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Fire Festival KAL Winners
Hello everyone, so last week I asked you to vote on your favourites for the winners of the Fire Festival KAL and you didn't disappoint, 736 of you voted in the two category's and the winners were: So congratulations DottyBev and Hedwychs, I have contacted you by Ravelry message, they have both won a gift voucher to spend at J&S, thank you again to everyone who took part - we have really enjoyed seeing the different ways people put the colours together! We will be having a little break but we were thinking to have a KAL for the Shetland Wool Week pattern - the Bousta Beanie - probably beginning in June so keep an eye out for that. Happy knitting!
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New Year, New Skills!
Hello everybody! We hope you've had a lovely festive season and are feeling refreshed and ready for 2017, the New Year is a great time to plan for those skills you want to improve in the next 12 months - although sometimes it's hard to know where to start! One skill close to our hearts at J&S is Fair Isle knitting and its what many people use our yarns for (especially 2ply Jumper Weight!) but we know it can be quite daunting to some people, luckily there are lots of different ways you can get help with the trickier aspects! One way is to watch someone doing and explaining these things! Hazel Tindalls DVD 'The Fine Art of Fair Isle Knitting' is an excellent resource for those of us who learn by watching - I am definitely one of those people! The DVD takes you through all aspects of traditional Shetland knitting and demystifies things like knitting belts, jumper boards, long DPN's and steeks to name a few. It's one of those things you will refer back to often and although the DVD is about knitting a garment (in this case a cardigan) the skills you learn can be carried over into all your knitting. You can view the trailer and buy the download if a DVD isn't for you here Another great way to gain confidence in your skills is to use a kit, by following a pattern in the colours provided all stress is taken away, I know choosing colours can be quite scary! And sometimes a smaller item like a hat, socks or hot water bottle cover can seem a lot more manageable than a Jumper! Saudade and Fishermans Kep Toatie Hottie and Yuglet Socks First Footing and Antarctica For those of you that want a bit of a colour challenge our Fire Festival KAL is a great way to play with a group of colours already chosen for you, there are lots of projects appearing in our ravelry group so there's a place to support, advise each other and chat about how you're putting the shades together! The knit a long runs until March so there's still plenty of time to join in. I hope this has given you some ideas about Fair Isle you'd like to try, especially now that Christmas and gift knitting is by with - some selfish knitting may be in order! Speak soon :)
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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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Heritage Natural Cones
Hello, thank you all for the kind comments on the last blog! We have been so pleased with how well the new Natural Heritage yarn has been going and now you can get it on cone!! We get the cones for machine knitting but you can hand knit with them of course, the Heritage yarn is slightly waxed on the cone so it goes easier through a knitting machine. So we would always suggest washing your finished item and even your swatch if you are using coned yarn to get the accurate measure of your gauge. We have a lot of 500g cones is all the shades and a number of 1kg cones in most shades so if you are planning a project using a lot of one of the shades it works out to be a great deal! The 500g cones are £27.00 which is equivalent to about 20 balls and 1kg are £54.00 which is like 50 balls. You can see them on the website here. Happy Knitting! PS. you can now pre-order a copy of the 2016 Shetland Wool Week Annual! see here if you would like one.
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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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Heritage Hap Kits
You'll remember a few months ago I did a post about a pattern we had in the People's Friend Magazine, we couldn't believe the amount of orders we had for the yarn so we are very happy to say we now have the pattern available to buy as a kit! The pattern was developed by Sandra from a vintage pattern, and she decided to use our Shetland Heritage range as it so closely resembles the old Hap weight of Yarn. The pattern makes a brilliant first Hap, you begin with the centre panel then pick up each four sides individually and knit them. The edging is then knit and either sewed on or you can knit it on as you go. The slightly thicker (than traditional 1ply) yarn and bigger needles (it's knit on 5mm) makes a quick but warm and drapey hap. If you order the kit you will receive Snaa White heritage but feel free to choose any of the shades from the Dyed Heritage and our new Natural Heritage range, just leave a note in the delivery comments box! Happy Knitting! 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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British knitting awards 2016
Thank you all for the kind feedback and comments on the last blog, we were so pleased with how it was received! Today I'm back with a quick reminder about the British Knitting Awards hosted by Lets Knit Magazine.. We are lucky enough to have been nominated again in the Best Brand for British Yarn Category, this is our third year being nominated, thank you! We are in a category alongside some of the big wigs so we really love being seen in the same regard by our customers. The past two years we have won third place which is brilliant but we would really love to come First or Second this year! You can vote here and it also enters you into a great giveaway (a £500 spa break or a £100 yarn bundle!!) so what is there to lose? Thanks again and 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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