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Angela Irvines Lace Creations
Hello everyone, Happy Friday! today we thought we'd look at something a bit different and share some of Angela Irvines Shetland Lace creations, in particular her lace Creel lampshade which she shared on Facebook a few days ago, I was blown away by it so asked Angela a few questions about it: For our followers that are not familiar, what is a Creel? A creel is a cage for catching lobsters & crabs on the seabed. What gave you the idea to turn it into a lampshade? The idea came ages ago, a creel is covered in net, and my late brother made many to catch lobsters. I knew they would look fab covered in fine lace. The structure and ‘eye’ of the creel are great sculptural shapes to stretch lace over. Industrial Chic interior fashion is all the rage at the moment too. Was it easy to do? It was very very hard to do, I was amazed I didn't have to re-do any panels. I worked the sizes & stitches out best I could from other creations I gave done on lace furniture panels in the past. The ‘eye’ of the creel was a real challenge to design as it had to finish with the round eye, I just knitted that part as the beginning of a crown for a hat before casting off, it fitted like a glove to my delight! Phew! How did you choose the lace motif's you used in the piece? I chose my favourite auld Shetland Fine Lace seashore themed patterns, ‘Birds Eye’ for the creel eye ( where the lobsters or crabs crawl into the bait & are then trapped) Elaborate Print o’ da Wave top/sides and Alice Maude Pattern for the end as it is a beauty with waves also. You often use Shetland Supreme Lace in your work, what do you like about the wool? I use Shetland Supreme as its the best, strongest, finest, dresses the lace out tight to perfection and un-dyed the colour of wir Shetland sheep. Angela uses our Supreme Lace in her creations like this lamp using Supreme Lace in Grey and the sideboard which features panels in Black Supreme Lace: You can see more of Angela work on here website here, very inspiring! Happy Knitting!
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Northern Lights KAL winners!
Hello everyone, happy Monday! thank you for all voting in our Northern Lights KAL post, the winners are: Garment EvaL8's Norrsken and Accessory jelibets Night Wing Thank you, everyone, that took part, and we have messaged the two winners on Ravelry about your prize! Now our Northern Lights KAL has finished we would like to do another KAL to focus on during this strange times, so if you have any ideas let us know in the comments below, happy knitting!
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Flecket Friday Cheeriness!
Hello everyone, happy Friday! Today we thought we'd share some cute pictures from one of our crofters. Lambing season is in full swing now and the fields are filled with bouncy little lambs, Chris Dyer has Garths Croft in Bressay and he has lots of beautiful coloured and flecket Shetland Sheep (the kind of wool that ends up in Supreme Jumper Weight, Supreme Lace and Shetland Heritage Naturals) and he's been sharing some lovely pictures over on their Instagram so we asked Chris if we could share some here: Aren't they so cute? Chris also made a video with a virtual tour of his croft which you can see on youtube here as part of the I Thought I Knew How podcasts online international fiber festival. While everything is in lockdown it's important to remember those things that carry on and in agriculture, lambing is one of those things that will happen no matter what! And with very cute results.. So follow Chris' Instagram and follow along the lambing and crofting journey if you find it interesting, happy knitting!
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Northern Light KAL Final Projects!
Hello everyone, we have reached the end of our Northern Lights KAL! today I'm going to share the projects which have been finished during the KAL, the rules were that the item had to be inspired by the Northern Lights in Shetland and could use any style of knitting or any of our ranges of J&S yarn. If you want to see more pictures please click on the link on each picture – that will take you to the Ravelry project page. We have spilt the poll into garments and accessories so once you’ve had a look over please vote for your favourite, Voting will be open for a week then we will reveal the winners next Tuesday in our Ravelry Group and on Instagram! Garments Shetland Skies Sandvoe Northern Lights KAL Jumper Norrsken Merrie Dancers Dress Birkin Thank you for voting, the poll is NOW CLOSED Accessories Shetland Mirry Dancers Night Project Bag Northern MN Lights Northern Lights Cowl Night Wing Millions O Stars Every Flavour Bousta Hap Cowl Thank you for voting, the poll is NOW CLOSED Happy Voting!
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Lockdown Inspiration
Hello everyone, we hope you are staying safe and well. I thought today we'd share some inspiring finished projects which have been shared to our Ravelry group, it's always interesting to see what other people have been working on using our yarns and it can give you great ideas on patterns, colours and yarns to use: Starting with this beautiful version of Vaila from the Vintage Shetland Book, we love the colours Kim chose in 2ply Jumper Weight and although the shades are quite modern and bright it still gives off great vintage vibes! We shared this project on our social media last week but its so lovely, its the Quaarl Hat pattern knit in Supreme Jumper Weight. We love the big motif on the main body of the hat - it's so impactful and in the natural shades it's just beautiful. This cardigan knit in Shetland Heritage really stood out to me when I saw it and its a great example of someone taking elements from a pattern to make something perfect for them. The lace pattern is from one of the designs in the Legacy of Shetland Lace book. Light Grey Heritage is such a beautiful colour! This scarf is knit using 2ply Supreme Lace held together in a marl and the finished project is so great! We love that it shows the different things you can do with laceweight and the way all the natural colours work together is so inspiring. The pattern is from the new Cecelia Campochiaro book 'Making Marls' This project stood out thanks to the use of Purl Bumps in this pattern, aptly called Purl Bump Mitts is so great and the cuff and fingers texture is so good. simple but so effective! Although it looks like black and white the dark shade is actually Jumper Weight shade 82 which is a really dark green - it works so well with the white. This project shows off the beautiful finished texture of the Shetland Aran Worsted, it looks so soft and the colourwork is so strong, The pattern is Speedy Selbu Mittens and the colour choice is that bit different than usual but still so effective (Berry Wine and Fluggy White). Looking at the recently shared projects on Ravelry always leads you down a happy rabbit hole so during this time when many of us have a bit more time you can spend time looking at some really inspiring projects knit using J&S yarns. Again we'd like to thank you for your support during this time, happy knitting! x
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Lace Patterns
Hello everyone, one of the things we been doing during lockdown is taking our Gladys Amedro and lace patterns and adding them to Ravelry and Lovecraft's as PDF downloads. They are all pre-digital age so it means scanning each page and reformatting them, and as they are all written out that can mean quite a few pages! The Sheelagh Shawl During the 1980s and 1990's Gladys Designed a wide range of Shetland Lace patterns for J&S, they are still some of our best sellers and are seen as some of the most accomplished things you can tackle as a knitter. clockwise: CW103, Sheelagh, CW112 and CW105 So we've added most of the 1ply Shawls that were left to do as well as all the matching Christening Gowns/Robes: l-r: CW111. CW106 and CW104 As well as the Gladys Patterns that were left we've also added the lace scarf patterns: clockwise: Trondra, Dale, Lunna and Tresta And the Stole, Jacket/Bonnet and Grace Jumper: l-r: CW108, CW113 and Grace Unfortunately, we don't have all the samples of the lace items - some because they are from a long time ago and we just don't have them anymore or we're not able to photograph them at the moment but by ensuring they are all listed on Ravelry it means people can link their projects to them so if you've ever made any of these patterns please link them - they are an important part of our history as some over the patterns go back over 30 years! So if you have some time on your hands and some 1ply Cobweb, 1ply Supreme, 2ply Lace or 2ply Supreme this could be the perfect chance to try out some Shetland Lace. Thanks as always for all your support and patience, happy knitting!
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Northern Lights KAL extended!
Hello everyone! we hope you are all keeping safe and well. You might remember our finish date for the Northern Lights KALwas the 1st of April.. well with everything going on we've decided to extend it to (provisionally) the 1st of May which means there is still plenty of time (many of us have a lot of that at the moment!) to enter if you want.. it could be the perfect time to use some of that J&S stash into something inspired by the Northern Lights. One thing you could make is a Katies Kep, this year's free Shetland Wool Week pattern which came out last week, we have been amazed at the number of orders we have had for the hat so far (we have kits for the J&S colourway) but you could use some Northern Lights inspired shades.. Remember to use our Ravelry group for the KAL, we have a thread for chatting about your projects and sharing progress and then a finished objects thread for you to post the project at the end. Thank you for all your patience and understanding during these crazy times, we are still posting out 2/3 times a week so although there may be slight delays in responding to emails and orders we are managing to keep everything going! Happy knitting xx
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An Update
Hello everyone, this is just a quick post to update you about what is happening at J&S during the UK lockdown thanks to the Coronavirus Pandemic. We posted an update at the beginning of the week which came before Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his address to the UK. From Monday night we are now in a lockdown situation which affects how businesses are able to be run during this time. We have had to close our physical shop meaning no customers can come in and shop because as per the government's instructions we are a non-essestional business, we are able however to continue selling online, we have made changes to our staff schedules so that we are not all in at the same time and we are able to work at the appropriate distances from each other. This means however that we cannot dispatch orders every day because there are fewer of us in and there will be delays in orders and with emails being answered. We will try and post out 2 or 3 times a week, we are used to posting out every day so it is a change for us too and we appreciate your patience. We will not be able to accept as many phone orders and would prefer if possible that you place your order online, we will be checking the answerphone when we are in but it will be dispatched earlier if placed online. We also ask that you double-check your order is completely correct before finalising it, as we cant easily make changes or add things at this time and it will delay your order further - this also applies to ensure you select the correct delivery option for your area. We have had an uptake in Shetland orders too through the online shop and we have added a Shetland Delivery option to the checkout so please make use of that if you are in Shetland. If there are any changes we will post again here or on our social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Ravelry) If you have questions we are contactable on all those channels so you may find we can get back to you quicker than by email. It is a scary period for us all so thank you for your patience and understanding during this time, keep safe and happy knitting xx
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Northern Lights KAL Update
Photo Copyright: David Gifford Hello everyone, we hope you are all doing well and keeping safe in these scary times! We are all fine here in Shetland for the moment but we are of course keeping an eye on all the advice coming in. Since we may all have a bit more time on our hand's thanks to Coronavirus I thought we would remind you about our Northern Lights KAL, which ends in a couple of weeks. What we would like is for you to knit or crochet something inspired by the Northern Lights, that could be using the colours, motifs and shapes often seen - for more info have a look at our original post. There have been some lovely finished objects appearing in the Ravelry group so if you thought you might have time to whip something up that would be great! Here are a few of the shared projects to whet your appetite.. L-R: Eval8, cutty-sark and brisch's projects L-R: NortherlyKnitting, deborahgray and klakla's projects We have a Pinterest board with pictures you can use to get colour and imagery inspiration and we did another post with more ideas. So if you want to take part there is still time and we look forward to seeing all the projects, Happy Knitting and stay safe!
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