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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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some knitting books at christmas time..
Im so sorry for the bit gaps in posting but I thought I'd begin with our lovely Christmas tree! We have recovered from the brilliant Shetland Wool Week and since then things have been very busy at Jamieson & Smith, of course our usual day to day is busy as we have lots of customers coming into the shop.. Wool is readily bought all year round in Shetland but in the Autumn and Winter even more so! Of course things are busy on the online shop as we gear up to Christmas time! Knitters can be quite tricky to buy for (speaking from experience) but one thing that cant be beat is a good book. Tying in nicely to this is the fact that over the past couple of months some great knitting books have come out written by some of our lovely knitterly friends, all using J&S yarns ! YOKES by Kate Davies I thought I'd begin with the most recent, so recent in fact we haven't got our copies in stock yet but soon we will and until then you can buy the book from Kate's online shop here. This book follows the story and cultural variations in the classic Yoke patterning in knitwear and is followed by 11 beautiful patterns, a number of which are made from J&S - including the yoke on the cover! This book is a MUST for anyone interested in stranded knitting, although Yokes also includes patterns using beading and cabling. Kate's knowledge on knitting shines through and makes this the perfect gift. The Shetland Trader: Book Two by Gudrun Johnston Next up is the newest publication from American based, Shetland born designer Gudrun Johnston. This book was launched in Shetland at Shetland Wool Week, and we sold out in one night! So luckily we have the books back in stock again. I (Ella) may be biased as I am one of the models in the book but the landscape and imagery is all very inspiring, and there are 9 patterns to choose from. From hats,scarves to sweaters and cardigans, there is something for everyone. Available from us here Unst Heritage Lace by the Unst Heritage Centre This is a smaller book, but would make a great stocking filler for the Lace knitter! Unst is famous for its fine lace knitting techniques and this year the Unst Heritage Centre have launched this book with some patterns and history about its strong heritage. This book makes a great edition to the shelves of anyone interested in Shetland Lace knitting. The fact its written and put together by the Unst Heritage Centre makes it all the more interesting. Available from us here The Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook by Felicity Ford You will have seen some of our posts following the progress and completion of Felicity's brilliant book on designing your own colourwork on the blog (see here and here) but this book makes a brilliant gift for someone who is experienced in stranded knitting but ready to take it to the next level! Felicity guides you through all the stages of designing your own colour work motifs,charts and projects. We have copies for sale in the shop but if your not in Shetland you can buy the book from Felicity here I thought i'd finish this post with a couple of lovely Japanese books we have received recently. We send a huge amount of yarn to Japan and their books are truly some of the most beautiful around. Shetland Lace by Toshiyuki Shimada Toshi is an amazing Japanese knitwear designer, we have worked with him for years and this new book on Shetland Lace is absolutely beautiful. The patterns, photography and layout is so inspiring the sense of style and remaking of traditional motifs in a contemporary way (like the cockleshell seen above in a hooded wrap) makes this a great gift for anyone interested in Shetland lace. The book is in Japanese and all the patterns are charted but I have found this great helpful sheet for knitting Japanese patterns. You can buy this book here Mariko's Knitting Tour by Mariko Mikuni We met Mariko early this year when she visited us for this book, we recently received it and it is a lovely little book, full of pictures from Mariko's tour of the UK. Again this book is all in Japanese but the layout and pictures makes it an inspiring read. She visited Shetland, Fair Isle, Edinburgh and Mainland Scotland (She included a visit to Kate Davies too) and many more The book contains a number of patterns also, and it can be purchased here Wouldn't it be lovely to find all these books under your tree this Christmas? Happy Knitting!
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KNITSONIK - BLOG TOUR PART 2!
As you may know, Felicity Ford has recently published a book 'The Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook' We took part in the original blog tour which was part of the kickstarter campaign to raise the funds for the book. The full amount for the project had already been raised by the time we did our original post so we knew this book was going to be a roaring success!! We were lucky that the first copies of the book arrived in Shetland when Felicity was here for Shetland Wool Week so we got one of the first peeks. I sent Felicity a few more questions to see how she was feeling now the book has come out! 1: How did you find the process of writing the book and are you pleased with how it has come out? I think it is beautiful! I really enjoyed writing the book; I was lucky to have a talented team who shared my vision and gave tons of love to its production. Additionally, I was able to share milestones with the project backers through the Kickstarter site. Working on the book felt like going an adventure with loads of friends and I think it is richer for having had encouragement, input, energy and skills from many KNITSONIK comrades. The little sections describing each inspiration source were the parts I most enjoyed writing because I discovered so much about my local area while researching them. The Berkshire Records Office and the Local Studies section of the central library in Reading were really helpful, providing me with access to building plans and street directories. Seeing and touching these old documents from Reading’s past made me feel more connected to the history here. As you will have seen, one section in the book celebrates my iconic Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin. I discovered through old census data that a William Chas Wellstead once lived at our address and that this individual had formerly worked as a tin-factory labourer. This information made my treasured little tin feel even more significant and personal. At the Berkshire Records Office I was enchanted to see the old building plans for the now demolished Huntley, Boorne & Stevens biscuit tin factory: this was where William once worked and where my tin was made. Another snippet of local history celebrated in the book is an old pink Art Deco building on the Basingstoke Road. I was unable to discover when it was decorated in its distinctive shades. However in the Kelly’s Street Directory of 1949 the building was registered to Tokalon Ltd. (a cosmetics company) and when I found old Tokalon face powders on eBay the shades of pink were uncannily similar to the stucco facade. I don’t know if that was when it was painted but it’s a lovely coincidence! These discoveries added extra context to my knitting and made me feel more connected to my town through stitches and patterns. Everyone who was involved in the project shared my joy in the lovely links between my knitting and my town and I feel that you can really see that in the final product. I’m thrilled you think the book is beautiful. I am incredibly pleased with how it looks and want to credit the super talents of Fergus and Nic here because their photos and design are what really make the KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook. Going on photo-shoots with Fergus was super fun as he really got the essence of the book and wanted to use the photos to show connections between my town and my knitting. The day when we went out together to photograph my bricks-inspired-swatch against the Reading brickwork was an especially happy one; I actually cried for joy when I saw his photos! It was also thrilling to pass Ferg’s wonderful photos over to Nic and see what she would do with them. I especially like the spread for the page opening the chapter about knitting places because the way Nic arranged Ferg’s photos is superb. She said “I wanted to put you in the middle, in your car, with all your favourite places around you” which is such a nice way to think about that chapter and something I could never have come up with by myself. These are just two examples of how my amazing comrades have enriched this book with their talents and undoubtedly the best thing about writing the book was working with wonderful people. 2: What are your dreams for people who are using the book? We have had lots of Shetlanders asking about it! My dreams are that people using the book will feel empowered to design stranded colourwork from things they love! I want to show that creativity is not mysterious, and that it involves practical steps which can be practised by anyone who wants to play. I hope the book will inspire knitters to start on hugely personal projects that feel rich and personal and significant... one of the reasons for spending all that time researching the history of old biscuit tins and factories is to show that these little things we notice each day really matter and are worthy of knitterly celebration. I hope that reading the book will also inject a bit of fun and mischief into everyday life. The other day I saw a lovely message from Sarah who used to work for your company. She remarked on how the book had made her see some chimney pots in J&S yarn shades. That’s what it’s all about; finding inspiration and magic everywhere and cultivating creativity in unlikely places. 3: What are your best tips for people interested in colourwork but a bit scared to take the first step (apart from purchasing your book of course!) do you have any fail safe things to get colour and motifs inspirations from? My top tip is to edit your inspiration source down to a manageable size. If you start with the idea “I want to knit a swatch based on my favourite beach” then you may be overwhelmed! But if you can make this idea a bit smaller – “I want to knit a swatch based on this bit of sand, maybe using this individual shell and these pebbles for pattern ideas” then it has already become more manageable. Creativity is really just about solving problems – the first problem to solve is usually that the initial idea is vague, so defining the brief more clearly is the first step. I think a lot of people are tempted to start with nature subjects – a tree or a landscape for instance – and though these are beautiful and picturesque subjects they can also be quite complex. A single tree contains so many different shades and lines and colours that it can be hard to know where to begin. I address this in the book in my chapter on plants, and there are definitely ways to make it easier to knit from the natural world but if this seems complicated then you can’t go wrong with pleasing food packaging! A tin, a cereal box, even the washing up liquid bottle can all be superb starting points for stranded colourwork. These generally contain just a handful of colours which are easy to identify and it can be fun to hunt about in an initially simple-looking object for hidden patterns and shapes. I was delighted that in Shetland during Wool Week several comrades brought Tunnocks chocolate wrappers to my workshops as their inspiration source – these are ideal as they have really strong graphic lines and superb, bold colours. My favourite swatch in the book is the one based on my little handheld recorder. The object is so simple – just a little black plastic device with a digital screen and some buttons – that I really had to look hard to find details. Once I started, I had millions of ideas and it was a fun project. So my best tips are to start with a small idea or to start with a big idea and then make it smaller! 4: How do you think writing this book has changed how you will approach colourwork in the future? The main changes are that I have fallen in love with swatching (which I used to really dislike) and I feel more confident that you really can use anything as a starting point for designing stranded colourwork. When I started trying to design my own colourwork projects I didn’t know what I was doing; there were so many variables and I kept making ugly things or getting confused about the numbers or messing up the colours. As I solved each problem I got a bit more secure in my own creative process and my swatches got longer and longer as the ideas started really flowing. In the Kickstarter video I said “I want to make this book for us” and in finding ways to clarify my process for other knitters, it inevitably became clearer to me. I had to put structure and language around what I do when I am designing stranded colourwork and that helped me to organise my thoughts. The result is that now I feel quite at home in the KNITSONIK system and know exactly where to start if I have an inspiration for stranded colourwork. I really hope the book makes others feel the same. 5: I really hope you liked working with our 2-ply Jumper Weight, I'm going to be horrible and make you choose your absolute favourite shade! If you can’t choose one, I at least want your top five! Your 2-ply Jumper Weight is amazing and it was a pure delight to work with it for many reasons. Its provenance can be traced back to crofts on Shetland; its hand is soft and bloomy; and the range of shades is magnificent. After working on this book I almost know the shade card numbers by heart... there is no way I can choose one all time favourite shade, but my top five would be 9097, FC11, 202,1208 and 125. 9097 is a calm red; it is the exact colour of the distant poppies that bloom on the horizon when driving my favourite road and it has a magical relationship with FC12 if you want to transition between red and green. FC11 is the most beautiful verdant green. It energises all plant-based design themes with its vivid hues; it is the colour of fresh leaves that have the sunlight passing through them. I think I used 202 more than any other shade in the book; it is an incredibly useful neutral shade and appears in many palettes with its translucent cool creaminess. It tempers brightness in surrounding shades and is really useful for describing such textures as faded pages or old paint; spots on a beach where the sunlight is hitting the sand; faded road markings and clouds. It is versatile and understated and I feel a must-have shade for every knitter trying to turn everyday inspirations into stranded colourwork! 1280 is perfect for transitioning magically between purple and green shades as I discovered while I was knitting sloes. The bloom on a sloe is a beauteous and elusive thing but this shade I think goes some way towards capturing it. Finally I love 125 because it is almost the exact same colour as Reading Red. That is the colour that Reading clay fired to in the Victorian brickworks once plentiful in this town and there is nothing like it. You can see that the later bricks were not made of Reading clay because they are not the same vivid shade as your wonderful 125. Thanks Felicity and Congratulations!
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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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The Wool Ride
During Wool Week there are many things happening all over the UK, of course we will be busy with Shetland Wool Week but in London the Campaign for Wool will be hosting their Wool Ride! from the Campaign for Wool website: Starting and finishing at Potters Fields on Sunday 5th October, the bicycle ride will journey through some of the streets made famous by London’s most prominent wool supporters, including the archetypal Jermyn Street. Participants will also be able to take in some of London’s key sights and hotspots, passing through iconic scenery such as; London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Knightsbridge, Park Lane and Regent Street. Commencing at 9am and running through till 2pm, this 13.4 mile ride, estimated to take around 1 hour 38 minutes, takes riders along a meandering route with time to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the sights of the capital at a leisurely pace. in celebration of the Wool Ride, Sandra has designed two free patterns which you can download and make yourself. The Rastoorie and the Bikers Hat. Both are designed to fit over a cycling helmet but of course if you use smaller needles or block the hat over a smaller plate (Sandra used a large dinner plate) it will fit a lot less slouchy. Although if you like that look, go for it! The Rastoorie uses lots of small amounts of Jumper Weight so its great for using up odds and ends and the bikers hat features a fun bike motif 'cycling' around the hat! for more information and to download the free patterns, click here Its been a very busy summer at J&S so we haven't had much time to blog, but with visits from Kate Davies, Deb Robson, Mary Jane Mucklestone and Gudrun Johnson thankfully they have blogged about visiting us! of course the usual tourist season filled with cruise ships and holiday goers has meant for a busy shop. We are now beginning to get organised for Wool Week, and we cant wait! Speak soon!
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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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