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Real Shetland Wool - Part 2
In this part of our blog series which will cover all the yarns we produce at J&S we are going back again to Oliver's childhood and his first experiences with Shetland Wool. In the next part we will cover some of the things we look for and the processing of the raw wool before it comes back to us as finished yarns.. but for now its back to Oliver: Shetland Sheep are renowned for their exceptionally fine wool, and over the centuries played a huge part in Shetland’s rich culture and heritage. They also provided a much needed source of income for the native crofter / fishermen who lived on the small sparse crofts, in Shetland most crofting areas are hilly with poor grazing. Most of the fishermen / crofters, worked for the local laird, in most cases manning the fishing 'sixareens' - open boats, that fished the unpredictable Northern waters. The laird made sure he kept control over his employees and working conditions were harsh to say the least and financial reward from their master was meagre. The income from the croft was minimal, most of the sheep providing much needed sustenance in providing mutton for the table. Often due to the inclement weather that Shetland experiences, sometimes the open boats would be unable to go to see to fish the far 'haff' - fishing grounds. It was the income from the knitter that kept the family from starvation during these tough times. Fethaland Haaf Station, sixareen and foureen boats. Photo courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives The extra income necessary to supplement the family’s existence came from the hard work and skill of the lady of the croft, and of course their hardy sheep. The wool from their sheep especially the neck and shoulders was exceptionally fine, and when hand spun into a fine yarn, it was the perfect fibre and coupled with the skill of the knitter to produce high class fine lace garments. Each crofting district would have at least one local shop, and it was here that the knitter would sell or exchange her knitting for every day goods to be used in providing for their family. Teenie Gear, Jeemie Umphray (Ristie), Nurse Margaret Davidson. Teenie is knitting the border for a Shetland knitted lace shawl and using a knitting belt. Photo courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives When I look back at my childhood I am only now aware how this was the way of life for my family and most of the other families on my native home Burra Isle. My first memories of visiting Lerwick was travelling with our mother by the ferry 'Tirrik' and then by bus to visit the capital of our Islands. The main reason for this journey was to sell her hosiery (knitted goods) little did I know then the importance of that brown parcel she carried. I remember visiting this shop Adams on the street where the transaction was done. After tasting my very first ice cream at Sollottis on Commercial Street, we then travelled out the North Road to Irvine’s Wool shop (near to where Jamieson & Smith stands now). It was here that I first set eyes on a large quantity of Shetland wool, lying in colourful piles on the floor of the back shop. In the front of the store were shelves of vibrant colours of 'wirsit' - knitting yarn, some of it was purchased and we began our journey back home. Irvine’s was one of many such businesses in the 1950s; raw wool was bought from the crofters or exchanged for yarn. The greasy wool was shipped out to Hunters of Brora in the Highlands where it was spun into all types of knitting yarns. Individual crofters would also send their own wool to Hunters, and receive back their own yarns, this practise only died out in the mid-1980s. The Burra ferry, the Tirrick. Photo courtesy the Shetland Museum and Archives. As in days gone by these knitting yarns were knitted into all garments, but now it was mainly on the knitting machine, there was hardly a fishing cottage that did not echo to the sounds of the machine. The only difference in the life of the fisherman from days gone by was the boats were no longer open but decked in larger boats. The weather in the long winter months was often stormy and could keep the boats tied up for long spells; again it was the female of the house that provided the income to keep the family in provisions. My next experience of Shetland wool was after coming home in 1967 from Agricultural College and taking a summer job at J & S to pack wool, you could say it has been a long summer. Oliver in the middle store We are the main buyer of the Island’s wool clip purchasing around 80% from between 600 and 700 crofters and farmers. There only another 3 companies who handle the rest of the wool, changed days from the 1950s and beyond. Our wool is marketed with our 3 Rams logo registered mark which guarantees the user of our wool is the genuine article and not imitation 'Shetland' wool that the textile world is unfortunately awash with at present. we will be back on Thursday for the next part in the series. til then, happy knitting! x
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Shetland Sheep - the beginning of a blog series
Recently I had the idea to begin a series of blog posts going more into detail about all the ranges of yarns we carry here at J&S.. from Cobweb up to Chunky! Oliver pointed out, correctly, that we should begin the series with some posts about where it all comes from! So this first post is about the Shetland Breed of Sheep, written by Oliver Henry, manager and top wool man here at J&S.. take it away Oliver.. The Native Shetland sheep are part of the North European short tailed breeds and have been linked to breeds such as Icelandic, Finn, Romanov, and Scandinavian breeds’ such as the Spaelsau. It is the smallest of the British sheep breeds and it maintains many of the characteristics of the wild sheep. One of the first surveys carried out on Shetland sheep in 1790 published 1814, for the Board of Agriculture, reporter John Shirreff states there are two distinct types of sheep in Shetland, one breed producing a 'kindly' meaning fine wool fleece and the other a much coarser fleece. It was natural that these two distinct types would cross breed and produce wool of which could be of mixed quality, and the same applies to this day, hence the need for careful breed selection of fine woolled stock and later on the hand sorting of fleece. These two types would roam the native heather hills and peat moors at will as there were no geographical boundaries such as today with fencing. The common grazing or 'scattald' as it is known locally could carry sheep from up to twenty or thirty crofters in an area, all could have different types of rams they would introduce to the flocks, all with different characteristics especially wool. My own experience of crofting, Shetland sheep and its unique traits began at an early age on my native home of Burra Isle, which was mainly a crofting, fishing community. The village I was brought up in was Hamnavoe and it was a common grazing area, sheep could roam freely around the houses and supplement their diet from gardens and vegetable plots, always a source of fierce debate between house holders and crofters! My grandfather had such a croft with a small park which was fenced in where he kept perhaps a dozen ewes, the remainder roamed the village. I fondly remember hand feeding his sheep especially in the winter when grazing was scarce. One particular Shetland ewe named Blackie would come into our house and I would brush the snow of her fleece while hand feeding her. Hamnavoe, Burra circa 1950's. The Island life was predominately fishing, the crofts and sheep numbers were relatively small, the returns from crofting was sparse, the livestock was mainly used to supplement the needs of the family which included their fine wool, which I will deal with later. It wasn’t till I was 10 years old and had the good fortune to meet up with my Uncle Willie Robertson’s family, who lived in the North East of Shetland, in the village of Vidlin, that I came to understand the importance of traditional crofting life and its impact on a rural community and the comradeship of crofters. My summer months were spent on the Robertson croft at Kirkabister in Vidlin, it was here my education of Shetland agriculture and in particular Shetland sheep and wool began. A highlight of my summer was the gathering 'caaing' the hill sheep, as many as a dozen crofters would set off with their dogs from differen't parts of the area, which was very hilly and full of gullies and burns. I marvelled at how they all seemed to meet up at a certain location, most often next a loch, and drive the mass of sheep into the 'croo' pen. Here each crofter would select out their own sheep and start hand shearing or in some cases 'rooing' their animals. I began to learn how each crofter could distinguish who owned the sheep. This was done by 'lug' ear marks, where each crofter had their own “ brand “. If I remember correctly the Robertson family mark was a hole in the right with the tip of the ear shortened and two cuts in the left. A favourite memory of mine was at one of the larger gatherings, I spotted one of the Robertson families black ewes being accidently shorn by a distant neighbour on telling the Johnson brothers, who were representing the lady of what was about to happen and they should point out the mistake. They said no just wait and when the crofter had finished, they went and said thanks for shearing one of the Robertson sheep and took the fleece and handed it to me to pack. These early years being a part of such a rural crofting community combined with the crofter fisherman lifestyle of my own Island gave me a very clear picture and education in to what makes our Island’s culture and heritage so vibrant. On attending the North of Scotland college of Agriculture some years later, I was made aware of how little was known about our crofting way of life and Shetland Sheep in particular. A visiting lecturer an expert on sheep, answered my question on Shetland sheep and its importance to our community, saying it 'was a bag of bones and of little significant value' how wrong was he! We can only hope that this important infrastructure can survive the E.U paper trail, passports and electronic ear tags, for when the oil has gone and we once again turn to the land and the sounds of Shetland sheep being gathered in our native hills. Shetland sheep breed characteristics: Small fined boned animals with erect ears and bright eyes. Very good mothers, and have the ability to live on sparse hill conditions. In some areas can be seen on the sea – shore eating seaweed, to supplement their diet. Very fine wool, fleece weight 1 – 1.5 kilos. The rams are horned, generally rounded in section, though some are angular, the ewes are hornless. We will be back soon with a post on the wool itself before we kick off looking at all the different weights of yarns we make!
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Shetland Haps
Hello! and sorry for the lack of blogs over the past wee while. Things have been very busy at J&S but today I am back with a blog about Haps! baby wrapped in a hap, courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives. I feel like lately Haps have been everywhere with Gudruns Hap Knit-a-Long on ravelry and Louise of KnitBritish's Hap-A-Long which begins this week, so I thought I'd share some of the Hap patterns available from J&S and of course the modern counterparts as well as some ideas of the yarns that can be used to make one! Haps drying in a field, courtesy of Hap Shawls: Then and Now by Sharon Miller A Hap is essentially a wrap which is used to keep you warm, of course they come in many shapes and sizes but traditional Shetland Haps are square with a centre panel, a patterned surround (usually feather and fan lace) and an edging. There are many different ways to construct a Hap of which Louise goes into a good amount of detail on her blog post, there is also some good information here. a hap drying outside in the 1960's. Courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives. We are very lucky that we have a lot of the samples created for patterns over the years for us, I'm going to start with the fancier Haps, traditionally used as Christening Shawls and knit using 1 or 2ply Lace weight. The Sheelagh Shawl The Gibbie Shawl The Rose of York Shawl These 1ply Shawls, all designed by Gladys Amedro follow the construction method of knitting the edging, picking up stitches then knitting into the centre which is one of the styles of Hap construction. They can all be made using 1ply Yarns, we have the 1ply Cobweb and also the 1ply Shetland Supreme. The original 1ply Cobweb will yield a crisper shawl due to its woollen spun make up but the Shetland Supreme will give you a softer shawl with more of a Halo, both beautiful of course! 1ply Cobweb 1ply Shetland Supreme The Pam Shawl The Pam Shawl, seen above is another Gladys Amedro pattern but this time it is knit using 2ply Lace, we also have the My Weekly Baby Knits Shawl which is another 2ply Shawl. These are a bit less delicate and more for everyday use, although they would still be perfect for a christening 2ply Lace 2ply Supreme Lace Shetland Heritage Although typically knit in Original 2ply Lace you could also knit any of these shawls using 2ply Supreme Lace or Shetland Heritage, both which would give you a different feel. The Supreme 2ply is a bit lighter weight than the original whereas the heritage is slightly heavier, since they are both worsted spun compared the the 2ply lace you would again get a different feel using them. The Morag Shawl from Sharon Millers 'Hap Shawls: Then and Now' is a classic example of a traditional Hap which was worn by Shetland Women over the centuries. Large, warm and soft, this would keep everyone from a tiny baby to an old lady warm. courtesy of the Shetland Museum and Archives. Typically knit in Jumper Weight, the shaded sections were used to add interest and use up all the scraps of Yarns. Supreme Jumper Weight A subtly shaded Natural Hap in Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight would be classic and timeless but it also offers the chance to use some nice colour palettes of Jumper Weight.. 203,1284,366,fc9 and fc56 2, fc39,fc34,141 and 29 54, fc39,fc38,fc12 and fc11 In relation to finding patterns for these kinds of Haps, in the Traditional Shawls and Scarfs pattern booklet - all written out and not charted - there is a pattern for this kind of Shawl Also available in the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers book: A Legacy of Lace is the Traditional Shetland Hap by Zena Thomson But online you will find a wealth of patterns inspired by this style of Haps. Hansel Hap (Full Version) Hansel (Half Version) Gudrun Johnson's lovely Hansel Pattern is available in a full and half hap version as well as in a Craftsy class! Knit using Jumper Weight the colour possibilities are endless. Another Modern Hap inspired pattern is the Northmavine Hap by Kate Davies from her Colours of Shetland book, again knit in Jumper weight, this shawl has aspects of a traditional shawl in a modern shape. I hope this has inspired you to get involved with Louise's Hap-A-Long which begins on the 10th of April. Of course there are many more patterns which fit into this style so have a look and get involved! I thought I'd leave you with this great photo from a carnival in Lerwick with a Shetland themed float, that's a big hap on the back!
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Up Helly Aa 2015
My yarn 'torches' One day to go til Lerwick Up Helly Aa! I cant believe it was one year ago when head wool man at J&S, also known as Oliver was in the 2014 Jarl Squad (see here and here for more details) some details of Olivers 2014 suit from my Up Helly Aa window But now its another squads turn to be the Jarl Squad! For those who dont know, Up Helly Aa is a fire festival held all over Shetland, tomorrows Up Helly Aa, the biggest of the lot, is in Lerwick and the whole day is given over to Vikings.. the night-time torchlight procession (live feed can be watched here!) contains over 800 men and results in the burning of a Viking Galley. a photo from last years procession After the procession, local halls are open and there is a big night of dancing! Each of the squads involved (usually about 40-50!) are dressed up and come up with an 'act' for the people in the halls. understandably Wednesday is a public holiday in Shetland so we wont be open, but we'll be back at work on Thursday. Til then, happy knitting and Happy Up Helly Aa!!
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Natures Natural Colours
The Wool season is now in full swing at Jamieson & Smith, a recent spell of fine weather has meant that wool producers have had a dry early start for clipping. a Shetland crofter clipping his sheep. Photo by Oliver Henry As the wool store fills up, grading the clips is under way and our first shipment left us last week on its way down to our parent company Curtis Wool direct, to be processed and spun into our yarns. the woolstore last week While Derek and Jan who work full time in the woolstore and Robert, who has joined us for the summer season, get to work on the white fleeces Oliver has been in what we call the Middle Store sorting some of the coloured fleeces. Oliver in the middle store Since Oliver has been to see some of the coloured sheep on their home turf recently we thought you might like to see some of his photos and hear a bit more about the coloured Shetland Sheep. Jim Lindsays Coloured Sheep, photo by Oliver some of the Robertson family's coloured Sheep, photo by Oliver Two Flecket sheep, photo by Oliver Shetland Sheep can have a huge variety of colours and markings, in the past the natural colours were used for all types of knitting and for blending in Fair Isle. When man made fibres became widely available and the market for wool declined coloured sheep became a lot less desirable and crofters began to move solely into the white fleeced sheep which they knew the fleeces would be sold. At one point people were just throwing away the coloured fleeces as it wasn't worth taking them to be sold. Jan's Dad Alistair clipping, photo by Oliver Thankfully now there is a good market for the coloured sheep, and some Shetlanders are actively trying to revive the strength of the different shades. There are 11 main Shades with over 30 different markings currently recognised. Jan's neice Keiva clipping a moorit sheep, photo by Oliver Oliver went to see Jan and her family doing some of their clipping last week, and Jan's niece's were showing their clipping skills. Jan's nieces Keiva and Arianna with Sally the dog and some coloured Shetland fleeces, photo by Oliver some of the coloured fleeces in the Middle Store Once the coloured 'oo has been dropped off to us it is then hand graded and hand sorted into its various shades and qualities. Oliver hand grading a black fleece the different marks and colours can mean a difference in the fineness of the fleece As the quality of different shades can vary within the fleece, (Shetland black can be coarser than other shades, and dark grey is very course) each fleece is handled and dissected by Oliver and separated into grades. Thanks to Kate Davies designs like the Rams and Yowes blanket, Sheepheid and Sheep Carousel which all use the 2ply Supreme Jumper Weight the popularity for the natural colours is still going strong. The natural colours go into all our undyed yarns like Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight, which comes in 9 shades Moorit 2ply Supreme Lace Weight And all the Shetland Supreme Lace weight available in 5 shades as well as the Combed Tops and finished products like the Woven Blankets and Cushions and Jumpers. So we need as much as we can get! A Moorit Ram and Sheepdog having a stand off, photo by Oliver Having a wide range of products made from the natural colours ensures there is a steady demand for this type of wool, meaning we can secure the future of the coloured wool. Happy Knitting! xxx
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British Knitting Awards 2014
We have some exciting news, we recently found out we have been nominated in the British Knitting Awards 2014 in the Best Brand for British Yarn category. The nominees for these awards are made up of the readers of Lets Knit and Lets Get Crafting - Knitting and Crochet Magazines. There are 25 catogories covering a wide range of Knitterly things, from Best Sock Yarn Brand to Best Designer as well as best Shops in different areas of Britian. We're so pleased to be nominated alongside some of our stockists: This Is Knit in Dublin and Purl City in Manchester as well as one of our favourite designers and friend of Jamieson & Smith: Kate Davies photo by felicity ford This is the first year that they have had a catogory for Best Brand for British yarn, this demontrates the popularity and high quality of British produced yarns, something we have always strived to highlight and promote! Shetland Wool has so many good features and its great to be recognised as a favourite British Brand. photo by felicity ford Voting has begun now and is open until the 14th of September, if you appreciate what we do for the British Wool industry we would love it if you would vote for us! Thank you to the readers of Lets Knit and Lets Get Crafting for nominating us, we cant wait to see the results!
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A Visit to Sumburgh Head Lighthouse
On a grey but bright Thursday Me (Ella) Oliver and Sophie who's with us this week at J&S for Work Experience took a trip down to the very tip of the mainland of Shetland to Sumburgh Head. The reason for our visit was to see in place the carpets we have supplied the brand new Sumburgh Head Lighthouse Visitor Centre. As well as seeing the carpets we got a great tour of the whole place from Angela Hunt, the Operations Manager. The Sumburgh Head Lighthouse was designed by world famous lighthouse designer and engineer Robert Stevenson, the lighthouse was constructed in 1821. Over 150 years Stevenson and his descendants designed most of Scotland's Lighthouses, 7 in total in Shetland. in fact the Fair Isle South Lighthouse, designed by the Stevensons was only automated in 1998, the last Scottish lighthouse to be manned. Over the past two years the Lighthouse has undergone a £5.4 million revamp by the Shetland Amenity Trust and we are so proud to provide the 100% Shetland Wool carpets and mats for the brand new Education Room and in the accommodation within the Lighthouse. We began our tour in the Education Room which provides a panoramic view of the South End of Shetland. When we arrived they were setting up for a school visit and it was great to see. The Education will host School Groups and Tourist in the Summer months and Angela told us about plans for different classes to be held in the room in off peak season, and how it can be hired for private functions. Imagine the sunsets! The carpet looked really great. We worked with our Carpet Layer Robin of Nort Trow flooring and he made a really fantastic job. Derek who usually can be found in the Woolstore went down to give Robin a hand in laying them. We then moved onto the accommodation, which can be let by anyone. You can find more information about staying in lighthouses in Shetland here. The buildings have been carefully restored and sensitively decorated. Our carpets were featured again in the impressive staircase We hand-finished a lot of mats for the sides of beds, these were made from the off cuts of the carpets. Nothing is wasted! The building is floored in beautiful stone floors and having a wool mat at the side of the bed really warms up the room (and your toes!) We also have a number of our 3 Sheep Logo mats, a few of which were hand finished by Jan who works in the Woolstore And there is one lovely large 3 Sheep Mat in the Living Room which really makes a great centrepiece. A really lovely place to stay! We then went through all aspects of the visitors centre, which covers everything from being a lighthouse keeper to the nature all around Sumburgh Head. One of the most interesting areas to me was the Radar Hut which highlights the role of Shetland and Sumburgh Head during World War Two. They have recreated how the hut would have looked in the War The engine room has been carefully updated and gives you a timeline of the history of the Sumburgh Head Lighthouse Of course we had to climb the steps around the freshly painted Fog Horn and see the view.. And we had our eye out for Sumburgh's most famous residents.. Lovely Puffins! Luckily Oliver had his big fancy lens so we got some great photos! It was so brilliant to see the Visitors Centre open and see how many Tourists were around, we are so proud and happy to have a small part in it. Thank you to Angela for showing us around, we had a great morning! Speak soon and happy knitting, xx
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Shetland College Projects
As we reach the Summer in Shetland that also means the end of the student year at the Shetland College, carrying on from our earlier project with the second year students of the Contemporary Textiles course they have produced some brilliant garments in their final project. They will be on display at Shetland Wool Week in October but anyone who has visited the Shetland College during the past few weeks will have had a sneak peak at their end of year show. The project brief was to show off the versatility and quality of J&S wool and they didn't disappoint! Rebecca Sinclair's fun design uses lots of different weights and colours of Jamieson & Smith yarns. Her inspirations from classic Fair Isle can be seen, and the use of different yarns and colours is really inspiring! Malin roberts was inspired by her Scandinavian background and 1950s menswear shapes in her project. She created a lapel shaped scarf using Wool fleece and Shetland Heritage using a carpet making technique She created a great 3D pattern on her other garment and she was inspired by weaving, which I think you can really see on the sleeves here where she has used the inside as the outside and cut the floats in the knitting. Lynn McCormacks sculptural shapeed neckpiece and top used a brilliant technique i've never seen before Lace tubes stuffed with Combed Tops make a brilliant addition to the lacey top she created by using one thread of 1ply Shetland Supreme with one thread of 2ply Shetland Supreme. The effect is really striking, Lyn is more interested in texture than pattern which i think comes across in a brilliant way in her work and I love the addition of the blue stripes on the neckpiece. Izabella Delnickas work used very clever shaping and pattern to demontrate the smooth and springy aspect of the Shetland Heritage. Her top knitted with negative ease hugs the body and looks very sleek. Her top can be worn with the caped neck downover the shoulders or up as a snood, multi style garments like this are so tricky to plan and Izabela has done a fantastic job. I love how vivid the Heritage colours are, they work really well in machine knitting. Kara McKay has used the colleges industrial Shima Seiki knitting machines to develop a modern take on the knitted swimsuit, her piece knitted in Shetland Heritage Coll Black has been embellished with 2ply Jumper Weight motif's added on afterwards. The effect is really striking, and the finishing on the piece is to a really high standard, you could jump in the pool now! Dorothy Fraser has expanded on the techniques used in the previous project we did with the College She has continued developing mixing hand knit lace in Shetland Heritage with felted machine knitting, the combination of textures makes for really interesting garments. Joyce Leask, chose to develop scarves using felting and embellishment techniques which she also started in her previous work with us. Joyce deceided to explore mixing traditional patterns with contemporary techniques and styles, she chose scarves as they are a popular accesory which can complete an outfit and she really wanted to develop some new finishing techniques Its always really great to see what the students are creating at the College and as an ex student I love to see what new techniques and styles they have come up with. The exhibition is on at the College until the 25th of June but it will be on show again at Wool Week, Happy Knitting! Ella x
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Peerie Flooers Kits!
At this time of year the flowers are starting to bloom and summer is approaching. In places like Shetland though this doesnt mean you should forgo your knitwear. Although the sun is out it can still be pretty chilly so whats better than a hat representing the spring and summertime. Peerie Flooers is one of Kate Davies most knitted designs with over 600 projects on Ravelry. We recently reknitted it in J&S 2ply Jumper Weight, and Kate has reformatted the pattern. We now have kits available in the shop so you can make your own Peerie Flooers! This happy and bright hat is a great introduction to knitting Fair Isle. The chart is easy to memorise and the bright corrugated ribbing gives you a taster of each of the colours you'll be using in the rest of the hat. The kit contains the yarn and the pattern to knit peerie flooers, which you can buy here Happy Knitting! x
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