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Knitsonik Blog Tour: Q&A with Felicity Ford
Our friend Felicity Ford has been on a mission to raise funds for her brilliant book: The Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook, which you can read more about here. If you have been following her journey you will know she had already reached the initial £9,000 needed and above (at the last check, she had reached over £11,000). Since her first visit to Shetland Felicity has had a great relationship with us at Jamieson & Smith and we are proud to be on her blog tour for this book which will using our wool. I thought since Felicity will be doing a lot of knitting with our yarns I would ask her some questions about what she likes about Jamieson & Smith. Congratulations Felicity, we cant wait to see the finished book! 1. How did you come to find out about J&S and our yarns? I'd read about your yarn on different knitting blogs, but it was when we started WOVEMBER that I really understood how brilliant Jamieson & Smith is. WOVEMBER is a campaign website run by myself, Kate Davies and Tom van Deijnen (aka Tom of Holland), established in 2011. The key points of our mission are that we love real wool, and admire the amazing skills involved in taking fleece from sheep and turning it into finished textiles. We think the term "wool" is special, and should be reserved for articles of clothing which contain a high percentage of fibres derived from actual sheep. During the month of November, we write about and research the work involved in growing, shearing, sorting, scouring, spinning, knitting, and weaving with WOOL! We share our findings to raise awareness of what makes this fibre special, and to discourage companies who are not producing woollen goods from misleadingly describing their polyester and acrylic goods as being "wool" or "woolly". We are interested in celebrating connections between the landscapes where wool grows and finished articles of clothing; in traceable and sustainable textile production methods; and in promoting the traditional skills associated with woollen textile manufacture. In our first year of the campaign, Kate told me there was no better person to interview for WOVEMBER than Oliver Henry, Managing Director of Jamieson & Smith, and wool grader and sorter for over 45 years, and she was right. Kate's interview with Oliver blew my mind, and opened my eyes to everything that makes Jamieson & Smith special: Sorting is both challenging and rewarding. Sometimes a coloured fleece will take the breath from you when you least expect it to, like when you come across a rare marking or a beautiful crimp. But the best bit of my job is seeing the fruits of our efforts come back into the wool store transformed into everything from yarn to scarves to carpets to beds... I think that telling the story of our wool – and the heritage and culture, people and communities behind it – is one of the most important bits of my job. It’s important for the future of the industry in Shetland, and for a new generation of budding crofters and farmers, to tell people why Shetland wool is so special (and has been for centuries) and what an honour it is to be involved with one of the finest natural fibres in the world. - Oliver Henry, WOVEMBER 2011 As well as agreeing completely with Oliver's sentiments, in the photos sent with the interview, I was thrilled to see that you keep raw fleece and finished hand-knits in different parts of one building. To me, that speaks of a fantastically direct relationship between land and wool. Many farmers I've interviewed in other parts of the UK say that they have no idea what becomes of their wool after it is sheared and sent off. But crofters in Shetland can leave their fleeces in the wool room, and then go right into Jamieson & Smith to see the sturdy carpeting and exquisite hand-knitted shawls and tams that are ultimately produced from the wool they have grown. To me - and I imagine to many of the other knitters who visit during Shetland Wool Week - this is inspiring because it speaks of a direct relationship between Shetland's woollen textiles, crofting traditions, and distinctive, working landscape. This is special because it's been sadly lost in so many other places. I have been obsessed for years with the history of the wool industry along the Southeast coast which I remember from my childhood holidays. When I was researching a piece for Twist Collective about finding traces of shepherding in the landscape, I discovered there had once been a wool staplers of great renown in Chichester. It was called "The Woolstaplers" and was run by Ebenezer Prior & Sons. Old photos in local libraries showed men at work there, forearms deep in great skeps filled with fleece. However these days, The Woolstaplers is remembered only in the name of the tarmac carpark which now covers the land where it once stood. I was very sad when I turned the corner on my map of Chichester to find no other remainder of this once great woolly epicentre of the South, but consoled to later learn that the great art of sorting and grading fleeces is being kept alive by The Shetland Woolbrokers. 2. What is it you like best about the wool? The KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook has been in the pipeline for a long time. I've been fascinated with Huntley & Palmers (the biscuit factory that thrived in Reading through 1800s - 1900s) and the brickwork of this town for a few year. In 2011 Kate hunted down an amazing vintage Huntley & Palmers biscuit barrel on eBay for me, and sent me a package of Jamieson & Smith in appropriate shades, so I could start trying out my idea to knit the bricks and biscuit tins of Reading. At first your yarn seemed so special that I was afraid to knit with it in case I made a horrible mess of your lovely wool... ...but I have since discovered that my worries were completely unfounded, for your yarn is both forgiving and strong, and the shades are so nice that you can always get something great out of them with a little patience, trial and error. Oliver talks of two distinctive breeds once running together in Shetland - one rough and sturdy, with a "skadder" (mane) on its back and neck, and one "kindly-woolled" breed. When I interviewed him for my soundmap of Shetland wool sounds he talked about these two breeds running together on the fence-less Shetland landscape, and eventually cross-breeding to produce what we now think of as Shetland sheep. I may be fanciful or romantic, but I feel that I can perceive both the rough sheep and the soft one in your wool, and this is what I love best about it. The very slight roughness in the 2-ply gives it enough grip that I have become fearless to the point of irresponsibility about my steeking. I can cut willy-nilly with no thought of negative consequences, for I know that the yarn will hold! You have to really pester your 2-ply jumper weight to make it unravel sideways, and unless you have plans to really harass it, a knotted steek is perfectly secure. For me, there's character and sass in that grippy quality; it gives me faith that my knitting won't pill and that there will be structure and integrity to the fabric I produce with my needles. I like to imagine the rough, wild Shetland sheep with its skadder is running around somewhere in my knitting, and that brings to mind my memories of the cliffs, the brisk North sea, and the peat hills that I have so enjoyed exploring in my short time in Shetland. As for the kindly components of your wool, they are what give my blocked knitting its lovely fuzzy halo, light hand, and infinite wearability. The airy fibres, woollen-spun and soft, block down into a light, even surface. I love that I can knit baby things or scarves or other items which require softness with your wool, but that - because of the tiny bit of rough they contain - that these soft and lovely things still have character and personality. I also love that the wool is directly traceable to the Shetland landscape, and that I understand the journey it has made from sheep to shelf. 3. What are some of your tips for Fair Isle knitting and blocking your samples? My top tip is to use Jamieson & Smith yarn! I'm serious about that. I've tried knitting stranded colourwork with a variety of yarns, and I have not enjoyed the results as much as with your wool. I think when you are getting the hang of stranded colourwork, it's no bad thing to have a yarn that doesn't slip around all over the place, and your 2-ply jumper weight holds nicely on my needles. I've also found that it can handle a fairly aggressive blocking process, and that this can correct a multitude of tension crimes, especially if you tend towards knitting rather loosely, which I do. My next tip is to enjoy the process. Hazel Tindall says a nice thing about how there is a rhythm to Fair Isle knitting, and I agree with her. I don't know what other knitters do, but I tend to glance at my chart and then go around the row chanting silently in my head something like "one red, white, white, white, two red, one white..." after a while that just turns into numbers... and after another while, it just turns into a kind of pattern, which patters along in the background of my thoughts, like a very pleasing musical phrase. So I would say that - when knitting stranded colourwork - find the rhythm, and the rest is easy. I also would advocate the two-handed approach, simply because I personally find that extremely easy myself. Knitting two-handed, I know that the colour I'm holding in my left hand and picking up with my right always dominates. This allows me to decide which bits of the pattern I want to foreground, and which parts to leave in the background. I know other knitters who prefer to get a more even fabric, without a dominant colour, or who like to hold both yarns in the right hand or both in the left... in the end it's about finding a way that works for you. For blocking, I simply soak my knitting in hot water with a tiny bit of soak solution in it, and wait until the water's cold. Then I gently squeeze the knitting with both hands to get all the water out of it, and then I generally slap it against the edge of a table a couple of time, to get all the steeked ends lying flat. I have big foam boards which I then pin the swatch to. I pop this up on a radiator where the knitting dries, and then in the evenings, I knot up the ends and trim them to neaten them. I find this creates very pleasing swatches which can be examined and referred to for future knitting projects. They look lovely finished like this, and if you compare them to sketches or drawings, the materials involved are nowhere near as expensive as paint or charcoal, and you learn loads for the time you've spent trying things out. 4. What are your top 10 colours? I love 125, because it really is so reminiscent of the brickwork around here which I love so much, and 54 for the same reason. There is a type of brick in Reading called "Silver Facing" which I am reminded of when I look at 54. I have a fondness for the vivid and synthetic feeling of 79 - it's very lurid and reminds me of Dorothy finding green things in the Nome King's underground domain in "Return to Oz" - it is precisely the colour of The Emerald City as the 1950s movies depicted it. But who can argue with the far softer shade of FC24, and its resemblance of distant fields on the skyline? 49 is such a lurid mauve, and so dominant and fresh in anything it touches that I have developed an epic respect for it. 1280 is the perfect colour for describing the blueish greenish violet on the bloom of soft fruits... I have recently been really enjoying the tempered yellow of 121; it's a heathery blend of soft gold, mixed with salt and pepper shades, which make it play really nicely with grey. 131 reminds me of the Crayola crayon I had as a child, called "periwinkle". I was obsessed with that shade, and it is a very warm, soft blue, like the dot in the centre of forget-me-nots, or the dark shades striping the centre of the bluebell. It is beautiful. Many of the shades are lovely because of how they activate the things around them, and the soft, translucent creaminess of 202 contrasted with the hard, uncompromising white of 1 is an interaction I enjoy greatly. I worked in a florist for a couple of years when I was 18, and I always loved making up all-white bouquets best of all, because I realised through making them how complicated and multi-shaded white is. It had always just been the colour of paper - the colour waiting to be drawn or painted on - but now I think of it as a very active force of colour in its own right, and I love playing with this in my stranded colourwork. 5. What have been your favourite experiences of Shetland? When I came in August to make recordings about Shetland wool and its history in the isles, my favourite experiences wer going to The Voe Show, and staying in the Nesbister Böd at Whiteness. The Voe Show celebrates the local talent and produce from the land itself. There were so many lovely things to see, from homemade cakes to preserves and jams, to flowers grown in people's gardens, to the lovely Shetland sheep, and finally, to the heart-stoppingly-beautiful knitwear. There was an inspiring frisson of competition in the air and it was superb to see the proud rosettes perching like butterflies on the best knitting, and also the amazing children's knitting, with encouraging WELL DONE badges pinned on it. The Colourbox challenge that you set each year at Jamieson & Smith really intrigued me - where 8 colours are chosen, and knitters pick shades from within the selection to produce a piece of colourwork! I photographed a few of the entries last year, because I was fascinated to see how different knitters had used the same shades to produce diverse results. It's not expensive to have the Nesbister böd at Whiteness to yourself, and I really wanted to listen to the sound inside a traditional Fisherman's böd without any distractions, so I paid the extra. It is a short walk from where you leave your car, and right out on the edge of a peninsula. There is no electricity inside, and the only running water is a tap on the outside of the building. A bag of peats inside is used in the stove inside, and as soon as you open the creaky wooden door, you can feel the thickness of the stone walls, and the sense of age and time and quiet. I heated up a flask of hot water and sat outside on the rocks holding it until the sun went down. I heard otters splashing, and sheep baa-ing their goodnights to one another on the beach. The water lapped at the building very gently, and the fire purred in the stove. I have hydrophones - microphones which you can put into the water - and I had one in the voe. It was so quiet that I could hear the little pincers of a crab as he scuttled about on the rocks at the bottom. That was the quietest place I was ever in, and in the morning when I got up, all the sheep were resting along the beach, right outside my door, and there were jellyfish dotted through the water like little purple jewels. It was magic. During Shetland Wool Week, I had lots more favourite experiences! I really enjoyed the time I spent with you and Sandra in the shop after Tom's darning classes, laughing and playing with the wool! Staying with Tom in Nortower Lodges was beautiful, for it is a lovely spot, and the people who own it are lovely, and made us feel really welcome. I liked arriving home to lots of baas from their sheep one evening! Tom is a superbly calm and supportive comrade; he was very kind about my relentless accordion practice while writing and rehearsing the "Shetland Wool Week Song". I also loved sitting in the Wool Week Hub in the Shetland Museum, talking to Museum staff about their own lives in knitting. So many women working in the museum are amazing knitters, and it was a very great pleasure to sit with them in the boathouse, looking through textiles from their own lives, and learning about the history of Shetland knitting from personal perspectives, as well as through examining the fantastic permanent displays. I especially loved the story of a pram blanket that was later turned into a scarf, and an old Tam, handed down through the generations in one Shetlander's family. To me it seems special that everyone in the Museum wears sweaters designed by Wilma Malcolmson of Shetland Designer; that you can see the older Shetland textiles in the Museum cases together with these contemporary examples of a thriving Shetland wool industry. That kind of visible continuity in the wool industry is wonderful. As part of this continuity, you can see how historic textiles are influencing the production of new yarns - for instance your Heritage yarn. I love this photo of Tom, trying on one of the Fair Isle kit "keps" available in the Museum shop, using the Heritage yarns you have developed. I think it is a Fisherman's kep, to be worn out on a Sixareen boat; behind Tom, you can just make out a model of a Sixareen, and an example of an original kep... where else in the world could you see the past and present lives of wool so simultaneously? I also love thinking about the future of Shetland wool and so it was great to see the rams at the Flock Book, and to watch the auction. It was beautiful to see so many fine examples of Shetland sheep in one place, certain in the knowledge that these animals and their genes will play a role in the future of Shetland wool. A huge congratulations to Felicity for reaching her target, her passion comes through in her writing and we think the book will become a classic!
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J&S in the 2013 Wool Season (picture blog)
Although it has been relatively quiet on our blog for the past few months this by no means reflects the buzz of activity that the wool season brings to J&S each year. This always involves taking in around 250 tonnes of wool from around 700-800 individual crofts, hand grading and sorting it for quality and baling it up into around 850 bales for being sent off to the scourers; all whilst preparing ourselves for Shetland Wool Week in October. So before I have to run off to take in more wool, bale it up or work on a pattern or two I have put together a little picture blog giving a tiny insight into J&S in the middle of this crazy season Under a typical Shetland summer sky, our big green doors are open to welcome in more wool at any time The unassuming façade of the J&S shop gives no hint of the myriad of woolly treasures stocked within Comparing the middle of the wool season to its beginning in June gives a stark contrast to the amount of wool passing through the wool store each day Derek (who will not thank me for taking his picture!) sorts through some of the 3 tonnes, or so, of wool coming in per day As we get through the wool, baling it up and stacking it in columns, the crofters' wool bag bundles characteristic of the second half of the wool season pile up in every nook and cranny The Middle (or Coloured Wool) Store After spending all day baling up coloured wool it is still bursting out of its stalls Coloured Shetland wool: natural, undyed, versatile, unique Some of our very best wool, laid to the side for hand-spinners A moorit fleece drapes beautifully whilst waiting to be collected by a hand-spinner The shop is busy as ever with boxes full of exciting goodies arriving the whole time to be unpacked onto the shelves and sent out all over the world Designs and patterns, new and old, grace the shop with kits being made up for any customer needing a new project Some new friends, the ill trickit trows, have joined us in the shop and new garments hang upstairs, waiting for their patterns to be finished Down in the old police station all is quiet as the whipping machine, used to transform our range of undyed wool carpeting into floor rugs, lies dormant waiting to be worked again in a quieter time of the year
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'Shetland'
As some of you may have noticed Shetland has featured quite prominently in the media recently. First came the 'Shetland Ponies in Cardigans' which made two locals the faces of Visit Scotland's 'Year of Natural Scotland'; then the Dance Pony Dance advert filmed up at Eshaness with ponies from Burra went a bit mad last week; and over the weekend our beautiful islands have featured not once but twice on the BBC with a little snippet of island life shown in 'The Great British Winter' on BBC2 on Saturday and finally the long anticipated 'Shetland' mini-series on BBC1 last night (Sunday). 'Shetland' is a 2-part murder-mystery drama based on Ann Cleeves' novel 'Red Bones' and heavily features Shetland's beautiful landscapes, culture (somewhat skewed for dramatic licence) and knitwear. We were quite excited to spot a few familiar pieces cropping up throughout it, including the Eid Top, Ireland pullover and something that looked remarkably like the Puffin Sweater by Kate Davies, but knitted in natural, undyed Shetland colours. Though it wasn't the Puffin Sweater it was beautiful and gave us great ideas for producing one in our Supreme Jumper Weight... If you recognised any other pieces we would be love to hear about them from you! Also look out for more on the second part of the series shown at 9pm tonight. Kate Davies' Peerie Flooers hat on the left One piece that featured prominently was the Peerie Flooers hat by Kate Davies. If you fancy making your own one Kate recommended shades from us that you could use, creating one that is truly Shetland made from Real Shetland Wool! You can purchase the pattern from Kate here and the shades she recommended are 202 and 14 for the background, and 29, 65, 131, 93, and 91 for the contrast colours.
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Wool House: The World's Biggest Ever Celebration of Wool!
J&S are coming to London! Or rather our Sandra is. She will be down for the the Campaign for Wool's Wool House event taking place in Somerset House from the 13th - 24th March. She will be in the Events Room giving two very special masterclasses: one on Shetland Lace from 2pm till 3.30pm on Saturday 16th; and another on Fair Isle knitting from 10.30am till 12pm on Sunday 17th. Similar to most extremely talented, yet humble, Shetland knitters Sandra would never class herself as an expert, but having knitted all her life with a great passion for it, she knows more than most. She can whip up a beautifully intricate Shetland Lace shawl in a few days and can create new patterns out of her head almost without thinking so that completely new jumpers, mittens and cushions flow from her needles perfectly formed. She will be giving a sneak-peek of some of these new designs over her weekend at Wool house, so get along for a look if you get the chance. These will be released by us over the coming months so keep an eye out for them. Wool House is billed by the Campaign for Wool as 'the world’s biggest ever celebration of Wool'. It is curated by renowned designer Arabella McNie and will be a 12 day showcase of wool, the greatest of all natural fibers, and its abundant range of uses, including crafts, fashion and home-ware. Leading designers will be there to showcase the use of wool in their work and explain how you could make use of this beautiful material yourself. There will also be specially commissioned artworks in place to display its striking beauty. In all, it is sure to be an unmissable event, so make sure to get along to it if you are lucky enough to be around London from 13th - 24th March. You can find more information about Wool House, including an events calendar, here.
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Tobys Coat
Carrying on with the theme of natural colours from yesterdays post we have a new kit to show you today. A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (Tobys Coat) Last year Sandra knitted her peerie dog Toby a coat to keep him warm, She used the motif's from the Rams and Yowes blanket. When Kate saw the coat on her one of her visits to Shetland last year, they chose to release it as a joint pattern between them, A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing is the result! Toby in his coat, photo by Kate Davies A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing (Tobys coat) uses all nine shades of Shetland Supreme 2ply Jumper Weight and includes the essential pattern features of the Rams and Yowes by Kate Davies. This coat is made from the tail upwards, casting on stitches for the belly and using contrast yarn to create and 'afterthought' front leg openings to be made later. The body is worked back and forth in stocking stitch. The neck is shaped by decreasing, and a ribbed edging is added all around the sides. if your peerie dog could use a coat just like Tobys you can buy the kit here and if you already have the wool you can download the pattern from Kate here woof woof!
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Christmas Time at J&S
Christmas time has arrived at J&S so we have been happily decorating the shop in between serving customers and packaging up & sending off hundreds of little woolly parcels. Our new kit samples look so Christmassy that they are taking pride of place displayed opposite the Christmas tree. My mam has already finished the Annie Jumper for my baby nephew (with a few alterations, as knitters can do, to fit the little fellow) and is now moving on to the Peerie Bairns Jumper for my neice, so that's some of their presents nearly finished! We also have three new kits on-line to add a little bit more celebration to the occasion. The Fair Isle Cap, like the Fair Isle V-necked Jumper, is from the textile collection in the Shetland Museum and Archives and is made from our Shetland Heritage yarn. It is thought the original came from Fair Isle itself and would have been a fisherman's cap made from local wool, hand spun and dyed. It has a plain lining made from the Peat Heritage Yarn and so it is doubly warm, keeping your head cosy and snug over a cold winter. It is also soft and beautiful and definitely something to treasure. The original Fair Isle Cap from the Shetland Museum and Archives collection The second new kit is the Karelides Cardigan by Outi Kater, a beautiful, Finland-inspired Fair Isle cardigan which makes excellent use of the natural shades of Shetland Wool. Its design reflects the beautiful, subtle nature of this undyed Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight yarn. Kate Davies' Warriston is now available from us not just as a bundle of yarn but complete with beautiful pattern from Kate herself. It is a raglan smock knitted in Shetland Aran with inset pockets, cowl neck, and raglan shaping, perfect for this cold winter weather. This is just one of Kate's stunning designs in our yarn and we hope they keep on coming as she is great to work with. The Heritage Yarn, with its beautiful warm shades that fit so well into our shop's Christmas decorations, has been a huge hit with knitters so far so we are planning on expanding the range of this worsted yarn. It would be great to hear all of your opinions on this and what colours you would like to see, including those discontinued shades of ours that you long to make a comeback. You can leave a message on here regarding this or email ella@shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk with your thoughts. We would really appreciate your input. We will be closing on Friday 21st December and won't open again until Monday 7th January so any orders received during this time won't be sent out until next year. But when we get back we will get them out to you as soon as possible. Have a great Christmas period and happy knitting!
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Brand New Kits!
The hard work is done and the patterns are printed so we can finally reveal four new Fair Isle kits to add to the J&S collection. Two of these are in our 2ply Jumper Weight yarn which I'm sure most of you are familiar with. The other two are in our new Shetland Heritage yarns that are inspired by the original hand spun 'wirsit' that used to be commonplace in the Isles. Three of these were designed by our very own Sandra Manson who is an expert at picking out colours and blending them together in beautiful patterns to create amazing garments. The first of these is the Antarctica Hat, Mittens & Neckwarmer. Sandra initially designed, knitted and gifted these to Dr Alexander Kumar whose address throughout 2012 has been Concordia Station, Antarctica. Dr Kumar learned of the wonders of Shetland wool for keeping you warm when reading of Sir Earnest Shackleton's trip to Antarctica over 100 years ago, when he was protected from the bitter cold with the aid of Fair Isle wool garments. We have had reports back that Sandra's knitting has helped keep Dr Kumar comfortable, or as comfortable as you can be in as cold as -91°C! You can learn more about Alexander's trip here. The second of Sandra's designs is the Peerie Bairns Jumper. This is an extremely cute little thing inspired by traditional Fair Isle patterns handed down over generations. It is completely flexible, with options available in blue or purple and for ages 2, 4 and 6. Though the more adventurous among you could try knitting it in different colours if you prefer - just make a note of the different shades of 2 Ply Jumper Weight you want in the Delivery and Order Comments box at checkout. The Peerie Bairns Jumper will definitely keep your peerie bairn cosy whilst making them look oh-so-cute. The third of Sandra's designs - and her first in our new Shetland Heritage yarns - is the Annie Jumper named after our Ella's neice. The Heritage yarn just oozes authenticity when it comes to Fair Isle knitting and Sandra's use of patterns brings it all together into a lovely little gansey. This yarn is also perfect for knitting for children as it is worsted spun, making it bouncy and soft to touch. The Annie jumper would also be suitable for boys or girls and is available in options for ages 2, 4, 6 and 9. My mam is currently knitting one for my nephew and I cannot wait for him to try it on! The final one of our new kits for now is the Fair Isle V-necked Jumper. The pattern for which is based on a garment in the Shetland Museum's Textile Archive which was one of the inspirations for the new Shetland Heritage range. The yarn for these original pieces was commercially spun but hand-dyed and it looks almost as good as new and very much like the new range. This shows just how well Shetland wool can last if cared for. One of the striking features of the garments in the Shetland Museum's Textile Archive is how they have been patched over time to match the original colours and pattern, giving them a real sense of history and emphasising their beautiful hand-made quality. This jumper truly is an heirloom piece of real Fair Isle knitting and we are very excited to finally be able to offer it to you. Detail from the original museum piece. Image courtesy of Jen Arnall-Culliford The kits are all available now and can be found here! (or directly by clicking on each kit's name above)
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Wovember 2012
It is already half way through Wovember 2012 and we have realised that all has gone quiet on the J&S blog front recently. So to contribute our little bit to this magnificent month we thought we would give you a little sneaky peek behind the scenes here to show you where all your wonderful wool comes from. We start off in the wool-store, which could be described as the hub of Shetland's wool industry with more than 700 local crofters delivering their wool - ranging from bundles of a few kilos to trucks full with a few tonnes in some cases - through our big green doors. We then sort through the bags, fleece by fleece, to separate them into the different grades and natural colours with the finest being used to make fine lace and the toughest for durable wool carpets. The wool is then squashed into bales by our trusty old baler ready to be shipped and scoured, carded, combed, spun and dyed into the cushion filling, combed tops and lace and yarn that we send off to you. Some of it comes back to us transformed into beautiful rugs, carpets, duvets and even the life-changing Vi-Spring beds. We sent off our last load of wool for 2012 yesterday which has left room in the main store to clear out the coloured wool-store and sort each coloured fleece into the different grades, ready to be sent away in the final load of this year's wool season - usually in April - and processed into all of our natural, undyed products. This final 12th shipment will bring this year's total to over 240 tonnes of wool: a total which is usually greeted with a look of amazement from anyone who hears it. When the products finally arrive back here after their long transformation they take pride of place in our shop that is joined onto the wool stores where they first became part of J&S as raw wool. The shop was expanded in 2010 to make it three times its original size and give all of our treasured woolly products room to show off. It is now much-loved by knitters who can rummage around, comparing and contrasting colours to create their very own Shetland Wool knitwear. The shop also doubles up as the mail-room where we make up, package and send out orders from all over the world. This makes it a very busy place every morning until our postie comes just after 12 to take away the parcels. However, we love making up the little woolly bundles so thank you to each and every one of you who has ordered from us and helped support Shetland's wool industry. I just thought I'd end with an image of what makes this all possible. The humble Shetland Sheep with its world-beating wool in its wild, exposed habitat that makes it all so magical.
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Alexander Kumar: Guest Blog - Wool Week
Celebrating wool week: warmest greetings from the coldest place on Earth By Dr Alexander Kumar One year ago I had no idea what I was getting myself in for, as I prepared myself for my departure to the coldest place on Earth - Dome Charlie located high up on the Antarctic Plateau - the world's largest desert and the coldest, loneliest, most desolate and remote place on Earth. And here I stand, still alive with 10 fingers and 10 toes, which have been protected by Shetland's finest. 100 years ago Sir Ernest Shackleton brought fair isle wool to Antarctica. Following his fashion and sense, I decided I would do the same. Jamieson & Smith (Shetland Wool Brokers Ltd.) based Sandra knitted me several bespoke, unique and colourful items which I was fortunate to have through what I now describe as the 'worst winter in the world'. We are completely isolated here for 9 months from February until November. Temperatures dropped below -80 degrees Celsius as the sun disappeared for over 3 months- leaving our European team of 13 alone in the dark. Over the Antarctic winter your senses turn to perceiving in black and white, but now the sun has come back I can enjoy the colours once again and the Shetland Fair Isle designs are wonderful and warm. And in that, because I am still warm, I can leave you with my warmest greetings from the coldest place on Earth, proud to wear like explorers of times gone, Shetland's continuing unique contribution to Antarctic history - happy Shetland Wool Week! To read more about Dr Alexander Kumar's adventures, please visit his website www.alexanderkumar.com
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