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The Croft Shetland Colours
Hello everyone, just a quick post today to show you the new colours we have just got in stock in The Croft wool, you may remember last year we launched the Shetland Tweed yarn which was a group of speckled shades produced in partnership with West Yorkshire Spinners: The raw wool (of which we purchase over 80% of Shetlands Wool clip) is bought from us and WYS dyes and spins the wool into this yarn. The speckled shades have been very popular and they have just released these 12 new solid shades: top row: Sullom, Seafield, Tresta and Norwick middle row: Voxter, Lerwick, Melby and Fetlar bottom row: Ollaberry. Belmont, Laxfirth and Bixter Alongside the yarns a pattern collection has also been released featuring 14 designs by Sarah Hatton. The patterns contain a nice mix of adult and childrens garments and accessories. To see the designs in the book click here. We have also got in stock more of the original Croft Book for the Speckled shades also designed by Sarah. As you know we put together a lot of colour combinations in our day to day world here at J&S and we couldnt resist putting some together in the new colours: left: Voxter, Laxfirth, Lerwick and Melby, right: Voxter, Laxfirth, Lerwick and Sullom left: Stonybrek, Norwick, Seafield and Melby, right: Clousta, Tresta, Maryfield, Dalsetter and Ollaberry left: Boddam, Norwick, Lerwick and Sullom, right: Norwick, Ollaberry, Belmont and Seafield left: Bixter, Tresta, Lerwick and Sullom, right: Seafield, Fetlar, Ollaberry and Dalsetter. The yarn is decribed as an Aran weight but we would use it more as a DK/Light Aran but of course swatch and ensure you like the guage you get, you can see all the Croft Wool on our website here. Happy Knitting!
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Voe Show 2018
Hello everyone, this past Saturday saw our annual visit to the Voe Show - the first agricultural show of the year in Shetland. I (Ella) headed up to judge the Colourbox Competition. Every year we choose a selection of 8 shades of Jumper Weight which are used by people in a category on its own in the knitwear section of the show. The entrants must use at least 5 of the 8 colours - this year the shades were: 3, 53, 66, 72, 87, 366, fc37 and FC56. The allover on the left was the Trophy winner for this year. It is always very difficult to choose the winners as the standard is extremely high but I was really pleased with the entries. This is the Show where I have the most time so I helped the other ladies with laying out the rest of the knitwear and as a judge I got to help with choosing the trophy winners. There is everything from lace, handspun and machine knitting to yokes, all overs and hats. This 1ply Shawl by Kathleen Anderson won lots of prizes - very well deserved! It was beautiful. I then spent the rest of my time at the show looking at all the other entries. At Voe there are Cows, Sheep, Horses, Chickens, Ducks, Goats, Dogs... the list goes on. The sheep are probably my favourite as the amount and variety of breeds is always so interesting but I also like to have a look at the flowers and vegetables too... I didnt get any photos of the baking or other handicrafts but I can assure you it all looked great too! The rain came on just as I was leaving but I had a great day at the Voe Show, this week sees Cunningsburgh on Wednesday and Waas on Saturday so we will be back with more photos from those shows too, happy knitting!
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Dark Fawn Shetland Heritage
Hello everyone, we have been having some lovely weather in Shetland the past couple of weeks. Not quite the heatwave which the rest of the UK has been having but we are used to that! You will know that we are lucky to have a number of yarn ranges which use the Coloured Shetland Wool - from the Combed Tops to Shetland Supreme 1 and 2 ply Lace, Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight and our most recent yarn - Shetland Heritage Naturals which we launched in 2016. The tricky part about working with Natural shades is that of course they are different every time depending on the amount and colours of a Shade we take in the Woolstore. I thought the below picture sums it up quite well - I found this fleece in the woolstore and you can see the 4 different colours which are all found in it! l-r: light grey, grey, dark fawn and fawn We try to keep the shades as similar as we can but Nature is as Nature does so they can be quite different so for a limited time we are welcoming Dark Fawn into the Heritage Naturals range - it bridges the gap between Fawn and Moorit so well we have decided to get it on ball as well as on cone. It also has a grey undertone so works well with the grey shades too - the coloured Shetland Wool is so precious we couldn't let this colour go to waste! You can see here it alongside Fawn and together with the other shades: This means they are more blending possibilities within the Shetland Heritage Naturals range and we cant wait to see what people do with it! The possibilities for lace and fair isle are endless when you add it in with our Dyed Heritage range... You can find it on our website here Happy Knitting!
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Our Trip to Woolfest 2018
Hello everyone, just a quick post today. You may have seen on our social media we were down in Cockermouth last weekend for Woolfest. We had a great weekend seeing lots of you and selling our woolly wares. As well as all the stalls there are lots of animals to see too which is always a treat, its mainly sheep but there were also alpacas and angora rabbits! We saw our lovely sheepy statue friends in Lockerbie again! back home before we knew it! We got back just before the Heatwave started in the UK (basically everywhere but Shetland) which is fine by us, we are not made for the heat! I hope you enjoyed these pictures of our trip away to Woolfest, you can see more about the event here. Happy Knitting!! PS. While we were away there was a couple of issues with the online shop - they should all be fixed now but if you placed an order between the 21st and 25th of June and paid by card but have received no order confirmation please contact us, we have emailed everyone but have a few which haven't come back.
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Woolfest 2018
photo from woolfest.co.uk Hello everyone! we hope your enjoying your Monday, just a quick post today to remind you about Woolfest! we have had lots of lovely weather the past couple of weeks here in Shetland but we have started organising all the lovely Shetland Wool we will be taking down with us to Cockermouth. Ella and Kharis on our stall last year We will of course have all our ranges of yarn - from 1ply up to Chunky including the full palette of 2ply Jumper Weight and a small selection of kits for things like the Merrie Dancers Toorie. If there is anything in particular you think we should take with us please leave it in the comments below and we will try to make room in the van. So you can find us on stall J210 and J211, for more information about the event have a look at the show website here We had a great time last year so we are looking forward to our trip again and seeing lots of you in Cumbria in a couple of weeks!
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NKCAL 2018 Winners!
hello everyone! its time to share the winners of the NCKAL, there were nearly 600 votes so thank you to everyone that took the time to vote for their favourite. It was all very close in the results but.. The winner in the Garment Category is Alix: And the winner in the Accessory Category is Eva: So Congratulations Alix and Eva, I will be in touch by Ravelry message about your prize, thank you to all that took part and either entered or voted. We will think up another Knit A Long soon! Happy Knitting x
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New Colours KAL 2018 - the entries
Hello everyone! We are back today with the final items made for the New Colours KAL, there is a good mix or garments and accessories. The rules for the KAL was the item had to use at least 3 of our newly brought back colours of 2ply Jumper Weight (16, 32, 90, 1282 and FC21) along with as many other shades of Jumper Weight you wanted. If you want to see more pictures please click on the link on each picture - that will take you to the ravelry project page. We have spilt the poll into garments and accessories so once you've had a look over please vote for your favourite! Garments Wild Flowers by Auchnagaoith Yoke 2 by MaureeninFargo NCKal Clover Cape by Rubyshasha Man Vest by bessie4dogs Never Smile at a Crocodile by Alix Pearson Accessories Merrie Dancers Toorie by Fabclaire New Colours KAL 2018 by Anniejay Babyblanket by Eval8 Decennium by ginny8 Color Challange by Jelibet J&S New Colors KAL by HootersHall Never Smile at a Crocodile Hat by AlixPearson The polls will close Next Wednesday 16th May and we will announce the winners and contact them to send a prize, Thank you to everyone who took part, we love doing our colour themed knit-a-longs and we are glad you do too. Happy Knitting!
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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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