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Wool Week Videos at Jamieson & Smith
Hello everyone, This weekend would have seen the beginning of Shetland Wool Week, sadly but unsurprisingly it was cancelled this year but we, like many others have put together some online content for you throughout the week. The following list breaks down what you can expect from our Youtube channel over the next week or so (all UK time): Sunday 27th September Slowing Down Fast Fashion (Campaign for Wool) Monday 28th September 10am - Wool Sorting and Grading with Oliver Henry (J&S) 2pm - Shetland Story (J&S/Curtis Wool) 5pm - Vispring Beds (Vispring) Tuesday 29th September 10am - The J&S Yarn Range with Ella Gordon (J&S) 2pm - Haworth Scouring (J&S/Curtis Wool) 5pm - Why Wool - Protect our Oceans (Campaign for Wool) Blog Post - Afterthought Heel with Lesley Smith Wednesday 30th September 10am - Fair Isle Bookmark with Hazel Tindall (J&S) 2pm - Wool Combing (J&S/Curtis Wool) 5pm - There's no Wool in the Sea (Campaign for Wool) Thursday 1st October 10am - Fair Isle Cuffs with Alison Rendall (J&S) 2pm - Spinning with Lighthowlers (J&S/Curtis Wool) 5pm - Synthetic VS Wool and Two Jumpers, What's the Difference? (Campaign for Wool) Blog Post - Vivian Ross Smith on Working with Wool Friday 2nd October 10am - WYS with Sarah Hatton (West Yorkshire Spinners) 2pm - Shetland Wool Week 10th Anniversary with Prince Charles (Campaign for Wool) 5pm - Two Carpets, what's the difference? and Two Curtains, what's the difference? (Campaign for Wool) Saturday 3rd October 10am - Bonus Video! The Difference Between Woollen and Worsted Spun (J&S) 2pm - Choose Wisely - Check its Wool (Campaign for Wool) Sunday 4th October Throughout the day - Woolabilities, short cartoons produced by the Wool Carpet Focus Group. We have been provided with great videos from the Campaign for Wool, Vispring and West Yorkshire Spinners and here in Shetland, we worked with Keiba Clubb so we really hope you enjoy them. Thanks also to Adam Curtis for helping us with filming on the mainland, Haworth Scouring and Lightowlers Yarns. To see what else is happening make sure to follow Shetland Wool Weeks social media and visit the website for more online events. Happy knitting/watching/listening/reading!
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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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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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2020 Calendar
Hello Everyone, just a quick post today to share with you our 2020 calendars which have just arrived! During our Seasons of the Shetland Crofter Competition we received so many amazing photographs displaying the life and work of crofters and farmers in Shetland, we included as many as we could in the book but then we had the idea we could share even more of the photos in a calendar! here is a peerie look at the photos featured: Clockwise: Dave Wheeler, Ian Reid, Heather Gray and Anne MacDonald Clockwise: Margaret Towriess, Heather Gray, Anne MacDonald and Dave Wheeler Clockwise: Sally Sanford, Ian Reid, Heather Gray and Elaine Tait. The calendar is A4 folded so opens up to A3, if you would like one you can find them on the website here.
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Wool Week 2019 - a photo roundup
Hello everyone, happy Friday! It's hard to believe that Shetland Wool Week 2019 ended over a month ago, we had such a busy time but the dust has settled so we thought we'd share some pictures from throughout the week: The Opening Ceremony L: lots of Roadside Beanies R: table decoration featuring scarfs mentioned in this post Oliver giving his speech Judging at the Marts L: on the hoof R: a beautiful Moorit fleece L: Prizewinning fleece R: the winners The Hub L: Lots of Knitters R: Amazing giant Jumper Board Vivian Ross-Smiths' exhibition was on in the Hub space during Wool Week, for more information about Vivian's work see here. L: Burra Bears R: Faye Hackers of the Shetland College and Nicholas Coleridge, Chairman of the Campaign for Wool Oliver giving his talk '50 Years in Shetland Oo' L: The Oo never stops! R: Oliver giving his sorting and grading demonstration L: It was a week of Roadside Beanies R: Amazing Jumper featuring all the motifs from Shetland Wool Week hats past and present. Ruth Mackenzie and Matt Roberts of the Shetland Amenity Trust alongside Oliver presenting Dave Wheeler with his prize for winning our Seasons of a Shetland Crofter Competition. We also launched the book at Wool Week, its available here! So much amazing Knitwear all week! L: a Hevdadale Scarf and Ola Yoke R: A Roadside Skirt! Beautiful fleeces outside the Woolstore L: Roadside Beanie and Glebe Jumper R: Just some of our mail posted out during the week Lots of great memories and friends made as always, for more information about Shetland Wool Week see here, it will soon be here again, Happy Knitting! photos: Adam Curtis, Ella Gordon and one from Sara Granqvist (thanks Sara!)
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Shetland Wool Week Scarf Project
Hello everyone, happy Friday! Today we thought we'd share some images of a project we took part in during Shetland Wool Week which was coordinated by Faye Hackers of the Shetland College. The project took inspiration from people known in the Shetland Textile industry who provided Faye with imagery and text about what they love about Shetland, this was then taken by Faye and designed into one-off scarfs which were auctioned off for charity during a silent auction at Wool Week. Among the people asked were J&S's own Oliver and Ella, former patrons Donna Smith, Elizabeth Johnston and Hazel Tindall. For more information see Fayes Instagram posts. We love how different each scarf was: We were happy to donate all the yarn for the project meaning the scarves were knit in 2ply Jumper Weight or Shetland Heritage, in total the auction raised £1,776.00 of which 100% will be donated to charity as we provided the yarn for free. The charities chosen by the individuals were: Cancer Research UK, CLAN, Shetland MRI Scanner Appeal, Mind Your Head, GlobalYell, Lerwick Brass Band and Whalsay Heritage Centre. All and all it was a great project! Model and white photography: Faye Hackers Museum Photos: John Hunter Models: Akshay Borges and Alanah Young
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Another Batch of Patterns
Hello everyone, we have had a busy couple of weeks here in Shetland. The Wool Season is well underway and often we struggle to see the boys in the Woolstore under the mountain of Oo! We have been busy in the shop too with lots of visitors and groups, we also recently had the end of our Seasons of the Shetland Crofter competition so we are looking forward to showing you the results of that project - the photos which were entered were great! We have added another batch of 4 patterns to our Ravely and Lovecraft's pages, this week we have chosen the Sissal Mitts and Hat, Eva Shawl, Fair Isle Vneck Jumper and the Pam Shawl. The Pam Shawl is another Gladys Amedro pattern, its knit in 2ply lace and alongside the usual Hap motifs, it also features a cable border and twist motif. it was originally in the Shetland Lace book (now out of print) but we have always had it as a paper pattern so now its available as a PDF. As with many of Gladys' patterns, they follow her abbreviation style which may take a moment to get used to but once you do it makes sense, it is an entirely written out pattern and contains no charts. The Fair Isle Vneck Jumper is from our Shetland Heritage collection and is knit from a garment in the Shetland Museum and Archives, you can see that every lozenge is a different pattern - making it the perfect knit to keep you on your toes! knit in the Shetland Heritage yarn, a worsted spun light fingering weight it is a great layer for when it's not too cold (amazingly like Shetland at the moment!!) The Eva Shawl was originally sold as the Shoulder Shawl but for the Wool Week Collection in 2011 we redeveloped it as the Eva Shawl and it was knit in Shetland Supreme 1ply and the pattern had charts added. Its a beautiful and elegant shawl which has been used several times as a wedding veil due to the shape. The final pattern this week is the Sissal Mitts and Hat, these are the perfect project for Fair Isle beginners and enthusiasts alike, the background colours stay the same the whole way through throughout the project. Its knit with Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight as the main colour and 2ply Jumper Weight as the pattern colours - we are often asked if you can knit them together and you can! You can see how they work great together. So you can find these patterns and the others we have made available as PDF's on Ravelry and Lovecrafts, 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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More Patterns..
Hello everyone, this week's patterns have been uploaded to Ravelry and Loveknitting (soon to be Lovecrafts) We've chosen a mix of Fair Isle and lace this week - and I know it is a heatwave in many places so it might seem a bit strange to be thinking about Gloves and Hats but we are sitting in a usual Shetland Summer day of 11 degrees..! The Fair Isle Cap was a design we published in 2012 at the launch of our Shetland Heritage yarns, worsted spun to match items in the Shetland Museums collection. This hat is knit fully lined with a plain inside and a traditional Fair Isle outer. Skerry Gloves is a design we recently commissioned from Lesley Smith as we felt we were missing a traditional Shetland Glove pattern, it features a traditional Norwegian Star and is perfect for using up your odds and ends of 2ply Jumper Weight. We decided to also make available one of our all-time best selling patterns - the Gibbie Shawl, named after our former manager Gibbie Johnston and designed by Gladys Amedro. Knit in 1ply cobweb the pattern is written out line by line and not charted and the abbreviations used are those Gladys Amedro coined so although different to modern abbreviations once you get them, you get them! The Shetland Bound stole was designed for our Lace Collection in 2012 by Monqiue Boonstra, knit in our 1ply Shetland Supreme yarn, it is a beautiful and impactful lace project. Perfect for when you want more than a scarf but not a wedding ring shawl! We hope you are enjoying being able to get some of our patterns as downloads and we thank you for the feedback we've had, remember if there are specific patterns you would like to see please leave a comment. Happy Knitting!
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