Blog
Shetland Wool Week 2012
The Shetland Wool Week website is now live at www.shetlandwoolweek.com. Have a look the events and see advice on how to get here, where to stay and how to travel all over the isles to take part in our packed programme. Meanwhile, here are some photos from last year's event. We'd love to meet you... Come knit with us? x
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New book - Real Shetland Yarns
Last night was the launch of Real Shetland Yarns at the Shetland Museum and Archives. The book is the beautiful end result of a collaboration with our friends at Shetland Amenity Trust, Promote Shetland and our partners at Curtis Wool Direct. The project, which began as a competition to write a short piece about life in Shetland in relation to wool and textiles, was sponsored by Vi-Spring and DNB Nor. Real Shetland Yarns: A collection of woolly tales and memories contains forty stories from people about their lives and their memories of Shetland, and how they are inextricably linked with wool, crofting and textiles. This collection of short stories, beautifully illustrated with personal photographs, invites the reader to experience and understand the writers' way of life and the islands themselves. Thankyou to everyone involved, particularly those who wrote down their stories, for a very worthwhile project and a lovely May evening. A copy will accompany each Vi-Spring Shetland bed sold worldwide to highlight the importance of Real Shetland Wool to the communities that depend on it, and give an insight into the people behind it.
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Rainy day crafts
Pom pom mobile - a pretty cool way to use up your Jamieson & Smith stash and experiment with colours. Oh, if only we could have one with every shade. It would take up the entire roof of our yarn store... x
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Sheila's purples
Last week Sheila Williamson visited us at J&S Towers looking for shades of purple to knit her sister the Yuglet Hat. After some colour picking fun, off Sheila went armed with purple hues. Yesterday she returned, masterpiece in hand. We love how she's put the colours together with shade 1A as yarn A, FC51 as yarn B, 123 as yarn C, 202 as yarn D, 366 as yarn E, FC56 as yarn F. Pure colour genius. Her sister, who lives in Edinburgh, is one lucky lady. To knit in Sheila's purples or to choose your own six shades of 2 Ply Jumper weight, go here. 1. Sheila's Crown 2. Sheila's Yuglet hat next to Sophie, our little knitting girl 3. Lavender hanging in our store.
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Karin and Two-Kates
We just got a lovely present: a project bag and handmade stitch markers for Sarah, June and Sandra. We do love our customers. Thankyou Karin!The project bag was sewed by Karin from a Kate Davies pattern, Two-Kates project bag, and the stitch markers are handmade from an Etsy seller.
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New Leaves
Remember in Shetland Wool Week 2011, my favourite hat sparked a Ravelry thread and a lot of excitement in general after appearing on Kate Davies blog? Well... here it is. I give you Leaves Tam, from the ridiculously talented Outi Kater, available as a kit from Jamieson & Smith. Outi hails from Finland, but now lives in the West Side of Shetland with her husband and two daughters. Leaves Tam combines a motif of Outi's own creation, plant leaves, on the crown, with book leaves - a well known motif from Finland - around the body of the hat. The book leaf motif is traditionally worked in two colours, but Outi's choice of shades makes the hues and patterns look like they're dancing. This is one seriously beautiful hat (I know, I know, we're all biased. But it's true). Leaves Tam is special in another way too - it marks the return of/introduces a lovely deep bright pink, shade 52 (available exclusively in Leaves Tam until May 2012). With new leaves and uplifting colours, and a week of bright weather in the UK, this design is very timely indeed. We hope you love it as much as we do. x
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Frozen Planet - Guest blog
I am a 28 year old British doctor, employed at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK. I used to work at Lerwick Health Care Centre as a medical student some years ago and love Shetland. I recently applied and was successful for a job to work as a Research MD to conduct Human Spaceflight research for the European Space Agency, in Antarctica. The research is aimed towards a future manned mission to Mars. I am currently living at Concordia Station- in the most extreme environment on the continent and in the world- where temperatures drop to minus 80 degrees Celcius, some of the coldest ever experienced on Earth, and in May we will commence a period of 4 months of 24 hour darkness. Adding to that, we are at 3800 metres altitude, breathing only one third the amount of Oxygen that is available in Lerwick, at sea level. Having been left at the beginning of February, 13 of us will be living in isolation until November - where there is no chance of escape or evacuation even in the case of a surgical emergency - we are completely self-sufficient. We are more isolated than the International Space Station. We may as well be living on another planet. Whilst living in Lerwick, I visited the Shetland Museum, where I came across the story that Fair Isle Wool that had been worn by Sir Ernest Shackleton in Antarctica around 100 years ago. Before I left for Antarctica, I contacted Jamieson & Smith Shetland Wool Brokers and was delighted to have been gifted two sweaters, a double lined hat, neckwarmers and mittens made for me to take with me to Antarctica. I am exceedingly grateful to Jamieson & Smith knitter, Sandra, who made me these items. They are very warm and it is reassuring to know that when you go out to conduct science research in the world's most extreme and isolated environment, that you are protected by a part of Shetland, as Shackleton once was. You can find out more about the research and my experiences at: www.AlexanderKumar.com .............................................................................................................................. More from Alex soon - we're treating this as our own little experiment to see just how cosy he stays in our yarn! x
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Alexandra
We came across this Shetland Lace shawl in the V&A's collection. The shawl is thought to have been knitted in Shetland from handspun 1 Ply yarn in 1866 as a replica of the shawl presented to Princess Alexandra of Wales (later Queen Alexandra) on her marriage to the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) in 1863. We thought we'd share, because it's so lovely. And here's a picture of the glamorous Alexandra herself.
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Elliot Atkinson AW2012
Elliot Atkinson's AW2012 collection was presented by Colin McDowell at the Corinthia Hotel during London Fashion Week. The knitwear in the collection was sponsored by Jamieson & Smith, and we're so happy because we love it! See the rest of the collection online at Vogue here and Dazed Digital here. x
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