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J&S Staff Profile: Ella Gordon
Welcome to the first post in a new series about the people behind Jamieson & Smith (Ella Gordon) We'll start by introducing Ella Gordon, who I'm sure many of you will already know as she is the 2016 Shetland Wool Week patron! From her early days at J&S as a Saturday 'shop girl' in 2012, while studying textile design at Shetland College, Ella has continued to develop her creative skills and passion for knitting. We are so lucky to have her working with us as our main blog writer, as well as the everyday busy shop duties of making up orders and assisting customers with their projects. Ella is also great at the graphic design side of things and coming up with ideas for KALs and other fun woolly stuff! What's the best thing about working at J&S? "My favourite thing about working at J&S is meeting so many people from all over the world passionate about Shetland Wool and Knitting. Through things like Wool Week, Ravelry, tours and our blog I feel like I've met lots of people with the same interests as me. I also really enjoy being in the shop and helping people choose colours and patterns. I'm very thankful for being able to have a job in the industry I am interested in which not everyone can say." Do you have a favourite place in Shetland? "I love lots of places up north like Uyea and Fethaland and I recently walked to Lang Ayre but it was such a trek I don't know if I'd do it again! I like walking around the Town as well and I love the south end of Lerwick where the Lodberries are." Uyea (Ella Gordon) South End of Lerwick (Ella Gordon) How do you like to spend your time when you're not at work? "Knitting.. haha! I do spend most my time either thinking about knitting, looking at Ravelry about knitting, reading about knitting and a little bit of time actually knitting! I also like all the usual things like spending time with my boyfriend and family, reading and walking." What's your favourite J&S yarn? "I would say my favourite yarn is probably 2ply Jumper Weight, the longer I work at J&S the more different colours I like. I love greys so 203, 54 and 81 are up there in my faves but I really love FC11 and FC58 - two of the shades I decided to use in my Crofthoose hat!" (Jamieson & Smith) You can follow Ella on: Instagram Ravelry Wordpress Pinterest Save Save Save
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Yokes
a shetland knitter working on a V-bed machine, photo by Tom Kidd Historically Shetlander's have always had to have a few things on the go, originally we were crofters and fishermen and this meant there was always quiet times, be it bad weather, dark nights or rough seas you had to find something to do. In the height of Shetland knitwear fame many homes were equipped with large v-bed knitting machines like the one you see in the picture above for people to combine machine and hand knitting and to earn a bit of extra money. Prior to the Oil Boom of the late 1970s/early 1980's many homes echoed to the sound of the knitting machine. 'by the mid 1960's, when the local press reported that knitting was beginning to become more profitable than crofting, many Shetland families were encouraged to purchase Passap or Knitmaster machines specifically to turn out sweater bodies, as well as yokes in their own home' An excerpt from Kate Davies 'Yokes' Working in one of the many Knitwear factories. Photo: Unknown With the introduction of oil and all its job opportunities and wealth it was no surprise that locals packed away their knitting machines and took advantage of the Oil Boom and all its rewards. The skills of these cottage industries saw a deep decline, luckily there were still people in Shetland who had these skills and we are lucky to be able to work with some of them. We have designed a range of traditional Yoke cardigans using both our 2 ply Jumper Weight and Shetland Heritage yarns, we have partnered up with a selection of Shetland knitters to help us produce them - The body and sleeves are hand frame knitted for us by a maker in Whalsay, one of the outlying Islands and then we have a number of local knitters who put in the yokes and finish the garments in their own homes. The continuation of the Shetland Textile industry is always very important to us, that's why we are ensuring to pay our knitters a good price for doing the work, we understand and appreciate the skills the knitters have and want to pay them rightly for these skills. We have the initial stock available on the website here but we will be adding to it as colours come back from the knitters. We are very excited about our new range of garments, and we hope you are too! If you don't fancy buying a ready made yoke the pattern is taken from Sandras' Hairst Yoke pattern which is available as a kit. Happy Knitting!
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Shetland Wool Week booking
Are you ready? The programme and bookings for Shetland Wool Week open today (Tuesday 24th May) at 1pm BST, we have lots of classes again at J&S and cant wait to see everyone, for more information and to book online see here! Happy Booking!
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Crofthoose Hat Kits
So this years Shetland Wool Week pattern has now been out for a month or so, we were out of stock of one of the shades but its now back in (yippee!) so if you would like to knit the J&S colourway of the Crofthoose Hat you can order a kit from our website here It uses 5 shades of Jumper Weight in the colours seen above, if you order a kit we will include a paper copy of the pattern but you can also download it via the Shetland Wool Week website here If you would like to knit the hat but dont fancy these shades just leave us a note in the delivery comments box of the shades you would like and we will put them in for you, there are four different colourways in the pattern and lots of projects on Ravelry if you need inspiration! if you do knit a Crofthoose Hat remember to tag your projects on instagram and ravelry with the #crofthoosehat Happy Knitting!
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wool week friday,saturday and sunday
On Friday we had another class with Felicity, this time the class were working from another set of inspiration pictures and different shades of 2 ply Jumper Weight. Lots of brilliant swatches again! In the afternoon we had Deborah Gray in doing some drop spindling, we always try and offer at least one spinning class although it is tricky for the space, using the combed tops very quickly everyone was spinning away! All through the week Oliver was also giving his sorting and grading demonstrations which was busy as always! On Saturday morning Kharis and Amy held the fort at the shop and I went for a look at the Marts Flock Book sale I then headed to the Wool Week Hub at Islesburgh Community Centre, where the Makers Market was being held beautiful pouches by Julia Traditional knitting by Patricia Doull Scarves and Snoods by Fraser Knitwear All through the week the Hub was the base for Wool Week and it worked brilliantly as there was plenty of space for people to sit and knit, spin or whatever! This map shows all the far flung places people come from to go to Shetland Wool Week, its amazing! Yesterday to finish off the week we attended the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers Sunday Teas at Tingwall Sunday Tea's is Shetland are a classic and they didn't disappoint! As well as the cakes and fancy's there was a great display of the Guild Member's Work So that wraps up the J&S coverage of Shetland Wool Week 2015, it is a crazy week for us but we always enjoy it and look forward already to next year! Happy Knitting xx
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wool week 2015
The shelves are stocked and we are ready for Shetland Wool Week 2015! The event starts today and goes on until next Sunday. We have classes everday in the shop and there will be lots of people in shopping! As it will be so busy there may be delays in us getting back to you and dispatching orders so please bear with us. If you are here then enjoy Wool Week and if not dont worry we will be blogging here throughout the week showing what has been happening at Jamieson & Smith! Til then happy knitting!
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Wool Week Friday
We began Friday morning with another Shetland lace class with Elizabeth Johnston of Shetland Handspun.. another class full of concentration.. In the afternoon Deborah was back, doing a bit of drop spindling! Before you knew it and working with raw fleece everybody was spinning away! Everyday this week, as he has every year, Oliver has given his talk on what we do at Jamieson & Smith in the Woolstore, i popped in on Friday to take a few photos. There were lots of people there listening, as there has been every day! Ill be back tomorrow with more pictures from the final weekend of Shetland Wool Week, it has been fantastic!
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Wool Week Opening Ceremony
So today saw the opening ceremony of this years Wool Week, it was held in Mareel and there were lots and lots of visitors around! For something different this year different textile makers and yarn producers all had a table to show off our wares to all the visitors. It worked great and we got to speak to lots of people It was hard to know what to bring so I just took a selection of the yarns and products we make. It was inspiring to see the other makers too, like Mati Ventrillon Linda Shearer and Ina Irvine, mother and daughter super knitters from Whalsay And Kathleen Anderson, a beautiful lace knitter As well as lots of others. Of course like last year there was the fabulous Fair Isle Cake! and lots of Shwook hats to be seen, the exclusive pattern designed by Hazel Tindall, patron of this years Wool Week Oliver was one of the speakers who opened Wool Week, and as always it was interesting to hear from him the origins of Shetland Wool Week and amazing to see how far it has come! Cheers to a great Wool Week!!
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Shetland Wool Week and Shetland Aran
Can you believe we are nearly at that time again? Wool Week is nearly upon us and we are getting ready. We have something exciting to reveal that we've been developing for a while.. Worsted Spun Shetland Aran! As you know in 2012, two Shetland Wool Week's ago we launched the original Shetland Heritage Range which we developed in conjunction with the Shetland Museum and Archives. This new range carries on from this and gives you a heavier weight yarn with the same qualities and softness of the original Heritage yarn, and of course in 100% Shetland Wool! 14 traditional shades, all matte shades which makes it perfect for both colourwork and cables, the wool comes in 50g balls and a tension of 19 stitches and 22 rows = 10cm (4") using 4mm needles. Just like the Heritage range this wool is Worsted spun meaning the wool is combed before its spun. This process puts all the fibres in alignment resulting in a very soft but very strong yarn. Sadly this means we are saying goodbye to our original Woollen Spun Shetland Aran range, we still have a good stock of most shades so its not leaving immediately but we wont be ordering any more of any of the shades. In relation to Wool Week though.. the shelves are stocked.. The shop is tidy.... So all we are waiting for are some visitors.. I will be taking photos all through the week, hopefully I'll get a post up everyday but there are so many things going on I may only manage a post every two days. Happy Shetland Wool Week and Happy Knitting! xxx
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