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Shetland and Shetland Type
Hello everyone, today we are going to touch on something which comes up every now and again - the issue and differences between Shetland and Shetland Type wool. Sometimes it can be quite confusing but this post is just to alert you to the fact some yarns you see called 'Shetland' may be that in name only. According to the British Trading Standards, the current usage of the word Shetland in Wool is: 'A yarn spun on the Woollen system of 100% Virgin Wool.. such yarn being capable of imparting to a fabric the qualities of crispness and/or smoothness and soft handling attributed to the products formerly made exclusively from the Shetland breed of Sheep' This is interesting as it shows you that a yarn could be named 'Shetland' but not include much or any Shetland Wool, but by imitating the spinning style or feel of whats attributed to Shetland Wool you can give it that name regardless of where the wool comes from or the breed used. Another point in the trading standards information is this: 'where the term is qualified by the adjectives 'genuine', 'real' or any similar description, or quantified by the terms '100%' or 'all', this implies the wool actually originated in Shetland.' You will see we always talk about our wool as Real Shetland Wool, or 100% Shetland Wool etc - this is us working on this basis - to show you the wool originated here in the Shetland Islands from Shetland Sheep! We know for a fact that there are many more products out there called Shetland than there is wool available. We annually take in over 260,000 kilos of local wool from the Shetland Islands (which equals well over 80% of the Wool clip) and what doesn't come back to us in yarn and finished product is sold on through our parent company Curtis Wool Direct for many other wool products. There are of course other Shetland Wool producers and ones on the mainland but you will find in their description of the yarns they will explain this - the ones which should ring alarms bells are those who have 'Shetland' in the name of the yarn range but no other mention of Shetland or Shetland Sheep in the description. We have a very interesting piece of text in our archives which comes from Alistair MacDonald who was a long-term staff member at Hunters of Brora, where we used to have our yarns spun before they went out of business in the early 2000's. The folder contains Alistair's findings and remarks on lots of different aspects of the yarn and knitwear industry and he has some interesting comments on the Shetland/Shetland Type argument, some of which we noted in our book: 'When I think of the Shetland yarn on offer I am reminded of the bizarre situation with Cheddar Cheese.. the name Cheddar now describes a type of cheese not a cheese from the Cheddar Valley. Just as cheddar is now ubiquitous to the super market so now Shetland is ubiquitous in the textile market place.' Our aim with this post is to highlight that 'Shetland Type' yarns are appropriating the reputation that Shetland Wool has earned over hundreds of years through our climate, culture, history and sheep. We are rightly extremely proud of our wool and if this is something which is important to you also, we urge you to ask questions about the origins of the Shetland Wool you are buying. Happy knitting! All photos on this post have been taken by us either in the Woolstore at J&S or at local Agricultural Shows and the top image was taken at one of our crofters farms in Bressay.
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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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Wool Awareness Event
Hello everyone! So this past Saturday we hosted something a bit different at J&S, a Wool Awareness event. This was for our crofters and wool producers and focused on the ways to present the wool so as to get the best price. Jan, Oliver and Derek were all on hand to advise and talk through with the visitors about what was on show. The woolstore was laid out brilliantly with examples of all the different grades we take in as well as what we don't want and how it can lower the price the crofter receives, this was great I thought (as a non-crofter!) because it was well described as to why this lowers the value and I could see what was wrong with it compared to the other examples. We also had fancys! And fleece-rolling demonstrations! We had as well a display of all the yarns and products we make so you could also see the finished product - a number of the visitors came into the shop afterwards and all the feedback I had was really good, so I hope those that came enjoyed it. Its extremely important to us to support the crofters as much as we can, after all we wouldn't get very far without them! I made a quick video on Saturday too which you can see below, Happy Knitting! Save
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Shetland College Project 2017
Hello everyone, Happy weekend! On Wednesday myself (Ella) and Oliver headed to the Shetland College, every year for the past few years we have worked with the College on a project using our yarns. The students are given a brief to produce a garment or home interiors product using the Worsted Spun and Heritage yarns (Shetland Supreme Lace 1 and 2ply, Shetland Heritage Natural and Dyed, Shetland Aran Worsted and Shetland Chunky). This year also had two woven products which was very exciting! We were there to see the final items and hear the presentations from 3 students, Rhea Kay who's Jumper we saw last year was also included in this module so if you want more information about her garment see last years post here. Andrea who was included with Rhea last year has moved onto another college on the Mainland so her poncho isn't included but you can see more information about it too in that post. Rhea's garment looked as good as we remembered it - it will be on display at the Whalsay Heritage Centre after the term ends at the college so keep an eye out for it there if you are visiting! First up was Julia Nairn who covered a footstool in fabric made using the Shetland Heritage Natural yarns, she was inspired by the Houll Loch in Whalsay and took lots of photos of the scene. She finds it to be a timeless landscape and she was particularly inspired by the ripples in the water and the almost symmetry seen her her photos which she took through to her finished item. She used an undulating twill structure for her weaving and her main focus was to take the landscape into the home which is why she made a homeware product. We loved the way the resulting fabric came out and found the footstool to be very effective, the heritage yarn is soft yet robust making it very suited to weaving. Alicja Tyburska also used weaving in her project but decided to make a garment, in this case, a large wrap. She is a weaver but also extremely interested in History and Archaeology, in particular, Shetlands Natural Landscape and its features, and she took the inspiration from Brochs and other stone features in Shetland - mainly how they are seen from above in drone photography. This gave her the inspiration for her weave structure and she combined different weights of yarns - the Shetland Aran, Heritage and Chunky together to give beautiful texture to her finished item. We loved the professional finish and texture of the wrap, and the chunky tassels just finished it off perfectly. Marcia Galvin used knit in her project and made this lovely wrap cardigan in the Shetland Heritage yarn, she was inspired by the word 'Heritage' and what it means to her, although not a Shetlander she has been here for many years and was interested in how certain areas have changed architecturally in Lerwick in particular Hays Dock. The Shetland Museum and Archives and Mareel are examples of modern architecture that Marcia looked at and took inspiration from, she looked up the briefs the architects of these building had and looked at the lines and shapes of the buildings. You can see in her finished garment how elements of these buildings came out in her motif and texture. The cardigan is oversized but can be closed a number of different ways and with a belt. We though the use of colour and inspiration were very successful. The winner of the unit will be announced at the Degree Show in a few weeks but we think all the students did extremely well, it's really important to us to support the local College - me and Kharis are both graduates of the Contemporary Textiles course and it gives students the skills to be able to work in the industry in Shetland, something which is quite difficult and we, as an industry, must be supportive of these students. Happy Knitting! PS. remember the Shetland Wool Week programme comes out on Tuesday the 16th of May, there are lots of things happening again at J&S and it looks to be another fabulous year! 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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Outi Kits
Hello and happy Monday! here at J&S we love to support local designers and we've just got in a delivery of some new to us patterns from Outi Kater, Outi is originally from Finland but has lived in Shetland for over 10 years, she takes her inspirations from her Nordic upbringing but is also inspired by Shetland and we think her patterns make a perfect blend of those two inspirations. I don't know about where you are in the world but in Shetland things are still a bit chilly so these patterns are calling out to me! Arhippa Mittens Finnish Midwinter Ski Hat Thrift Hat Sandsound Sweater Thrift Gloves Xylitol Mittens Finnish Midwinter Mittens Outi is extremely good at putting complex colour combinations together but her graphic 2 colour designs are equally as successful as you can see from the pictures above. We have received 7 new patterns printed by Outi, and if you order a kit it will include a copy of the printed pattern and all the yarn to knit your chosen design. You can see more of Outi's designs on her Ravelry page and you can see all her designs which we offer as a kit here which includes her two kits we already sold. Happy Knitting!
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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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New Year, New Skills!
Hello everybody! We hope you've had a lovely festive season and are feeling refreshed and ready for 2017, the New Year is a great time to plan for those skills you want to improve in the next 12 months - although sometimes it's hard to know where to start! One skill close to our hearts at J&S is Fair Isle knitting and its what many people use our yarns for (especially 2ply Jumper Weight!) but we know it can be quite daunting to some people, luckily there are lots of different ways you can get help with the trickier aspects! One way is to watch someone doing and explaining these things! Hazel Tindalls DVD 'The Fine Art of Fair Isle Knitting' is an excellent resource for those of us who learn by watching - I am definitely one of those people! The DVD takes you through all aspects of traditional Shetland knitting and demystifies things like knitting belts, jumper boards, long DPN's and steeks to name a few. It's one of those things you will refer back to often and although the DVD is about knitting a garment (in this case a cardigan) the skills you learn can be carried over into all your knitting. You can view the trailer and buy the download if a DVD isn't for you here Another great way to gain confidence in your skills is to use a kit, by following a pattern in the colours provided all stress is taken away, I know choosing colours can be quite scary! And sometimes a smaller item like a hat, socks or hot water bottle cover can seem a lot more manageable than a Jumper! Saudade and Fishermans Kep Toatie Hottie and Yuglet Socks First Footing and Antarctica For those of you that want a bit of a colour challenge our Fire Festival KAL is a great way to play with a group of colours already chosen for you, there are lots of projects appearing in our ravelry group so there's a place to support, advise each other and chat about how you're putting the shades together! The knit a long runs until March so there's still plenty of time to join in. I hope this has given you some ideas about Fair Isle you'd like to try, especially now that Christmas and gift knitting is by with - some selfish knitting may be in order! Speak soon :)
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