearl Johnson Snow in Kergord Mittens by Outi Kater There are also three patterns in the book which use our Shetland Heritage yarn, both dyed and natural. The Shetland Heritage is slightly lighter weight than Jumper Weight. As it is Worsted Spun the yarn has a softness and drape which makes it perfect for people who find Shetland Wool slightly itchy - the Vailima Cardigan and Frances Frilly Pixie are both for children which the heritage is great for. The Tangwick Tank top in the Natural Heritage is a lovely lightweight top perfect for warmer days but also for layering in the colder months (more often than not in Shetland!) Vailima Cardigan by Ruby Williamson Tangwick Tank Top by Sara Leith Frances Frilly Pixie Hat by Linda Shearer Congratulations to the Guild on the publication of the new book, you can purchase it here on our website and we look forward to seeing Volume 2! Happy Knitting!
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The Vintage Shetland Project
Hello everyone, today I thought I'd share some pictures and information about the above book 'The Vintage Shetland Project' by Susan Crawford which recently came out and uses J&S yarns for a number of the patterns. The book has been many years in the making: 'The Vintage Shetland Project, is the culmination of eight years of hard work and personal determination. Inspired by the patterns and colours of Shetland knitting, the fashion historian, author, designer and publisher Susan Crawford began a journey into the rich heritage of Shetland knitwear, and in particular the pieces held in the Shetland Museum archive. With the help of Dr Carol Christiansen, the museum’s curator, Susan undertook the task of carefully selecting the most stunning and original designs from the 1920s to the 1950s, transcribed them stitch by stitch, and has here recreated them for the modern knitter, in stunning detail and a range of sizes for women and men. In combination with the collection of 27 comprehensive patterns for garments and accessories are carefully researched essays exploring the stories behind each piece and honouring their creators – some famous, some forgotten. Photographed by Susan on the island of Vaila, situated off the west coast of Shetland, this book also celebrates the untameable beauty of Shetland itself. Compiled with Susan’s trademark attention to detail, this book is a fabulous treasury of Shetland knitting design and a valuable insight into its textile traditions. It offers you the chance to delve into a fascinating era for knitwear design and to bring it to life in stitch-perfect vintage style.' Sandra and Me (Ella) can remember helping Susan to match up colours at Wool Week in 2013 and its so exciting to see the final book, it is almost half and half history and essays to patterns. The essays focus on many different aspects of Shetland textiles but also focus on specific story's, people and pieces of knitwear, it's the kind of book you can dip in and out of but still feel you've learnt something! The patterns of course take up a large proportion of the book and focus on unusual or special items which the originals are housed in collections at the Shetland Museum and the Shetland Textile Museum. left: Highland knit in Shetland Supreme 2ply Laceright: Margaret knit in 2ply Jumper Weightphotos: Susan Crawford Munro knit in 2ply Jumper WeightPhotos: Susan Crawford Petrie knit in 2ply Jumper WeightPhotos: Susan Crawford Ralph knit in 2ply Jumper Weight and Shetland Supreme Jumper WeightPhotos: Susan Crawford Unfortunately in the time between the samples and the book being published one of the shades in the Ralph Jumper has been discontinued and finished, the shade is 61 but you could use shade 78 instead. Suffragette and Twageos knit in 2ply Jumper WeightPhotos: Susan Crawford Yule knit in Shetland HeritagePhotos: Susan Crawford left: Vaila knit in Shetland Heritage and Shetland Supreme 2ply Lace right: Peerie Clews knit in 2ply Jumper WeightPhotos: Susan Crawford And when the Vaila was knit we didn't have Shetland Heritage in Natural shades so it uses Supreme 2ply Lace Held doubled in Moorit but you can use Shetland Heritage Naturals in Moorit instead. Harriet knit in 2ply Jumper Weight Photos: Susan Crawford We are so pleased that so many of the patterns can be knit using our yarns, we have been a yarn producer since the 1960's and a Wool Broker since the 1930's so some of the original items may have come from wool handled by J&S which is pretty cool! There is a good range of patterns in the book including both Fair Isle and Lace and garments and accessories so there is something for everyone interested in Shetland Textiles. Of course the creators of the original garments never made them to be multi sized so the amount of work which has gone into sizing and grading the patterns is amazing. Unfortunately due to the weight of the book we are not able to sell it on the online shop (its above our contract weight for a single parcel) but you can buy it in the UK from both Ysolda and Susan herself, we have it in the shop so if you are in Shetland or will be visiting you can pick up a copy in Lerwick. To see more of the patterns in the book and more information visit Susans website, Congratulations Susan on the publication of the Vintage Shetland Project! Happy Knitting :)
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New Colours KAL 2018
Hello everyone! things have been very busy here over January as we get back into the way of things but today we announce our KAL for the next few months - the New Colours Kal! from left to right: 90, 16, FC21, 32 and 1282 We are constantly updating and changing the colours we have in 2ply Jumper Weight and we are lucky that we have a huge back catalogue of shades which if we need to we can take from and bring back. In recent years we did that with FC11 and FC7 which has really added to the palette and although this means saying goodbye to some shades its proof that it doesn't always mean forever! This KAL is a bit different than others we've done before in that you can use as many shades of 2ply Jumper Weight as you want but you must use at least 3 of the new shades. Hopefully it will be a lot of fun! As in the Fire Festival Kal at the end we will have a public vote so its always worth putting something in - you might win! So the KAL: what we want you to do is - Knit a garment or accessory using J&S 2ply jumper weight only. at least 3 shades must be from our newly brought back colours: 90, 16, FC21, 32 and 1282. As many other shades can be used as you want. the item must use Fair Isle knitting/ stranded colourwork. That's it! The KAL begins on February the 2nd and runs until until the 2nd of May. Now the new/old colours: 16 is a lovely bright blue 32 is a bright bronze 90 is a peachy orange FC21 is a lovely marled lavender And 1282 is a marled mid green. All the new colours are now on the online shop and if you would like to take part there will be chat and discussion in our Ravelry group, if you share any progress photos on instagram use the #nckal We'll be back with some colour combo inspirations soon but until then happy knitting and planning!
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Jamieson & Smith: A Shetland Story
Hello everyone, we have survived another Shetland Wool Week! I will be doing a post later in the week about what we got up to (spoiler alert: we sold a lot of wool) but for now I have something exciting to share - our newest book, Jamieson and Smith: A Shetland Story is available now!! Its been quite the labour of love and we are all very proud of it. The book contains the history of the company by Oliver which goes from its beginnings at Berry Farm to where we are today - no mean feat, but we have done it in the most concise way we could and it contains lots of photographs from over the years which haven't been seen before. It gives you a great insight into what we do here and where we come from, the green doors have been a fixture of North Road for decades so it was only right they graced the cover. And alongside the history we have a range of patterns beautifully photographed by Liam Henderson and modelled by May Graham and Tim Matthews.. Olivers Hat by Sandra Manson knit in Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight Tussacks Shawl by Gudrun Johnston knit in Shetland Heritage Noostigarth Cowl by Kharis Leggate knit in Shetland Chunky Uyea Legwarmers by Ella Gordon knit in Shetland Aran Worsted Vatn jumper by Mary Henderson knit in Shetland Aran Worsted Houss Socks by Lesley Smith knit in Shetland Heritage Glebe Jumper by Sandra Manson knit in Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight Vaara Vest by Mary Jane Mucklestone knit in Shetland Heritage Hevdadale Tam and Scarf by Mary Handerson knit in Shetland Heritage The Silwick Vest by Sandra Manson knit in 2ply Jumper Weight There is more information about yarn quantities etc on the Ravelry pages for the patterns, see here and if you would like a copy of the new book you can purchase it here. In time there will be a PDF version but for the moment it is only available in paperback, we hope you love it as much as we do! Happy knitting x
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Bousta Beanie KAL - choosing colours
Its been a bit of a dreich and damp day in Lerwick today so the thought of a nice new knitted hat is ideal! Our Bousta Beanie KAL kicks off on Monday and there is already a lot of good chat in the Ravelry thread. I thought I'd do a quick post about choosing colours - that is probably my favourite but also sometimes the hardest part of knitting Fair Isle. The good thing about the Bousta Beanie is there are only three shades needed so that makes it a bit easier - One fail safe way I think is to either choose a nice light main colour.. like these.. (all hats are taken from here ) Or dark like these.. You can see on the lighter background ones that the contrasts are either dark or quite bright shades so they will always stand out well, this is the same with the darker main coloured ones above with the lighter/brighter contrasts. It can take a bit of trial and error but if you follow this general idea you will get a hat with enough contrast. If you take a photo on your phone and put it into black and white you will also get a good idea as to whether there is enough or even too much contrast. You can see above 81 is a perfect dark MC and 202 and FC61 are tonally similar but different enough to make a good pair of contrast colours. If you want to take inspiration from a photo there are a couple of good apps which you can download for Iphone (i'm sure similar ones are available for android) They do much the same thing, which is you add a photo and the programme chooses the main colours in the picture. The one on the left is Adobe Colour and the right is Pantone studio, there doesn't seem to be a way to get less than 5 colours but it still gives you some good ideas and put together pleasing combinations that you wouldn't have thought of! I took those photos in the Flower Park here in Lerwick but you could use any picture to give you ideas, I think this works well if you want to go for a more subtle colour scheme which also looks lovely in this pattern. Another thing you can do of course is swatch! As you will be knitting the hat in the round its best to swatch in the round too and you can follow this tutorial for swatching circularly flat (it is for plain knitting but you can use it for Fair Isle too) You will be able to finalise your colours and also check your gauge! I hope this has given you some ideas and you are ready to start the Bousta Beanie from Monday! feel free to chat in the thread on Ravelry and use the #boustabeaniekal on instagram. We've had a busy week with the Voe Show last week, Cunnigsburgh Show on Wednesday and Waas Show tomorrow so I'll be back next week with some photos from the shows. Happy Knitting!Save
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Bousta Beanie KAL
Hello everyone, I cant believe we are now into August! For us that means one thing - next month is Shetland Wool Week! So we thought this is the perfect time to think about a KAL for this years hat - the Bousta Beanie.. This pattern is a great introduction to Fair Isle but also an interesting knit for those wint with it as we would say in Shetland. It is a simple motif which moves in an even repeat as you go up the hat so it makes a great knit. The most exciting thing of course about knitting Fair Isle is choosing colours!! I love looking on Ravelry and seeing what colours people have put together - you can see all the hats knit using 2ply Jumper Weight here. You only need three shades (two balls of your main colour and one each of your contrast colours) so the possibilities are endless and of course with this kind of repeat you can use multiple colours for your contrast shades. So the KAL will begin on the 14th of August, I have made ravelry thread so until the KAL kicks off I thought we could use it to chat about colour choices, to enter our KAL you will need to use J&S yarns and it will run until the 20th of September, just before Wool Week starts on the 22nd. We will also use the hashtag #boustabeaniekal on instagram, ill be back next week with some ideas about choosing colours so until then.. happy knitting! PS this next week we have the Voe Show, Cunningsburgh Show and the Waas Show which all have our Colourbox Competition so keep and eye out for posts about that! Save
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Fire Festival KAL Winners
Hello everyone, so last week I asked you to vote on your favourites for the winners of the Fire Festival KAL and you didn't disappoint, 736 of you voted in the two category's and the winners were: So congratulations DottyBev and Hedwychs, I have contacted you by Ravelry message, they have both won a gift voucher to spend at J&S, thank you again to everyone who took part - we have really enjoyed seeing the different ways people put the colours together! We will be having a little break but we were thinking to have a KAL for the Shetland Wool Week pattern - the Bousta Beanie - probably beginning in June so keep an eye out for that. Happy knitting!
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Bousta Beanie kits
This past weekend it was the Edinburgh Yarn Festival which has become the time when the new Shetland Wool Week hat and patron are announced, this year is it Shetland born designer Gudrun Johnston and her beautiful Bousta Beanie design! You can download the pattern here and find our kits for the given colourways here, if you want to choose your own colours simply buy two balls of your main colour and one ball each of your two contrasts, with such a graphic motif its hard to go wrong and this makes the pattern an excellent choice for Fair Isle newbies and experts alike! How about greys? 203, 81 and 54 Or grellow? 54, 91 and 23 or these? FC47. FC7 and 125 29, 1281 and 122 FC56, FC50 and FC9 The possibilities are endless! Remember to tag your projects on instagram and Ravelry with #boustabeanie and #Shetlandwoolweek2017 so others can see your Bousta Beanie and spread the story of Shetland Wool Week, happy knitting! Save
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Fire Festival KAL inspiration
Sometimes choosing colours for a Knit-a-Long can be quite daunting, but after quite a number of years of choosing shades for the Colourbox Challenges with the Country Shows in Shetland and a couple for our online KAL's we are always pleased and surprised with the colour and pattern combinations people come up with. The Fire Festival KAL, inspired by Shetland's Up Helly Aa festivals has been running for a little while now and more projects are beginning to emerge so I thought it was time to take a look at some of the knitting.. clockwise from top right: one, two, three clockwise from top left: one, two, three, four I always find it very inspiring to see how people have put colours together, and how to colours change when put next to others - it's my favourite part of the KAL! it runs until the 20th of March so there is still plenty of time to get involved and knit yourself (or someone else a firey inspired garment or accessory) We have already had the first of Shetlands Up Helly Aa's for 2017 with the Scalloway Fire Festival on the 13th of January, you can see some great pictures here. Lerwick Up Helly Aa is on Tuesday 31st of January and it is a public Holiday in the town on the day after (some of us need time to recover..) so we will be closed Wednesday 1st of February opening as normal on Thursday. If you would like to watch any of the live broadcast of Lerwick UHA on Tuesday you can do so here. I hope this has inspired you if you were thinking to join the KAL, you can find the shades here on the website, there has been some confusion about adding in other colours but to be entered in the KAL you can only use the 8 shades chosen and you must use at least 5 of them. Your project must also include some Fair Isle/stranded colourwork, don't forget to share your projects in our Ravelry group and on Instagram with #firefestivalkal Happy Knitting! Save Save
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