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Scadder Fleece
In the wool store last week, we came across a fleece which used to be common here. Now, it is a much more rare occurrence. This is a fleece with markings described as 'scadder'. This is a dialect word to describe a Shetland Sheep with coarse, longer hair down the back from the neck to the tail. In some cases it even has a ruff or mane around the neck, this very coarse and long hair is alongside fine wool in the rest of the fleece: The fleece we got last week has extremely fine and soft wool in most of the fleece. There is just the long, coarse hair down the middle and around the neck. Oliver said this is one of the best examples of this type of fleece he's seen for a long time. Shetland Sheep have similarities with Norwegian Sheep breeds like Spaelsau and Vilsau. You can see in this Vilsau Sheep how similar the long wool is to the Scadder fleece above: Vilsau sheep, Norway Shetland Sheep, Shetland With breeding and crossing over time, this scadder marking is becoming rarer. Every now and then we get an excellent example, although its not seen as desirable for yarn or the breed it is interesting as it is a throwback to the ancient genetics of Native Shetland Sheep. The fleece highlights the importance of sorting wool. The long wool on the scadder fleece is graded as Rough Coloured. The fine wool is Superfine Coloured - These represent two extremes of handle. If this is not sorted, it results in a thick and thin yarn. For more information, see this blog post we did on the Power of Sorting. Oliver also discusses scadder markings on a blog post here. We hope you found this post interesting. To keep up with us, make sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. 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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Seasons of A Shetland Crofter
hello everyone, just a quick reminder today about our Seasons of A Shetland Crofter competition which closes in a few weeks. We've had some great entries so far but we are still looking for more - To remind you we are looking for seasonal stories and photos taken in Shetland which show you the nature and agricultural aspect of our culture that crofting and farming have given us over the years.. We are hosting the competition together with Vispring, Shetland Amenity Trust and Shetland Wool Week and for some inspiration I thought I'd share some modern and historical photos we have shared on the blog before: Sheep at the Voe Show Wool just been clipped, Bressay Berry Farm Shetland Sheep and Lambs Suprise Lamb at the Cunningsburgh Show Clipping Sheep Caaing Sheep Rams at the Walls Show You do not have to be a crofter to enter (I took quite a few of these and I'm just a toonie with a crofter grandad!) but if you have historical or current photos that you feel show the crofting or nature of Shetland we would love to see them, the prizes include a Real Shetland Wool Vispring Bed (!) and a two night stay at Sumburgh Lighthouse so its definitely worth entering. The competition closes on the 21st of July and you can enter and find terms and conditions here.
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Ollies Visit to Papa
Oliver recently spent the day clipping sheep on Papa, an island off the west side of Scalloway. Papa Isle is owned by the Smith family, the founders of Jamieson & Smith, he headed there with my (Ella’s) Uncle James who runs Berry Farm and a group of willing clippers and packers! arriving on Papa Papa Isle is one of the now many uninhabited islands in Shetland. Shetland is made up of over 100 small islands but only 16 are now lived on. Nearby to Papa there are a number of similar isles - Hildasay, Oxna, Linga, Havra and Langa were all at one time inhabited like Papa but as times changed and Island life became harder people gradually moved to the more easily assessable islands, part of Oliver’s family came from Hildasay. Preparing the cro Gathering the Sheep James looks on while the sheep are rounded up Brian watches as the Sheep enter the pen Oliver hand shearing the old way! Shearing by power - the modern way! Papa is now the home of approximately 90 sheep who are quite happy living on the natural grazing and feeding on seaweed. They are handled only twice a year for shearing and later in the year for taking home the lambs so with the exception of necessary drenching are virtually organic and quite self-sufficient! They are able to survive and reserve energy and fat for the harsher winters, Hill Sheep have very good wool, the environment and grazing usually leads to a very fine quality of wool. All clipped and back to the hills! Lots of Oo ready to head to the J&S Woolstore There are still many examples of Papa being inhabited, the two below pictures show the plaque erected by the Slater Family and the remains of the Slater family Croft house which was attached to the school. The next two pictures show the Papa Kirk, you can see Oxna Isle in the background with the house used for Lambing. Papa in Old Norse means the Island of the Priests and people came from all the surrounding Islands for the Sunday service. It was still active in the early 1930s and an elderly neighbour of Oliver’s said he would row over from Burra for the service. The image with the stone before it shows the rock on which the late Robert Fullerton told Oliver a Bible would be laid onto, the people in Oxna would look for this through a spyglass and if it was there they would climb the hill behind their house and wave a bed sheet which would have been seen on the Islands of Hildasay, Linga and Langa. The congregation would then row or sail over for the service. If the Bible wasn’t there it meant the weather was too poor for the minister to make it to the kirk from Scalloway. The 'Crying Knowe' can be seen in the picture below, this was a small hill used by the residents of Papa to shout across the sound to the people on Oxna You can still see remnants of the Papa Peat banks like in the picture below, many people still use Peat to heat and warm their houses in Shetland today but it was a complete necessity for people in isolated Islands like Papa. You can see a bit more information about Peats in Shetland here. I hope you've enjoyed this quick look into a bit of Shetland History, you can see on the Map I've included above from 1806 nearly all the Islands in Shetland are named, probably because people lived on most of them! Papa is located directly across from Foula on the mid/bottom left hand side. Happy Knitting! Save Save
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Cunningsburgh Show
Our tour of the Shows continued this week and we headed to Cunningsburgh on Wednesday. It was a lovely day, the only one of the week so it was great to be out! Again I was judging the Colourbox Competition and Oliver the Wool so we headed to our respective huts to get judging.. After I'd done my bit I went to see how Oliver was getting on with the raw wool As it was such a nice day we had a good wander round and looked at some of the Sheep.. and I was amazed at the amount of dogs.. Before heading back to the Knitwear to see the finished displays, as always the skill and amount of Knitwear entered was brilliant and it was very hard to judge the Colourbox, I did a few of the other category's too but the I'm sure the other knitwear judges would agree the standard was very high! As we had a tour in the afternoon we headed back to town so we didn't get a look at everything but just like the Voe Show there were Cows, Poultry, Horses, Vegetables.. lots of things to see! The Walls Show is this weekend so after that Ill have another post to round up the J&S tour of the Country Shows! Happy Knitting!
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Voe Show 2016
On Saturday I (Ella) had the task of heading up to the Voe Show to Judge the Colourbox Competition. We have mentioned it many times before but in case you're not sure what it is - every year we choose a selection of 8 shades of yarn and people have to use at least 5 of the shades in a Fair Isle garment or accessory. They then enter it into the Voe, Cunningsburgh or for the first time this year the Walls show. There are a number of these shows which go on all over Shetland in the Summer, filled with livestock, animals, vegetables, flowers, baking and our favourite of course - knitting!! This years shades were 2ply Jumper Weight - 71, 118, 80, fc39, 82, fc22. 9097 and 9144 and as always I was amazed at the finished items! I wish I had got more pictures but I was busy judging and when I came back later the knitwear was full of folk so I couldn't get near! Voe always has an excellent amount of entries in the Colourbox and this year was no exception even though I would say the colour's were a bit trickier than years before - but it is meant to be a challenge and to push people out of their comfort zones. Apart from the colourbox, there were some amazing examples in the other knitting categories, everything is covered from 1ply lace to yokes and cardigans, mittens, gloves, scarves, machine knit and hand knit. Basically, every kind of Shetland knitting you can imagine! Oliver was judging the fleece so I had a quick look in the tent to see what he had thought of the entries. I thought I'd leave off with some more pictures from around the show, if you ever get the chance to come to a Shetland Agricultural show I would definitely take it as it gives you a great overview of Shetland Culture and it's a great day out!
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lambing time
One of the nicest things about this time of year in Shetland (apart from lighter nights!) is the sight of Lambs. Lambing starts end of April and goes on throughout May, and all the photos in this post have been taken in the last few weeks. The Shetland is the smallest of the British breeds and is believed to be of Scandinavian origin. It retains many of the characteristics of wild sheep such as natural hardiness, longevity and an ability to thrive on a low level of food intake from our heather clad hills and peat moors. Shetland Sheep are naturally good mothers, they require little assistance when giving birth and easily lamb by themselves. You can see from the photos that the mothers fairly keep an eye on you when your near their babies! Hill sheep in Shetland average 25 kilos and the new born lambs birth weight can is ususally 1 to 2 kilos and sizewise not much larger as a cat. Ewes that lamb on the hill usually give birth at dusk or dawn, this is natural instinct to lamb in semi-darkness to avoid predators such as the Bonxie and Ravens. By lambing at night this timing gives the lambs a chance to get to their feet. Lambs become quite independent after a week or two and start to graze and chew the cud. At this time of year Shetland hills echo with the loud bleating of straying lambs followed by the answering call of its mother. If you would like to make your own Peerie Shetland Lamb you might like our newest kit! The Peerie Sheep, this was designed by Sandra Manson who works at J&S and was inspired by all the lambs in Shetland at spring time. til next time, happy knitting! Photos by Jan Robertson and Ella Gordon
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Wool Season 2015
At long last we have had some fine weather in Shetland which has spurred on the shearing and we now are well and truly into our wool season. All manner of vehicles roll up to our large green doors and unload their wool clip, so far we have shipped 2 loads, over 40,000 kilos, and are well through grading and packing load 3. We would encourage our crofters and farmers to take great care of their wool clip, especially avoiding shearing damp wool, as this can affect the financial returns to the producer. Our prices remain very high and this season we are pleased to say we are increasing the price of our Super Fine white grade by thirty pence per kilo. We are able to maintain and in the case of our Super Fine grade increase it due to our various products using all the grades of wool. As the main buyer of the Shetland wool clip handling approximately 80% of Shetland's Wool from between 600 /700 crofters and farmers, it is our responsibility to seek out new products and marketing opportunities to ensure a secure and fast payment to all our customers. Our registered brand the three sheep logo guarantees the user of our products of the authenticity and traceability of our Real Shetland wool. In the Woolstore Derek, Jan and Scott are working at baling up the clips coming in everyday in the large baler, we also have a smaller baler in the middle store which Oliver is currently using, in the middle store we also have some of the oldest pieces of equipment at Jamieson & Smith, our wicker wool baskets. These baskets are now nearly 100 years old, we took ownership of them from another Shetland Textile company, Pole & Hoseason of Mossbank in 1960 and their sturdy construction, flexibility and durability make them ideal for grading and sorting wool. Prior to the mid 1960's there were many rural and island shops in Shetland that would also trade in Wool, now there are only 3 other handlers of the local clip who deal with the remaining 20%. This photo from the Shetland Museum and archives shows one of the same baskets in use in 1958. photo courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives As technology improves in the industry its interesting to see how although many things move forward because we still hand grade and hand sort all the wool that comes in we still have a need for these timeless items. I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into the Woolstore in the wool season, til next time.. Happy Knitting! x
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Yarn Series - Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight
Hello! we are back with another post in the yarn series, this time it is the turn of Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight - a totally undyed and natural 4ply Weight Yarn. This yarn is perhaps best known in recent years for its use in the designs by Kate Davies, however we have been singing the praises of this natural woollen spun yarn for many years. Supreme Jumper Weight comes in a range of 9 completely undyed shades, ranging from Natural White (Shade 2001) to Yuglet (Shade 2009) The other shades are either as they are on the sheep or carefully blended from the natural wool to create a well-rounded palette. Historically Coloured Shetland Wool was used by knitters in Fair Isle patterning and Lace knitting like Haps before the dyed wool was available. As time went on however the Coloured wool lost its value and it became almost worthless because white fleece was easy to dye and much more uniform in texture. Up until around 1997 almost all Shetland Yarns in 'natural' shades were dyed to create these tones, the reason being the dye house could make it a set shade each time. This differs from our supreme range in that each batch, for example Shetland Black (shade 2005) will not be the same each time as all sheep are not the same shade. So if you plan to use this yarn its best to get all the yarn at one time, it may be quite different in the next lot! Another reason most of the mills have to dye or 'add a touch of dye' is that we at Jamieson & Smith buy roughly 80% of the entire Shetland wool clip , the majority of which is white with only a limited amount of natural coloured which we use for these our 9 shades. We need a substantial amount of natural coloured fleece in order to produce all the shades in the palette. This means we have to do a lot of hand sorting to separate the various fibre qualities and of course shades which can be found in one fleece. For more information about the Natural Wool and the Sorting process see our earlier posts here and here. In 1997 we began a journey to further and strengthen the value of the coloured fleece. This came about as a joint venture between Jamieson & Smith and Yarns International, a now sadly closed down business in Maryland in the USA. Betty Lindsay, a partner in the company visited J&S and was saddened when we told her that the coloured wool had little to no value. Betty vowed to do something and true to her word we set up the totally dye free range which was named Shetland 2000. She employed Ron Schweitzer to design a range of patterns using the yarns, you can see some of his designs on his Ravelry designer page here. Since then lots of desingers have found how well all the natural colours blend together, you can subtely blend them or do some quite striking patterns. Peat Hill Waistcoat, Adult Lynsey and Karelides Cardigan, some of our current kits made using Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight At the beginning of the post I mentioned Kate's Sheep designs, the Sheepheid and Rams and Yowes blanket. Both these patterns are extremely popular and use all 9 shades to maximum effect, they both feature motifs of Sheep and Rams which is obviously reflected in the yarns. You can order kits for these patterns here on our online shop Hopefully this post has helped you understand the work that goes into the Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight range. There a a number of crofters and farmers in Shetland who are very comitted to the coloured Shetland Sheep and we couldnt do this range without them! The coloured Shetland Wool would have been at a time one of the only ways to get different shades into your knitting, now we are extremly lucky to have so much different colours that we can use. Sometimes you cant go wrong using what nature provides us. til next time, Happy Knitting! PS. we are now on instagram! search thewoolbrokers to follow us.
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