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British Knitting Awards 2017
Yippeee! We have been nominated again (for the 4th year running!!) in the Best Brand For British Yarn category in the British Knitting Awards! When you think about how small Shetland is geographically we are always extremely pleased to be nominated in this category, and we are in great company - We would love it if you would vote for us, so if you would like you you can do so here (by entering you also get entered into a competition to win lots of prizes!!) So thank you again for nominating us! it really means a lot, happy knitting!
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Shetland College Project 2017
Hello everyone, Happy weekend! On Wednesday myself (Ella) and Oliver headed to the Shetland College, every year for the past few years we have worked with the College on a project using our yarns. The students are given a brief to produce a garment or home interiors product using the Worsted Spun and Heritage yarns (Shetland Supreme Lace 1 and 2ply, Shetland Heritage Natural and Dyed, Shetland Aran Worsted and Shetland Chunky). This year also had two woven products which was very exciting! We were there to see the final items and hear the presentations from 3 students, Rhea Kay who's Jumper we saw last year was also included in this module so if you want more information about her garment see last years post here. Andrea who was included with Rhea last year has moved onto another college on the Mainland so her poncho isn't included but you can see more information about it too in that post. Rhea's garment looked as good as we remembered it - it will be on display at the Whalsay Heritage Centre after the term ends at the college so keep an eye out for it there if you are visiting! First up was Julia Nairn who covered a footstool in fabric made using the Shetland Heritage Natural yarns, she was inspired by the Houll Loch in Whalsay and took lots of photos of the scene. She finds it to be a timeless landscape and she was particularly inspired by the ripples in the water and the almost symmetry seen her her photos which she took through to her finished item. She used an undulating twill structure for her weaving and her main focus was to take the landscape into the home which is why she made a homeware product. We loved the way the resulting fabric came out and found the footstool to be very effective, the heritage yarn is soft yet robust making it very suited to weaving. Alicja Tyburska also used weaving in her project but decided to make a garment, in this case, a large wrap. She is a weaver but also extremely interested in History and Archaeology, in particular, Shetlands Natural Landscape and its features, and she took the inspiration from Brochs and other stone features in Shetland - mainly how they are seen from above in drone photography. This gave her the inspiration for her weave structure and she combined different weights of yarns - the Shetland Aran, Heritage and Chunky together to give beautiful texture to her finished item. We loved the professional finish and texture of the wrap, and the chunky tassels just finished it off perfectly. Marcia Galvin used knit in her project and made this lovely wrap cardigan in the Shetland Heritage yarn, she was inspired by the word 'Heritage' and what it means to her, although not a Shetlander she has been here for many years and was interested in how certain areas have changed architecturally in Lerwick in particular Hays Dock. The Shetland Museum and Archives and Mareel are examples of modern architecture that Marcia looked at and took inspiration from, she looked up the briefs the architects of these building had and looked at the lines and shapes of the buildings. You can see in her finished garment how elements of these buildings came out in her motif and texture. The cardigan is oversized but can be closed a number of different ways and with a belt. We though the use of colour and inspiration were very successful. The winner of the unit will be announced at the Degree Show in a few weeks but we think all the students did extremely well, it's really important to us to support the local College - me and Kharis are both graduates of the Contemporary Textiles course and it gives students the skills to be able to work in the industry in Shetland, something which is quite difficult and we, as an industry, must be supportive of these students. Happy Knitting! PS. remember the Shetland Wool Week programme comes out on Tuesday the 16th of May, there are lots of things happening again at J&S and it looks to be another fabulous year! Save
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A Couple More Cones..
Hello Everyone, just a quick post today! We are constantly getting in more yarn of course but lately it feels we have been getting in even more than usual - this means lots of cones in the 2ply Jumper Weight. When we order a shade we get a certain amount on cone and the rest on ball, this means that we don't always have all the shades on cone and if we don't have a certain shade it may be a bit of a wait until we get it again on cone BUT at the moment we have a good selection. We are always updating the cone page so if there is a shade you are looking for keep checking! new recent cones: 1a, 1, FC43, 72, 125, 93, FC15, FC37 and 36 A cone is extremely economical if you are making any kind of 4ply yoke jumper like the Puffin Sweater, Crofthoose Yoke, Stasis, Scalloway Yoke, Hairst Cardigan.. the list goes on. It also means less ends which is always a good thing! The cones are oiled for machine knitting but don't let that put you off, you just have to wash the garment when you're finished - we would always advise that for Shetland Wool anyway as it looks the best once washed and blocked. Finally we are open as normal this Easter Friday and Monday but there is no post so any orders wont get posted out until Tuesday, happy knitting!
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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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Fire Festival KAL finished objects
Hello! We had our last Up Helly Aa of 2017 on Friday so that marks the end of our Fire Festival Knit a Long, we have been so pleased with the amount of people who have knit something with the colours we chose, due to the number of entries I decided to try something different and have you guys vote for your favourite, I have broken it down into Garments and Accessories/Others. I couldn't do a poll with the images in it so you might have to make a note of your favourite piece and then put it in the poll for the two categories. For more information have a look here which list all the entries and you can go into each project to find out more from the knitter. Garments Ready For Lerwick by Claudiajano Fire Festival KAL by DottyBev Up Helly Aa by Auchnagaoith Peat Hill Wasitcoat by Braemberi Little Winter Star Fire Festival by Torirot Fire Festival KAL by Rubin Accessory/Other Fire Festival KAL by alysmith American Fire by bdegar Fire Festival KAL by EvaL8 Up Helly Aa scarf by Hadewychs Fire Festival Bousta Beanie by JaneKAL Up Helly Aa by JConklin Ragnorok by Jelibet Up Helly Aa by Jensknits Up Helly Aa Hat by jn1982 Fire Scatness by KnitMomWi Up Helly Aa hat by KTMaine Fire Wind Water Cowl by kyspinner Up Helly Aa Mitts by Laknits Fair Isle Mitts by lav 2017 J&S Fire Festival KAL by LKLawsonknits Fire KAL mitts by MaureeninFargo Fire Festival KAL by meigsview Fire Festival KAL by merelide Shetland KAL by namihn Spritely SMUHA by socksprite Norse Fire Socks by tinygiraffe Fire Festival KAL by tjitshere Fire Festival KAL by torirtot Saudade by woolyeyes The poll will be open until next week when we will reveal the winners in the two categories, good luck to everyone and thank you so much for taking part in the Knit A Long - we love doing them and seeing all the different things people make from the same selection of colours! Happy Choosing! Save Save Save Save
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Bousta Beanie kits
This past weekend it was the Edinburgh Yarn Festival which has become the time when the new Shetland Wool Week hat and patron are announced, this year is it Shetland born designer Gudrun Johnston and her beautiful Bousta Beanie design! You can download the pattern here and find our kits for the given colourways here, if you want to choose your own colours simply buy two balls of your main colour and one ball each of your two contrasts, with such a graphic motif its hard to go wrong and this makes the pattern an excellent choice for Fair Isle newbies and experts alike! How about greys? 203, 81 and 54 Or grellow? 54, 91 and 23 or these? FC47. FC7 and 125 29, 1281 and 122 FC56, FC50 and FC9 The possibilities are endless! Remember to tag your projects on instagram and Ravelry with #boustabeanie and #Shetlandwoolweek2017 so others can see your Bousta Beanie and spread the story of Shetland Wool Week, happy knitting! Save
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Outi Kits
Hello and happy Monday! here at J&S we love to support local designers and we've just got in a delivery of some new to us patterns from Outi Kater, Outi is originally from Finland but has lived in Shetland for over 10 years, she takes her inspirations from her Nordic upbringing but is also inspired by Shetland and we think her patterns make a perfect blend of those two inspirations. I don't know about where you are in the world but in Shetland things are still a bit chilly so these patterns are calling out to me! Arhippa Mittens Finnish Midwinter Ski Hat Thrift Hat Sandsound Sweater Thrift Gloves Xylitol Mittens Finnish Midwinter Mittens Outi is extremely good at putting complex colour combinations together but her graphic 2 colour designs are equally as successful as you can see from the pictures above. We have received 7 new patterns printed by Outi, and if you order a kit it will include a copy of the printed pattern and all the yarn to knit your chosen design. You can see more of Outi's designs on her Ravelry page and you can see all her designs which we offer as a kit here which includes her two kits we already sold. Happy Knitting!
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Selection Boxes
Hello! it can be quite hard sometimes to choose colours, especially if you are looking to try out a yarn range with no particular project in mind, we have been thinking of ways you can pick up a one stop box full of Shetland Wool so in that vein we have put together a selection of... Selection Boxes! In a few of the smaller ranges you will receive each of the available shades (1ply Supreme, Shetland Heritage Naturals and Supreme Jumper Weight) but for the rest we have picked a range of shades which we feel will work well together in a project or just round out your stash! You will get your selection box in a sturdy, naturally finished box stamped with the J&S logo which is included in the price. It makes a great gift for knitters but also makes a nice treat for yourself, we have started with a smaller range of choices but if you think there is something else you'd love to see - let us know! You can see the boxes on the website here. Happy Knitting! PS - remember there is still time to take part in the Fire Festival Kal, there have been some really beautiful projects appearing in our Ravelry group!
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Fire Festival KAL inspiration
Sometimes choosing colours for a Knit-a-Long can be quite daunting, but after quite a number of years of choosing shades for the Colourbox Challenges with the Country Shows in Shetland and a couple for our online KAL's we are always pleased and surprised with the colour and pattern combinations people come up with. The Fire Festival KAL, inspired by Shetland's Up Helly Aa festivals has been running for a little while now and more projects are beginning to emerge so I thought it was time to take a look at some of the knitting.. clockwise from top right: one, two, three clockwise from top left: one, two, three, four I always find it very inspiring to see how people have put colours together, and how to colours change when put next to others - it's my favourite part of the KAL! it runs until the 20th of March so there is still plenty of time to get involved and knit yourself (or someone else a firey inspired garment or accessory) We have already had the first of Shetlands Up Helly Aa's for 2017 with the Scalloway Fire Festival on the 13th of January, you can see some great pictures here. Lerwick Up Helly Aa is on Tuesday 31st of January and it is a public Holiday in the town on the day after (some of us need time to recover..) so we will be closed Wednesday 1st of February opening as normal on Thursday. If you would like to watch any of the live broadcast of Lerwick UHA on Tuesday you can do so here. I hope this has inspired you if you were thinking to join the KAL, you can find the shades here on the website, there has been some confusion about adding in other colours but to be entered in the KAL you can only use the 8 shades chosen and you must use at least 5 of them. Your project must also include some Fair Isle/stranded colourwork, don't forget to share your projects in our Ravelry group and on Instagram with #firefestivalkal Happy Knitting! Save Save
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