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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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5ply Shetland
Hello everyone! The dust has settled on another Shetland Wool Week and we had a great and really busy time, during SWW we launched a new yarn range in the shop and we are delighted to say it is now available Online - 5ply Shetland! As a company that's been around for a while (we just had our 72nd birthday in September!) we have produced many different ranges over the years, our main focus has always been creating yarns that work for both traditional and timeless knitting styles. One thing we have often been asked about is a yarn that would work for knitting fine textured patterns like Ganseys. Alongside Shetland's traditions of Fair Isle and Lace knitting there is also evidence of this kind of workwear knitting, as we are a place with so much Fishing and Fishermen coming through this also meant traditions from other knitters came to Shetland and were exchanged with knitters here. Many women who worked in the fishing industry, often as Gutters would also travel down to different places to work, from Shetland along the Scottish north East coast, further south to the East Yorkshire coast of England and to East Anglia. In this way they would have seen, learnt and absorbed Gansey style patterns and techniques. Fishermen and Herring Workers in Lerwick Harbour, reproduced here with thanks to Margaret Wright So when we had the opportunity to develop a new range we thought why not make the kind of yarn we have probably been asked for the most, and 5ply Shetland is the result! The yarn is 100% Real Shetland Wool and uses the Grade 3 wool, this is slightly hardier than what we usually use for our knitting yarns but we wanted a hard-wearing quality and due to the yarn being Worsted Spun (combed rather than carded) it meant we could use a slightly rougher grade as the spinning process improves the handle of the yarn. It's really important to try and utilise as much of the wool clip as we can and we are really happy to be able to add some more value to this grade. For the colours we worked with local photographer John Rollo to see the common shades in our environment, the colours of the sky, sea and land in Shetland are so varied and such a constant for us here that they are an endless source of inspiration. The yarn is a standard 5ply/Sportweight yarn and is available in 50g balls and 250g cones. We started with White and a Natural Grey mix as our two bases, there are 13 shades dyed on the White as seen below: then for something special we chose 5 of these shades and also dyed them on the Natural Grey base, these are the Twilight shades: Turquoise Twilight, Lavender Twilight, Mustard Twilight, Scarlet Twilight and Rust Twilight Lavender Twilight and Lavender It's really interesting to see how the base changes the colour of the yarn and this adds a heather to the colour that will not detract from any stitch pattern. The mix of solid and heathered shades is really beautiful and we are delighted with them. The yarn itself has beautiful stitch definition and we hope you like it! Mustard 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 We have made quite a small batch for the first lot so it is not currently available for our wholesale customers but 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 to register interest. It will be available to our stockists as soon as the next batch is ready. 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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