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North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference
Hello everyone! So while we were getting over Shetland Wool Week Oliver and his wife Catherine headed off to the Isle of Man to attend the Native Sheep and Wool Conference which was held there from the 12th-15th of October. The aim of the conference is to promote the fleece of the Native Viking breeds, and the event features a series of lectures, farm visits, croft workshops and fairs. Oliver was there to give a talk about Shetland Sheep, its wool and their uses (something he knows a little bit about..!) - this year was celebrating the Isle of Man Loghtan Sheep of course! Loghtan Sheep share some of the characteristics of Shetland Sheep - which you can certainly see from the pictures! Both are thought to be of Scandinaivian origin, perhaps brought over by Vikings who settled in Shetland and also the Isle of Man. The Loghtan Sheep are mostly the same colour - the call it 'Mouse Brown' and it is very similar to our Moorit shade. The ewes are mostly two horned and rams four horned, four horned sheep used to be quite common in Shetland up until about 60 years ago although they were mostly white. You can see from these pictures of a Loghton fleece it is similar to Moorit, in colour it is a bit lighter and the staple is mostly quite short and blunt however throughout the fleece one can find guard hair staple similar to ours. There was also a fashion show which took place at the University College of Isle of Man, it included student work and delegates designs, you can see our Fair Isle V-Neck Jumper in the picture above. J&S had 3 designs included and all were very well received! Heres Oliver at the delegates Craft Fair which was a chance for each area to show and discuss their regions products. Elizabeth from the Guild who presented Oliver with a lovely Loghton fleece and farmer Peter at Church Farm Cregneash, a small Manx Crofting community which was beautifully preserved. There they saw a Manx Cat, famous for there lack of tails which is a genetic mutation within the breed. Oliver and Catherine did get a bit caught out and delayed with Storm Opheilia but they have made it back safe and sound to Shetland. It was an excellent event held in beautiful surrounding and Oliver enjoyed meeting and sharing ideas with delegates from around the northern hemisphere and it was an ideal location and audience to share our products. Oliver would like to thank the organisers and people of the Isle of Man for their Kindness and warm hospitality, it was much appreciated!
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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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Shetland Wool Week at J&S 2017
Yippee! Shetland Wool Week 2017 has begun! We have been a bit quiet here over the last peerie while but we have been busy getting organised for this week. The shop has been so busy and we are so excited to see everyone! We have classes on at J&S this week but we also have a few free events which we have just finalised this past couple of weeks so if you are in Shetland this week please come along.. A Year of Techniques Trunk Show The first event is with our friends Jen and Jim Arnall Culliford and it is a trunk show of their Year of Techniques book, this book has just been released in paperback and features 12 projects all using different techniques to improve your knitting. There are a number of the designs which are worked in J&S yarns and Jen and Jim will be in the shop with all the samples and ready and willing to chat about the book. We will have copies for sale and the event is: Tuesday 26th September: 6pm - 8pm J&S Trunk Show You may have seen this week on Instagram and Ravelry that we have been sharing pictures from our newest book. Jamieson & Smith: A Shetland Story gives you the history of J&S and a collection of hand knitting patterns by a group of some of our favourite designers(and a couple of J&S staff members!). We will be hosting an event in the shop where you can see all the items from the book and plan which to knit first.. This event is on: Thursday 28th September PS.. on the online shop there is a page for the book and as soon as it is available you can purchase it from there! Felicity Ford Trunk Show Another event is with Felicity Ford who has just announced her next book and to celebrate is also hosting a trunk show at J&S with samples from her new book The Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Playbook. Felix's first book is one of our favourites and we cannot wait to see the new work all knit using 2ply Jumper Weight. This event is: Friday 29th September 2.30pm-4.30pm Wool and Grading Demonstration Not forgetting one of our busiest events - Olivers sorting and grading demonstrations have become a must-see event at wool week and this free drop-in event takes place on: Monday 25th, Wednesday 27th and Friday 29th Septmeber at 2pm Phewf! Its set to be a busy old week so I don't think I will get blogged every day but we will be back after Wool Week with a roundup of Shetland Wool Week. If you are here for it we hope you enjoy it, happy knitting! PS. we will be trying our best to keep up with online orders and emails but there may be a delay in us responding and getting out parcels, please accept our apologies! xx
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Wool Season
Hello everybody, sorry it has been quite quiet on the blog this summer, we have been so busy which of course is a great problem to have. We are now in the heart of the Shetland Wool season and thanks to a pretty good summer so far the clipping has been happening in earnest so the woolstore is filling up as fast as they can empty it! Even with roadworks happening outside our door (we can still be reached from the bottom of North Road) we are averaging 2-3 tonnes through the doors everyday. I took the chance on Saturday after the woolstore ones had gone home to take a few photos of the organised chaos, I find the Woolstore extremly photogenic and the sheer volume of wool in there never ceases to amaze me. We have shipped two loads so far and they are well into load 3 so you can see we are bursting (at the seams you can see above!) These pictures sum up just a fraction of the wool we see from over 80% of Shetlands Crofters and Farmers in a year, but I hope you've enjoyed this peerie peek. One more thing thats happened this summer is Oliver has reach 50 years at J&S! I posted a few photos through the years on Instagram which you can see here but I took this one last week which just about sums it up... Happy Knitting!
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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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