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In The Loop 3.5
Shetland is very lucky in that our strong textiles culture means lots of textiley things happen here, and last week Shetland was host to the In the Loop 3.5 Textile Conference as part of the International Textile Festival. In The Loop was developed by Linda Newington who is the Head Librarian at the Winchester School of Art, in 2010 Shetland was the host of In the Loop 2 which was organised by Linda together with Dr Carol Christiansen, the Shetland Museum Curator. In the Loop 3.5 had a Nordic theme and the conference featured 3 days of talks by academics, knitters, students, artists and many more. I couldn't go into detail about all the talks but I thought id pick out a few, you can see a short description about all the speakers here. Kerstin Lindstrom is an artist with an interest in parcipative art, and in her talk she spoke about her piece 'Own Our Own Time' which involved a group of 80 knitters together in a circle to reflect on the passage of time, it was originally organised in Faroe in 2011. On Thursday the piece was added to by Shetlanders and visitors at the Bod of Gremista I took these pictures at the event, while knitting! the green wool we were knitting with was Jamieson & Smith Heritage in the colour Moss Green. It was a chilly night but we knitted for an hour or so adding to the piece, it was quite clever how it was done, you knitted with one end of one circular needle on your left and the other end of another circular needle on the right so the knitting was continually moving around. On Thursday Roxane Permar gave a talk on Public Art and Knitting in Shetland which covered public art work she has done in Shetland, i know Roxane as she is a Lecturer on the Textiles course at the Shetland College where i studied, but it was really interesting to hear about her work over the years, including the controversial Croft Cosy Project she developed in Shetland in the early 1990's. The project plan was to handknit a cover to go over a traditional Shetland Croft House and she spoke about the positive and negative reactions the project had. Also on Thursday morning Oliver, the manager and top wool man at Jamieson & Smith gave a talk entitled 'Shetland Wool in the 21st Century' Quite a wide topic! He focused on the projects and partnerships we are involved with at J&S, such as the Fine Lace Project and Heritage Yarns with the Shetland Museum and Amenity Trust and the wide range of products made with Shetland Wool at the Real Shetland Company. On Thursday afternoon Elizabeth Johnston gave a really interesting talk about Fair Isle Yoke Jumpers and Cardigans and how they have come back into fashion. She showed us lots of photos of her family and relatives in Fair Isle Yokes over the years and told us that her granddaughter had asked her to make her a yoke. Elizabeth said she hated making yokes when she was knitting them in her youth, and it really made me think about how when something is in fashion you don't think about the people making the item and how they probably are not glad they are in fashion! The finished yoke she made for Callie, her granddaughter, was made completely in handspun and hand dyed wool which is Elizabeth's specialty and she had the finished yoke with her, it was so lovely. Elizabeth had contacted me before the conference and asked if she could feature my yoke cardigan in her talk which was made by Sandra, and of course I agreed. The main shade is Jumper Weight Shade FC38 and one of my favourites! I get a lot of compliments on it, and i will still wear it, even if yokes go out of fashion! Friday featured some of my favourite talks, Emily Watts recently graduated from the Royal College of Art, we met Emily last year when she came to Shetland to research for her dissertation, and we sponsored some of her final show work which was all made using British Wool, she focused her talk on her trips to Shetland and a small Norwegian town called Svalbard and how it inspired her final collection. Annemor Sundbo gave a very inspiring talk, she ran one of the last shoddy factories in Norway which made blankets and quilts from recycled knitwear, and she began to find and sort all the beautiful knitted textiles, saving them from the rag pile If you can i would look at the list of speakers and have a read about some of their work, it made for a very inspiring few days and it was brilliant to see how many people came up to Shetland especially for the Conference. It makes me excited for Wool Week! Happy Knitting! Ella
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Jamieson & Smith at the Voe Show
On Saturday Me (Ella), Sandra and Oliver headed up north to Judge at the annual Voe Show. Oliver was judging the wool and me and Sandra were judging the Knitting, in particular the Colour Box Competition. For the past few years we have chosen a range of eight colours from our 2 ply Jumper Weight and the challenge is to create something using at least 4 of the colours. There was a brilliant and wide range of items made, from all overs to socks and from headbands to dolls! We were so pleased with the amount of entries and the skill. There were also some entries from the Whalsay bairns in the children's categories We chose this cardigan as our Trophy winner, we loved the use of pattern and colour, you can see it on Ravelry here. After we had finished our section we went around to help with the rest of the knitting judging. We then met back up with Oliver who had been judging the wool. As well as judging the wool, Oliver was also given the hard task of judging the overall Champion from the winners in all the animal categories, there was a lot to choose from including this lovely Coo and peerie Kitten. Heres Oliver and Sandra discussing the merits of the winning hen.. In the end though Oliver decided to go for this lovely Sheepdog. A worthy winner I think. All in all, we had a great day at the Voe Show!
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Chequerboard Leaf Cardigan
Here at J&S we often work with distinguished designers and one that we've been working with since 1969 is Sasha Kagan. Sasha was the first designer that used Jamieson & Smith yarns in her work and her first book 'The Sasha Kagan Sweater Book' is filled with designs using our 2ply Jumper Weight, we still get phone calls from people looking for the wool! Her most recent book covers 4 decades of hand knitting design, 'The Classic Collection' was released in May 2011 to coincide with her 'My Life In Textiles' Exhibition. It includes the first design she made using J&S, the Silver Birch Scarf. We have a new design by Sasha Kagan, The Chequerboard Leaf Cardigan, which was designed in partnership with NFU Countryside Magazine. The design features a twisted rib, eye catching leaf intarsia and a blackberry stitch basket weave design. This cardigan is worked flat and in pieces then sewn together. Sasha's designs often feature themes of nature and the changing seasons, the pattern on the cardigan reminds me of the leaves falling off the trees in Autumn, which will be here before we know it! If you'd like to knit the Chequerboard Leaf cardigan, you can find the kit on our online shop here. Happy Knitting!
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It's that time of year again
The wool season 2013 has finally kicked off after a pretty poor start to the year weather-wise. Stuart is back through in the wool store most of the time helping Derek and Oliver and even Ella has been having a go at hand-grading the wool and baling it up. Load 1 of 12 will be leaving us very shortly to head off to the scourers and then the fun begins as most of Shetland's wool pours into us from all over the islands. The Wool Store, waiting for the influx of this years wool clip The Middle - or Coloured Wool - Store We handle roughly 80% of Shetland's clip which is about 250 tonnes of new wool. After the wool is dropped off by one of our 700-800 suppliers and weighed in, each fleece has to be hand-graded and sorted into its various colours and one of 5 grades; from Superfine to Rough. This can include dividing up a single fleece into various grades, as Shetland wool can contain fine fibre for spinning lace and thicker fibre suitable for carpet all in one fleece. It is then all baled up and each bale labelled clearly, with the crofters who own the wool noted down, so that it can be traced from the scourers right back to the croft on which it was grown. All in all it is hard work but very worthwhile watching all the wool passing through, especially when you go next door to the shop and see all the beautiful products it is transformed in to. A fleece can provide wool suitable for fine lace to carpeting Shetland wool, like Shetland's climate, landscape and wildlife, is varied, untamed and often seems to have a life of its own; but once it has passed through the laborious process of hand-sorting at J&S, its rebellious and challenging nature that comes from its original, unprocessed form gives Shetland wool products the unique and beautiful handle and bounce; the natural, undyed colouring; and the distinctive 'Shetland halo' that it has become world famous for. If you're ever in Shetland make sure to pop in to the J&S wool store and shop for a look, where you can see the various grades of wool, how it is handled and the beautiful products Shetland wool creates.
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Kate Davies' Sixareen Patterns
Kate Davies' Sixareen Kep and Sixareen Cape are now available on our online shop as kits! The patterns arrived this morning so we couldn't wait to get them online. They're the first patterns that Kate has designed in our Shetland Heritage range, which makes us even more excited about them. As with all Kate's designs they have been very popular so far judging by the distinctive yarn combinations we have been posting out from J&S. These two new kits add to a number of Kate's other patterns that she has designed to suit the specific character - the unique softness, bounce and 'halo' - of our Real Shetland Wool yarns: the BMC in our 2ply Jumper Weight; the Sheep Heid, Rams & Yowes Blanket, Sheep Carousel and Toby's Coat in our Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight; and the Warriston in our Shetland Aran; and that is even before we mention those designs in her book Colours of Shetland. Also to make it easier to find all these beautiful designs in one place we have added a Kate Davies section to the kits part of the online shop. I'm sure there will be more to come in the future! You can find the Sixareen Kep here and the Sixareen Cape here on our online shop. You can also find out more on Kate's Blog about the Kep here and Cape here where you also get to see beautiful photography such as this. Amazing!
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Changing Trends
Fashions are always changing, especially in knitwear; one minute everyone is snapping up all the bright, bold colours and the next it's all about the naturals. We try to follow these changing trends to try and make sure knitters are able to get the shades they want for their designs. We frequently get asked about discontinued shades and recently decided to reintroduce a couple that were often requested by our customers: FC7 (orange) and FC11 (green). These are vital shades for blending in with others so have been a very popular addition to our 2ply Jumper Weight range already. We would love to be able to keep hundreds of shades but each one takes a lot of care and attention to make (not to mention a lot of space to store!) so we have managed to limit it to the beautiful shades we currently have, which are used in the creation of countless variations of knitwear. Besides there is only a limited amount of Real Shetland Wool available so we want to make sure we are using it wisely. We try to have a good relationship with our customers, as your views are so important in helping us continue to develop into the future. Re-continuing FC7 and FC11, which we are so glad to have back, is just one example of how we respond to your feedback. In the past few years our range has rapidly expanded with our Combed Tops, Cushion Filling, Shetland Supreme 1 and 2ply Lace, Shetland Chunky and Shetland Heritage being introduced meaning the shelves in our shop are now bursting with 10 yarn and fibre ranges in a huge variety of shades. These have all been developed through working with various organisations, with feedback from you, so please keep it coming and we will see what we can come up with next. Along with all our other 2ply Jumper Weight shades, you can find balls of FC7 and FC11 here and cones here. Happy Knitting!
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North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference - Shetland - 2013
It has been a busy few months at J&S and we are very excited to have played a small part in the initial organisation of the North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference 2013 which is coming to Shetland in October. Following on from the previous two conferences in Orkney (2011) and Bergen (2012) it is a must-see for anyone interested in Shetland Sheep and their cousins around the North Atlantic. It begins on the Friday of Shetland Wool Week - 11th October - and continues until the following Tuesday 15th October. The programme is packed with activities including: a look around Shetland Agricultural Centre, with wool grading and sorting, a visit to the abattoir and sheep and wool sales; a day trip up to Yell and Unst visiting Hermaness National Nature Reserve to discuss common grazings there, spinning and knitting demonstrations and talks on the use of wool in local arts and crafts; talks from experts on subjects ranging from the genetics of North Atlantic Native Sheep to their importance for the local economies of their places of origin; and a large conference dinner featuring Shetland's famous local produce and music. Not only will visiting delegates gain a valuable insight into North Atlantic Native Sheep and sheep farming in the region, but they will also get to experience a range of Shetland's landscapes, being immersed in its culture during their trip. For anyone who wishes to attend the conference, or if you are just interested to know more, you can have a look at the programme (which was created right here at J&S!) below. Note - if you want to print it off, the second link should work better for most systems. North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference 2013 North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference 2013 - printable If you want to know more contact conference organisers: Emma Miller: emma@shetlandamenity.org, +44 (0)1595 69468 or Pete Glanville: pete.glanville@shetlandorganics.com
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Weaving With J&S Yarns
Here at J&S we hear a lot about the knitting being done with our yarns but for a change we have some lovely weaving that was made using Jamieson & Smith. Amy Gair is a Shetlander who after studying at Shetland College (With Ella) has gone away to Galashiels in the Scottish Border, arguably the home of weaving in Scotland to finish her studies. detail of the Cape Amy has come home for the summer and brought in her cape she made for the Farlin Project, an exhibition of craft and poetry by partnerships between poets and craft-makers in Shetland and Fife, in the project Amy was paired with Poet Andy Jackson. Amys Cape, woven using our 2ply Jumper Weight In Amys own words: "The Storytellers cape was made using 100% Shetland Wool, and the theme behind it was the sea. During my first few months away from Shetland, it struck me just how lucky Shetlanders are that they get to see the sea from almost every angle.The idea of this being the story tellers cape came from the idea that the sea holds many memories and stories, good and bad, but not everyone know’s what they are. The cape is supposed to hold all these stories in one, evoke memories of the sea and places we call home to its viewers." This is the poem which was written to go in connection with Amys Cape: Rashiecoats Marriage Guidance Who wears a cloak of woven gold? Has no-one told you glam is out, that foxy royals favour shabby chic? These days it’s all about the bold rejection of convention, so shout it from the highest turret; weak is the woman who marries for wealth - a rich man would happily marry himself. Who would wear this feathered cloak? Do you think the birds would give the very things that make them free, without a fight? The kind of bloke who breaks a wing would have you live in batteries, clipped and flightless. He may lure you with his cooing words, but choosing to be caged is for the birds. Who would wear this cloak of reeds? Hope you had the sense to keep the gift receipt. You may start to plan your strategies of love, the seeds of passion germinating in the deep of your womb, disrobing for your man rush by rush, but girl, here’s the news; love is just lust in sensible shoes. Andy Jackson To read more about the Cape and about Amys weaving you can see her blog here, we've had the Cape in the shop for a couple of days and we've had so many comments on it. its beautiful!
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New Shetland Heritage Shades
From one launch on Friday to now another on Monday, its been an exciting weekend at J&S. The long-anticipated new Shetland Heritage shades have finally arrived and we are delighted to now be able to release them for you to begin creating beautiful knits with. These new shades have been created using feedback from our customers with the most requested colours being developed to blend with the original 6 shades. Coll Black and Snaa White provide the classic black and white combination, perfect for Sanquhar Gloves, and are much needed shades for colourwork or for creating simple, yet beautiful, white or black garments. Shetland Heritage also knits up well in lace if you want to experiment with thicker lace garments. Mussel Blue provides the much-requested dark-blue, and Moss Green gives a lovely, warm green that blends in beautfully with the other shades. Finally Silver Grey adds a nice neutral shade, similar to Shade 203 in our Jumper Weight yarns, that can be used as a background colour to tie together all the other shades in colour work. These new shades compliment the original 6 and open up a whole range of new options for working with this beautiful yarn, highly regarded for its softness and stitch definition. You can find all 11 shades here. The original 6 Shetland Heritage shades were inspired by traditional, hand spun and dyed yarns found in garments in the Shetland Museum and Archives textile collection. These were the first dyed yarns used in Fair Isle knitwear in Shetland and would have been made from whatever dyes were available to the people of the time, including madder root and indigo. You can find out more about the development of the Shetland Heritage range in the original 6 shades here. All in all a great start to the week!
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