Blog
Shetland College Project 2020
Hello everyone, You may know that every year we work with the Shetland College and their Fine Art and Contemporary Textiles students on a project in which the students create a piece of work inspired by J&S and its buildings and yarns, even though things have been very different this year we did manage to have the usual visits with the students at the beginning of the year before everything shut down so they were able to continue the project and last week I (Ella) headed to the college to see the results of the project. As always we will go through the students work and I'll write a little bit about their inspirations: Shannon Leslie Shannon was inspired from her visit to us and hearing Oliver speak about the importance of Shetland sheep and their colours, marking and existence - She created this collection of beautiful 'lugs' - ears in Shetland dialect from raw wool and combed tops. She said 'We never want these ears to become mere ‘specimens’ of what ‘once was’'. I found the ears very tactile and cute, and I could see links to Museums and Taxidermy which was very effective. Elouise Spooner Elouise was inspired by the markings on the floor in the Woolstore and the colours and textures in the woolstore from the walls, floors and wool. She worked into a sheet using sewing, painting and distressing. She said: 'The phrase ‘Common Land’ took a whole different meaning when put into the context of today, as before it just meant a field used by many crofters for sheep, but in the context of COVID-19 it stands for how people have had to come together in the ‘Common Land’ of the internet and how people have had to become more empathetic with each other as this virus affects everyone. This piece was not what I expected when I first stepped into Jamieson & Smith, but I’m very happy with the outcome.' It was a really effective piece and I liked how it linked into the present as well as the every day in the Woolstore. Jean Urquhart Jean created a selection of sculptural pieces and painting in her work as well as small art book containing samples of fleece paintings which she then took out onto bigger scale wall pieces. She was inspired by the textures and colours of the woolstore which I think translated well into her use of natural colours in the Heritage and Tops. She said: 'I really enjoyed discovering the wool shed, loved the untreated wool, the atmosphere, the history: found it inspirational. The natural yarn is very beautiufl and makes me want to learn to knit' Elaine Thomason Elaine was inspired by visiting J&S and its buildings to create a 'Taatit Rug' which incorporated lots of elements of what we do - including our logo and bannisters! She said: For the last sixty years, J&S have bought fleeces from the Shetland crofters…who graze their hardy peerie sheep on the stark hillsides. In the 1960s the old United Free Kirk was purchased to be used as a grading shed…it is now the Wool Shop. In the 1900s this part of Lerwick was a hive of activity with numerous fishing stations spread along its shores. The shore being the work-place of the Herring girl’s as they gutted and salted fish. The kirk was a place of worship and relaxation for them. The herring girls had a restroom and knitted in any free time. Marriages also took place and even a Post Office made use of the building. This colourful history inspired me. I thought of the poverty of material things and how nothing was wasted. From conception to creation the coming together of the Tattit rug, historical a wedding gift to the bride and groom from both families.' I found Elaine's rug really moving and could totally see all the inspiratrions and how they had translated into the piece. Cilla Robertson Cilla was inspired by the textures in the woolstore and decided to work with crochet and balls to represent the reach of Shetland Wool all over the world. She combined these into hanging almost 'mobiles' Shet said 'I wanted my final work to highlight the environment that supports the production of wool. I used peat, clay, heather and rams’ horns.' I loved the use of different materials withing the work and found them very beautiufl to look at and stand under. Jane Ridland Jane worked with audio and visuals to represent her visits to J&S and what that ignited within her and she made her film from a Grandaughters perspective. She said 'I used film to recreate the rhythmic movement and sound of my grandmother’s knitting needles and highlight the importance of yarn quality, and the essential knitting belt. Finally, to remember a small flock of twenty sheep.' I think the work the students produced considering everything that's happened this year was really great and it's always amazing to see what is produced and how others see coming into J&S and we love seeing work from so many different perspectives. To find out more about the creative courses at the Shetland College click here, we hope you've enjoyed seeing the students work.
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Working With Wool, A Guest Post from Vivian Ross-Smith
'Form'. Shetland wool on Burlap. 20x21cm. 2018 You don’t have to look hard in my studio to find wool. There are balls of J&S yarn scattered everywhere and crimps of raw fleece dotted around my work benches. There’s a grip and bite to Shetland wool that is unlike any other wool I have used in my work; the texture is beautiful to hold and excellent to work with. J&S have an enticing range of colours waiting to grab your attention but it’s the natural shades that always sit best with my work. Reminding me of shearing sheep on my home island of Fair Isle. 'Fair Isle Scattald' 2018, acrylic on wood. 14 x 12 cm each (series of 17) 'Ewes Out' 2018. Shetland wool handstitched on canvas. 70 x 51 cm (Detail) Some of my fondest childhood memories are gathering as a community to ‘caa’ sheep. This process involves walking through the rugged, heather-covered hills as one to manoeuvre the flock toward the ‘crü’, a large enclosed pen from which sheep can be sheared and dosed. Feeling the rich, almost sticky lanolin coat my hands as I prize fleece away from skin to find the growth line I will clip along. Not only have these textures, colours and smells stuck with me, the coming together of community to work collectively had a huge impact on me too. As with many artists, my personal history is an integral framework for my practice. The mentality and dynamic of island communities’ shapes my work, I approach my art as an islander. 'But if you use the word craft, it's like you're politicising the word craft', 2020. Shetland wool and acrylic on paper 'Craft Conversations II', 2020. Canvas, felt, acrylic, Shetland wool, wood and tracing paper Materiality forms the backbone of my practice from which I explore the aesthetic qualities, as well as the cultural value of material. Fish skins, salt, wood, and hessian are paired with traditional island skill sets such as knitting, knotting, weaving and stitching to communicate craft, skill, isolation, and commitment to place. It is wool, however, that features in my work time and time again – a material completely intertwined with Shetland culture. When I use wool, I play a small part in feeding into the long and rich history of crofting, knitting and textiles in Shetland. 'Stitch', 2019. Hessian and Shetland wool. 24x24cm 'Sorting + Grading' 2019. Shetland wool and burlap. 140x80cm 'Sorting + Grading' 2019. Shetland wool and burlap. 140x80cm (Detail) Living on a small island like Fair Isle simultaneously requires self-sufficiency and a willingness to rely on neighbours. Although not the only industries, the laborious working of land and sea through crofting and fishing, is still a common practice on Shetlands islands. I use my practice as a method of echoing the types of work that take place on islands, commitment to working in a repetitive and laborious way is mirrored through the rhythms and durational nature of my work, reminiscent of the ebb and flow of the sea, or the back and forth of a knitting machine. Alongside the workload of an islander comes a collective commitment to place and way of life, which highlights the need for a strong community, allowing a sharing of workload and the building of support structures. It is this joined-up thinking I am interested in. To me, islands are places of coming together. Good Mother, 2018. Shetland wool handstitched on canvas. 70 x 51 cm 'Moder Dy', 2019. Haddock skins, Shetland wool, wooden bar This shared working is very apparent in the crafts of the island and particularly in the knitting, where its commonplace to share patterns and knitting knowledge with neighbours, friends and family. The social aspect is what draws me to textiles and from that stance, my appreciation of wool as a material strengthens. 'J+S', 2019. Raw fleece hand-stitched with Jamieson and Smith yarn. 24x24 cm I’ve never been taught how to use stitch properly, instead making it up as I go along with whatever means make sense to the work. The same goes for my knitting, although Fair Isle is my home island and I have been surrounded by exceptionally talented knitters for my whole life, I only taught myself to knit garments properly in 2017. My use of wool in my artwork has always been intuitive and centres around the development of tactile surfaces and trying to gain an understanding of the materials form and function. piece could be as simple as exploring the relationship between raw and spun wool, yet the touch of the fleece, the smell of the lanolin, the individual crimps, keep my mind and hands engaged for hours. Or the conceptual could take forefront, how does craft practice fit into fine art? Is the internet the new craft space rather than gathering and making physically? Regardless of the starting point for a piece of work, it’s the material - and usually the wool – that my mind goes to first. 'Craft Conversations III' 2019. Shetland wool and canvas I ask viewers to look at material from a perspective they’re not used to. I ask them to question its qualities, origins and if our understanding of the material itself can be built on. From this place of constant learning, a deep appreciation can be formed. ------------------------------------ Vivian Ross-Smith is an artist working from the Shetland Islands. She adopts a collaborative and systematic approach to making and sharing through painting, textiles and the digital. Her work creates space to discuss the practices of island life from a contemporary, fine art context and explores the textures, qualities and values of material and space. Ross-Smith’s work builds relationships and conversations between material, place and people and is as much about experiencing as it is about seeing. https://www.vivianrosssmith.com @vrosssmith Thank you Vivian for this guest post - we hope you are enjoying our Wool Week content - make sure to follow our instagram and subscribe to our youtube channel - if you haven't already! Happy Knitting!
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Knitting an Afterthought Heel, Guest Post from Lesley Smith
My name is Lesley Smith and I am a knitter and designer living and working in Shetland. Ella has asked me to write a short blog post for Wool Week 2020 about my method for knitting an afterthought heel into a Fair-isle sock. An afterthought heel is as the name describes, a heel that is knitted on when the rest of the sock is completed. It’s a common sock heel construction but not one that was traditionally used in Shetland as far as I can find. All the old examples of socks I have seen here have a heel flap and gusset. I chose to use an afterthought heel for a number of reasons. It allowed me to use the same design on the heel and the toe. I could also use design elements from the crowns of Fair-isle tams and berets, which I love. Best of all I don’t have to purl every 2nd row of colour work on a heel flap. Here, I am going to show you how to pick up the heel stitches after the rest of the sock has been knit. As you can see from photo 1, I have knit the whole sock save for the heel, with waste yarn knitted in where the heel will go. The waste yarn I used is a synthetic in a contrast colour which makes it easier to see and remove. I have knit it across half the stitches of the sock. The next step will be to pick up the stitches above and below the waste yarn. I like to pick these stitches up before removing the waste as it avoids dropped stitches! I use a circular needle with a long cable in a finer gauge than the sock was knit with as it makes it easier. Begin picking up the stitches from the side of the sock where the row begins. This will keep the jog in the pattern on the sock and the heel at the same side. In this example, I’m picking up the leg stitches first. Once you’ve picked up the leg stitches (half of the total number of stitches to be picked up) slide the stitches onto the needle cable. Turn the sock so the toe is nearest you. Pick up the sole stitches by going behind the right leg of each stitch. Picking them up this way prevents them from being twisted. When all the sole stitches are picked up slide them onto the cable needle. Next, we are going to remove the waste yarn. With a tapestry needle or knitting needle pick out one stitch at a time all the way along. If the end gets too long snip it off as you go. Now all that’s left to do is transfer these stitches onto the needles you knitted the rest of the sock with. In my case, it was a short circular needle. Before you begin to knit, check your stitch count. I usually have one extra stitch on the sole which can come in handy! When you knit the sole stitches, knit up to the last stitch. This last sole stitch can then be knitted together with the leg stitch next to it. This helps to close any small holes at that side. If I don’t have an extra stitch there, I would pick up something to do this with. Any holes at the other side can be closed by using the yarn ends to weave in on the back. I hope this will help and inspire you to give it a go. If you’d like to see any more of my designs you can find me on Etsy as TakDeeSock and on Ravelry as Lesley Smith Designs. Hope to see you for Wool Week 2021! Thanks to Lesley for this guest post, the yarn used in her sock shown here is Shetland Heritage, we hope you are enjoying our Wool Week content - make sure to follow our instagram and subscribe to our youtube channel - if you haven't already! Happy Knitting!
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New WYS Shetland Yarns!
Hello everyone, sorry for being quiet on here - we are in the middle of the Wool Season so things are pretty busy in the wool store and we are working on lots of things which we will share soon! but today we happy to share the two new ranges which have been launched with our ongoing collaboration with West Yorkshire Spinners. In these ranges, West Yorkshire Spinners purchase the raw Shetland Wool from J&S and using their state of the art dyeing and spinning capabilities to create now 3 different ranges using Real Shetland Wool. First up is the Croft Double Knit range: The Croft Double Knit carries on from the success of the original Aran Croft range with 12 solid colours and 6 speckled shades, and alongside the range is a pattern book containing garment and accessory patterns by Sarah Hatton and Rosee Woodland. Technical Information: Hank Size: 100g Composition: 100% Shetland Wool Weight: Double Knit Needles: 4mm US6 225 Metres / 246 Yards Tension: 28 Rows - 22 Stitches You can find the Croft DK on our online shop here, and the pattern book here. Next up is something new and exciting - The Croft Wild Shetland Aran Roving Yarn: This yarn is a really unusual loosely spun Aran yarn available in a range of 4 colours inspired by Shetland and its landscape, we also have the undyed Ecru to go along with it. The yarn has long colour stretches resulting in an interesting effect on the finished item as you can see in the swatches l-r: Rolling Hills, Stormy Skies, Fired Earth and Turning Tides Technical Information: Hank Size: 100g Composition: 100% Shetland Wool Weight: Aran Roving Needles: 5mm US8 166 Metres / 182 Yards Tension: 24 Rows - 18 Stitches We also have two kits available for this range, the Finlay and Alana Sweaters, you can find them on the online shop here and here. You can find the Wild Shetland range on the online shop here. We look forward to seeing what people make with these new ranges, happy knitting!
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Chunky Knitting
Hello everyone, during these strange times, it can be hard to find things for children and young people to do in their downtime, looking at screens or watching tv is good some of the time but not all the time so knitting could be a new skill they take up, It improves fine motor skills, problem-solving and math skills as well as using their creativity and reducing stress. Our Shetland Chunky range is now discontinued but this means the stock we have is available at a reduced price, originally it was £7.50 per 100g ball but we are now offering it at £3.50 a ball, there are lots of great patterns out there for chunkier yarn and there are a few free patterns which are designed for our Shetland Chunky: Chunkeanie by Woolly Wormhead Inga Scarf by J&S Beanie in J&S Chunky Wool by Liz Lovick These patterns all include different elements of rib, reading your knitting and in the case of the Chunkeanie - knitting in the round. Once these skills are learnt they can be grown upon and using slightly thicker wool, to begin with, will encourage beginners not to give up! There is a lot of help available online too - if you search 'knitting tutorial beginners' on youtube, there are literally hundreds of videos that come up! Happy Knitting!
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Angela Irvines Lace Creations
Hello everyone, Happy Friday! today we thought we'd look at something a bit different and share some of Angela Irvines Shetland Lace creations, in particular her lace Creel lampshade which she shared on Facebook a few days ago, I was blown away by it so asked Angela a few questions about it: For our followers that are not familiar, what is a Creel? A creel is a cage for catching lobsters & crabs on the seabed. What gave you the idea to turn it into a lampshade? The idea came ages ago, a creel is covered in net, and my late brother made many to catch lobsters. I knew they would look fab covered in fine lace. The structure and ‘eye’ of the creel are great sculptural shapes to stretch lace over. Industrial Chic interior fashion is all the rage at the moment too. Was it easy to do? It was very very hard to do, I was amazed I didn't have to re-do any panels. I worked the sizes & stitches out best I could from other creations I gave done on lace furniture panels in the past. The ‘eye’ of the creel was a real challenge to design as it had to finish with the round eye, I just knitted that part as the beginning of a crown for a hat before casting off, it fitted like a glove to my delight! Phew! How did you choose the lace motif's you used in the piece? I chose my favourite auld Shetland Fine Lace seashore themed patterns, ‘Birds Eye’ for the creel eye ( where the lobsters or crabs crawl into the bait & are then trapped) Elaborate Print o’ da Wave top/sides and Alice Maude Pattern for the end as it is a beauty with waves also. You often use Shetland Supreme Lace in your work, what do you like about the wool? I use Shetland Supreme as its the best, strongest, finest, dresses the lace out tight to perfection and un-dyed the colour of wir Shetland sheep. Angela uses our Supreme Lace in her creations like this lamp using Supreme Lace in Grey and the sideboard which features panels in Black Supreme Lace: You can see more of Angela work on here website here, very inspiring! Happy Knitting!
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Northern Lights KAL winners!
Hello everyone, happy Monday! thank you for all voting in our Northern Lights KAL post, the winners are: Garment EvaL8's Norrsken and Accessory jelibets Night Wing Thank you, everyone, that took part, and we have messaged the two winners on Ravelry about your prize! Now our Northern Lights KAL has finished we would like to do another KAL to focus on during this strange times, so if you have any ideas let us know in the comments below, happy knitting!
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Flecket Friday Cheeriness!
Hello everyone, happy Friday! Today we thought we'd share some cute pictures from one of our crofters. Lambing season is in full swing now and the fields are filled with bouncy little lambs, Chris Dyer has Garths Croft in Bressay and he has lots of beautiful coloured and flecket Shetland Sheep (the kind of wool that ends up in Supreme Jumper Weight, Supreme Lace and Shetland Heritage Naturals) and he's been sharing some lovely pictures over on their Instagram so we asked Chris if we could share some here: Aren't they so cute? Chris also made a video with a virtual tour of his croft which you can see on youtube here as part of the I Thought I Knew How podcasts online international fiber festival. While everything is in lockdown it's important to remember those things that carry on and in agriculture, lambing is one of those things that will happen no matter what! And with very cute results.. So follow Chris' Instagram and follow along the lambing and crofting journey if you find it interesting, happy knitting!
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Lockdown Inspiration
Hello everyone, we hope you are staying safe and well. I thought today we'd share some inspiring finished projects which have been shared to our Ravelry group, it's always interesting to see what other people have been working on using our yarns and it can give you great ideas on patterns, colours and yarns to use: Starting with this beautiful version of Vaila from the Vintage Shetland Book, we love the colours Kim chose in 2ply Jumper Weight and although the shades are quite modern and bright it still gives off great vintage vibes! We shared this project on our social media last week but its so lovely, its the Quaarl Hat pattern knit in Supreme Jumper Weight. We love the big motif on the main body of the hat - it's so impactful and in the natural shades it's just beautiful. This cardigan knit in Shetland Heritage really stood out to me when I saw it and its a great example of someone taking elements from a pattern to make something perfect for them. The lace pattern is from one of the designs in the Legacy of Shetland Lace book. Light Grey Heritage is such a beautiful colour! This scarf is knit using 2ply Supreme Lace held together in a marl and the finished project is so great! We love that it shows the different things you can do with laceweight and the way all the natural colours work together is so inspiring. The pattern is from the new Cecelia Campochiaro book 'Making Marls' This project stood out thanks to the use of Purl Bumps in this pattern, aptly called Purl Bump Mitts is so great and the cuff and fingers texture is so good. simple but so effective! Although it looks like black and white the dark shade is actually Jumper Weight shade 82 which is a really dark green - it works so well with the white. This project shows off the beautiful finished texture of the Shetland Aran Worsted, it looks so soft and the colourwork is so strong, The pattern is Speedy Selbu Mittens and the colour choice is that bit different than usual but still so effective (Berry Wine and Fluggy White). Looking at the recently shared projects on Ravelry always leads you down a happy rabbit hole so during this time when many of us have a bit more time you can spend time looking at some really inspiring projects knit using J&S yarns. Again we'd like to thank you for your support during this time, happy knitting! x
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