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Bousta Beanie kits
This past weekend it was the Edinburgh Yarn Festival which has become the time when the new Shetland Wool Week hat and patron are announced, this year is it Shetland born designer Gudrun Johnston and her beautiful Bousta Beanie design! You can download the pattern here and find our kits for the given colourways here, if you want to choose your own colours simply buy two balls of your main colour and one ball each of your two contrasts, with such a graphic motif its hard to go wrong and this makes the pattern an excellent choice for Fair Isle newbies and experts alike! How about greys? 203, 81 and 54 Or grellow? 54, 91 and 23 or these? FC47. FC7 and 125 29, 1281 and 122 FC56, FC50 and FC9 The possibilities are endless! Remember to tag your projects on instagram and Ravelry with #boustabeanie and #Shetlandwoolweek2017 so others can see your Bousta Beanie and spread the story of Shetland Wool Week, happy knitting! Save
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Selection Boxes
Hello! it can be quite hard sometimes to choose colours, especially if you are looking to try out a yarn range with no particular project in mind, we have been thinking of ways you can pick up a one stop box full of Shetland Wool so in that vein we have put together a selection of... Selection Boxes! In a few of the smaller ranges you will receive each of the available shades (1ply Supreme, Shetland Heritage Naturals and Supreme Jumper Weight) but for the rest we have picked a range of shades which we feel will work well together in a project or just round out your stash! You will get your selection box in a sturdy, naturally finished box stamped with the J&S logo which is included in the price. It makes a great gift for knitters but also makes a nice treat for yourself, we have started with a smaller range of choices but if you think there is something else you'd love to see - let us know! You can see the boxes on the website here. Happy Knitting! PS - remember there is still time to take part in the Fire Festival Kal, there have been some really beautiful projects appearing in our Ravelry group!
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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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Fire Festival KAL 2016-2017
Hello! Many of you have asked if we would be doing another Knit A Long this winter and the answer is yes! This year we have decided to take inspiration from something unique to Shetland and that is Up Helly Aa, there are a number of these fire-festivals all over Shetland from the Scalloway one in the second week of January up to the Delting Up Helly Aa in March. Without going into too much detail Up Helly Aa is held all over Shetland throughout the beginning of the year and they all feature a Guizer Jarl (chief Viking) and their Jarls Squad, a number of Squads dressed up, a torchlight procession and the burning of a Galley. It is something which cheers up and brightens many Shetlanders during the darkest time of the year here and I have always found the colours inspiring! So you can see from the shades chosen we have mainly been inspired by Fire! we have chosen a number of fiery shades (91, FC38, 125 and 9113) but also some darker shades to represent the dark winter skies (36, 81, 54) we have thrown in the bright blue shade 132 as when I was looking through photos for inspirations I kept seeing a brighter blue either in the sky or shadows like the photo above. Although we have taken our inspirations from the Vikings this Knit A Long is totally open to your interpretation of the colours, all you have to do is knit something (garment, accessory, whatever you feel!) using at least 5 of the 8 shades and it must feature some Fair Isle knitting (two colours in a row) Fire Festival Knit A Long Shades: 132, 54, 9113, 81, 36, 125, FC38 and 91 You can put together your own patterns or use a pattern that's already out and work with putting the colours into it, we know there is still a lot of Christmas knitting going on so to coincide with the last Up Helly Aa we will have the Knit A Long running From now until 20th March 2017 I have put together a mood board of pictures on Pinterest so feel free to have a look and enjoy the Knit A Long, you can see the colours here on the online shop. If you take part and would like to Share pictures please post in our Ravelry Group and tag your pictures on instagram with #firefestivalkal Happy Knitting!Save Save
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A Shetlanders Fair Isle Graph Book
You have probably seen this book if like us you love anything related to Fair Isle, Knitting and Shetland! Published by The Shetland Times and compiled by the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers A Shetlanders Fair Isle Graph Book in Colour is a bright and inspiring book - perfect for this dark and dreary time of year. It was released just in time for Wool Week this year and since then it has been selling like hot cakes, everytime I went to do a blog it would be sold out! As things calm down though its a lovely book to look through. It is filled with hand coloured motif's for Fair Isle knitting, the originals of the notebooks belonged to Bill Henry who ran the Hosiery side of Anderson & Co in the mid 20th century. They were most likely used by knitters to put together pattern to put on items to sell. The idea of the notebooks themselves is not unusual, Shetland knitters have many self drafted pattern books but what makes this one unusual is the coloured aspect, it is very common to see the black and white dotted kind you see in many Fair Isle books like Traditional Fair Isle Knitting by Sheila McGregor, Alice Starmores Book of Fair Isle Knitting and Fair Isle Knitting Patterns by Mary MacGregor. Those kind of graph books are invaluable also because they help you to put together patterns without being distracted by the colours but this book is a feast for the eyes if you like Fair Isle and Stranded knitting. It's very tempting to gather up colours and try to match them up... 2ply Jumper Weight l-r: 77, 1403, 66, 1, fc15 and 34 greens: 34 and FC11, blue: FC15 and FC47, cream: 1 and 202, yellow: 66 and 121, reds: 1403 and FC55, black: 77 and 81. The yarn on the right-hand side is the same kind of shades as the ones on the left for the pattern in the previous picture but it would give you a more subtle version of the pattern. That's another fun part of putting colours together, you can adapt it until it is more your kind of shades. Shetland Heritage Naturals l-r: white, fawn, light grey, moorit and black 2ply Jumper Weight l-r: 1403, 23, 21, FC15 and 202 We have the book in stock just now and it costs £20.00. It would make a great present for anyone interested in Shetland Knitting, the historical aspect is just as interesting as the colour inspirations!
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Annes Sheelagh Shawl
A few weeks ago I spotted on Ravelry a beautiful version of the Sheelagh Shawl, knit by Anne for her wedding. It sparked a memory in me of an email inquiring about receiving the kit in the Shetland Supreme Yarn, we get (of course) lots of emails every day but its always so nice to see a finished item you helped someone get the yarn for. The Sheelagh is a classic Gladys Amedro pattern which begins with the border before picking up stitches (in this case 960 of them!) and knitting it in towards the middle decreasing as you go. I asked Anne if I could share some photos of her beautiful shawl from her wedding to her Husband Johannes and she gracefully agreed as well as telling me a bit about her knitting of the Shawl: 'I have been a ravelry member since 2011, for the last 2 or 3 years I am online almost every day, browsing patterns, putting them into my favourites, queue, etc. ... I don't remember when, but I came across the Princess shawl from Sharon Miller. I think I discovered the Jamieson & Smith yarns there in the projects (or maybe also through admiring fair isle knitting, which came up around the same time ;) ). When my now-husband asked if I'd like to be his wife last year in October, I knew I would like to have a shawl to wear on my wedding. In fact I knew this already before and was admiring all the nice lace shawls on ravelry, I started a meant-to-be wedding shawl in a nice off-white Tussah silk from my LYS. I was already done when I realised, this would be way too heavy to wear on a summer wedding. I somehow was afraid of this fact already before, but just did not listen to my inner voice. I still was browsing patterns and yarn shops online almost every day, also the J & S page. I found the Sheelagh shawl kit there and fell in love. It was just the right thing. Not too simple, yet not super complicated (I would also have liked to knit the Princess shawl, but this was out of question at this time point, but I will do it someday…). It was already April and I am a slow knitter. By far I wasn’t sure, if I could ever complete this until end of august. The pattern called for the 1 ply cobweb lace yarn, but there wasn’t an off white available (I already bought my dress which is ivory), so I asked at J&S, if I could also get the kit but replace the yarn with the 1 ply supreme lace. Off course this was possible! The yarn arrived middle of April and I started knitting madly. I literally used every free minute I could get: before I went to work, at work I could only think of when I get home to knit, knitted every weekend. In May I was off sick for a week, I knitted all the day! In the middle of June I finished the last stitch. One day more, it would have been 3 month… In this time I changed my mind constantly from ‘Oh gosh, I will never finish this in time’ to ‘Seems to be manageable, right?!’ and back. But I still could finish the other silk shawl, right? Just parts of the borders were missing. And then not wear it, because it’s just too hot… At least I had a plan B. I ordered some blocking wires in the US and again was afraid, they would not get here in time. They came, and the shawl blocked from 87 cm to 127 cm each side. I sat next to our guest bed, where it was pinned on, knitting another project and proudly patting the shawl every now and then. I took it to the bridal shop, when I tried my dress to get it fitted and put it on my shoulders there to see if it fits. It was just perfect! The wedding took place on August 27th, it was 30 °C and super sunny. I wore the shawl during the ceremony, the champagne reception and our first photo shoot in the park next to the castle where the ceremony was. I was glad to have the Sheelagh shawl instead off the other heavier one. It did not add any heat in the afternoon as it is super light and late in the night when we spend some time outside with the last guests it kept my shoulders warm. I still admire my shawl every now and then and I think I will wear it again in the winter, because in my opinion it should be used and not sit on a shelf waiting for the next wedding in our family, which might be still years away…' Thank you Anne for sharing with us the beautiful pictures of your lovely shawl! You can see more pictures of the knitting process on here ravelry project page here. Many people see these types of Shawls as strictly for a Christening but I think this shows you can make it look very classic yet modern as a Wedding shawl. Seeing this has got me going to sort out the Sheelagh Shawl page on the website and you can now order the kit in cobweb but also in all six of the 1ply Shetland Supreme shades here. Happy Knitting!
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Deepdale Shawl Colourways
Every now and again we come into work at the shop and find there are a lots of orders for the same thing without knowing what its for! a few months ago that happened and we noticed there were a number of orders for 2ply Lace in shades L54, L203, L3 and L202. I thought they looked lovely together and then when I went on Ravelry later on I realised Gudrun Johnston had chosen to use those shades for one of her colourways in her MKAL pattern. For the past couple of years Gudrun has run a mystery knit along where each week new clues are revealed and you don't know what the final project will look like! this shawl was this years effort and the final pattern is now available itself: Deepdale It gave me an idea to put together a few colourways using the 2ply Lace, it's a sometimes overlooked yarn but it makes for lovely lightweight but warm projects. the original colourway: L54, L203, L202 and L3 warm browns: L5, L4, L78 and L202 greys: L77, L54, L27 and L203 blues: L21, L63, L15 and L16 pinks: L43, L68, L136 and L101 A number of people also ordered the Shetland Heritage Naturals for this project and they would work beautifully, the Heritage is a little bit thicker than the two ply lace but that only makes for an even more snuggly finished shawl! grey, light grey, moorit and fawn The above colourways is very similar to the original, but the two below will give you more of a brown finished shawl or a grey one - I love the greys! shetland black, moorit, fawn and white shetland black, grey, light grey and white I hope this has given you some ideas for colours for a Deepdale Shawl, if you make one using J&S yarns remember to tag us on Instagram, our username is thewoolbrokers and we love to see in progress pictures. :) Happy Knitting!
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Shetland Wool Week 2016
Can you believe it? Shetland Wool Week 2016 began today!!! Shelves have been filled and the shops as tidy as it will be for the next week! We are hoping orders and email disruptions will be kept to a minimum but we might be a bit delayed in getting back to you, just know we are working as hard as we can to keep getting orders out as fast as we can. This is our busiest week of the year and we love seeing all the people who have come to Shetland for the event. We have classes every day and three tours on so lots to do! We will be blogging throughout the week so keep an eye out for out posts about Shetland Wool Week at J&S.
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Shoormal Hap
As soon as we saw the Shetland Heritage Naturals we all knew they would be perfect in a traditional Shetland Hap, Sandra quickly got to work and just in time for Wool Week the Shoormal Hap is the result! The Bestway K133 pattern booklet is full of inspiring Shetland patterns, (we have a photocopy of the pattern booklet for sale here) They are all written out longhand in very small writing but we were very inspired by the 'Scalloped Shawl' pattern, its a traditional Hap which you probably know has been everywhere lately. They have been made and worn in Shetland for centuries and we knew the nature of the Shetland Heritage Naturals would be ideal to recreate this pattern. courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives. We have used shades White, Fawn, Moorit and Shetland Black in the Shawl, Oliver has told us many times that the Heritage is very similar is weight to the old Hap weight of yarn, long since discontinued but the soft and strong properties of the Heritage yarn especially in the undyed colours harks back to this historical yarns. We have added charts for the border and edging sections of the pattern as well as keeping the written instructions so you can choose which to use. The construction of this Hap is that the centre is worked first followed by the four sides which are all worked individually and sewn onto the centre and each other, finally the edging is worked and sewn on. This makes it a great portable project as you are working each element separately before sewing it all together. The finished shawl is approximately 45 inches square making it very large, warm and cushy. It's knit on relatively large needles for the yarn (4mm and 5mm) which creates a warm and lofty fabric, perfect for wrapping yourself up in, keeping on your couch or wrapping around a baby. If you would like to knit your own Shoormal Hap you can buy the kit here! Happy Knitting! Save
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