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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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Sale!
Hello everyone, just a quick post to tell you about a little online only sale we are having for the next couple of weeks! we've reduced a selection of shades all over the ranges and added some other bits and pieces. You can get 20% off the following shades of 2ply Jumper Weight: top row: FC9, 1284, 132, 95. bottom row: 90, 79, 32 and 16 20% of these shades of 2ply Lace and 1ply/Supreme 1ply: top: L136, L95, L78. middle: L68, L53, L15. bottom: L5, 1ply Cobweb Black and 1ply Shetland Supreme Shetland Black These shades of 2ply Supreme Lace, Heritage Naturals and Aran Worsted: top: 2ply Supreme Lace in Shetland Balck and Moorit. bottom: Shetland Heritage Naturals in Dark Fawn and Aran in Saxon Blue We've added a discount on our bags: And we've put together some packs of different yarns - some are old stock or test runs so there are a limited quantity but they are a good deal! top: packs of 10 balls of 2006 Supreme Jumper Weight, 10 balls of Aran Berry Wine, 6 packs of 1ply Moorit Supreme. middle and bottom: packs of 10 balls of Shetland Heritage. We've recently received more stock of our Shetland Chunky which we have discontinued and we thought was finished but we've found more so its available for £3.50 a ball instead of £7.50: We've also put some packs together containing 7 balls of Shetland Heritage in a selection of Shades: 1 ball of Auld Gold, Indigo, Peat, Coll Black, Berry Wine, Madder and Fluggy White We have also reduced the Calendars, Cushions and some needles. Its a great chance to get a good deal on some shades and we might be adding some more things over the weeks - it's on from now (18th February) until the 3rd of March. Happy knitting and shopping!! just a note: this doesn't include yarn in kits, it's only available at the discounted price if bought from the sale page.
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Lerwick Up Helly Aa 2020
Hello everyone, today is Lerwick Up Helly Aa day! this is just a reminder that we will be closed tomorrow Wednesday 29th January as it is a public holiday here. If you would like to know more about the event see here and if you would like to watch the event live today and tonight there is a live stream which can be seen here. If you're on Instagram it's worth looking at the #uphellyaa2020 and #uphellyaa as lots of people will be adding photos as the day goes on! photo from www.uphellyaa.org
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Northern Lights KAL Inspiration
Hello everyone, today we thought we'd share some inspiration if you are thinking about taking part in our Northern Lights KAL, there are projects starting to appear on Ravelry and still plenty of time to enter. Now Christmas and New Year are past us there is more time for knitting and certainly, here in Shetland, we are having very dark, windy and rainy nights that just ask for hunkering down and doing some knitting. Photo Copyright: David Gifford I thought I'd share some patterns which could easily be used to convey the feeling of the Northern Lights or even take their inspiration directly from it: L-R: Prairie Stars Gloves - Outi Kater, Sky Gazing Toque - Simone Van Iderstine and Pole Star Mittens - Joan Poleson. L-R: Merrie dancers Toorie - Elizabeth Johnston, Aurora Polaris Cowl- Lou Lachance These patterns all use Fingering Weight/4ply so would work perfectly with 2ply Jumper Weight, this is the range in which we have the widest range of colours but you could take motif inspiration from the patterns and use any weight of yarn - 2ply Lace, Shetland Heritage, The Croft, Shetland Aran Worsted.. Of course, you could choose to go down the Shetland Lace route - I found these two patterns, one of which is directly inspired by Northern Lights: L-R: Merry Dancers - Heather Pfeifer, Shetland Stars Shawl (rectangle) - Monique Boonstra. If you would like to put together your own motifs or patterns there are lots of great books to help with that - some of the best selling ones are: Traditional Fair Isle Knitting by Sheila MacGregor and 200 Fair Isle Designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone. The Magic of Shetland lace Knitting by Liz Lovick and Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller I've focused on knitting styles more common in Shetland - Fair Isle/Colourwork and Lace but remember you can use any style of knitting as long as you use all J&S yarns – you can use any, from cobweb up to chunky but to be eligible for a prize you must be able to show it is made in our wool. If you are struggling with colours I've found a few websites you can use, Coolers.co lets you upload an image and puts together a palette from that picture: Adobe Color is another website that lets you search palettes: Some other colours inspiration websites are: Design Seeds, Colour Lovers and Colordot. I hope this has given you some inspiration if you would like to take part, the details of the KAL are: KAL will run until 1st April 2020. You can make any type of Knitted Garment/Accessory or Home item. What you make must only use Jamieson & Smith yarns. Item must be inspired by Northern Lights either in colour, motif or effect – or all three! You can share what you’re making with the #northernlightskal on Instagram and you must tag Ravelry projects with #northernlightskal Happy knitting!
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More Pattern PDF's Available Online
Hello everyone, we've added 4 more PDF patterns to our Lovecraft's and Ravelry stores this week, they cover a range of classic Shetland patterns: First up is the Yuglet Hat designed by Lesley Smith this is a classic Shetland cap with corrugated rib, traditional motifs and an easy but very effective crown. Its knit in Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight in all Natural shades. The next pattern is our Circular Shaded Shawl knit in Shetland Heritage Naturals, originally designed by Gladys Amedro and knit in 2ply Lace we updated this pattern a few years ago with charts and written instructions. Our Natalia Yoke by Sandra is a classic Bairns Yoke knit in Jumper Weight, It is knit traditionally in the round with a steek but it also includes instructions for if you wanted to knit it flat, the relatively small size makes it a great first steeking project, and as there are only 3 different contrast shades a great first Fair Isle project too. Our final pattern this week is the Shoormal Hap, also knit in Shetland Heritage Naturals, this Hap pattern is taken from the Traditional Shetland Scarves and Shawls booklet (Bestway K133) This pattern is described as ‘one of the most widely known and characteristic of Shetland designs..’ we made improvements on the pattern making it easier to follow and knit and have provided both written and charted instructions for the border and edging. So you can find all these patterns on both our Ravelry shop and Lovecraft's page, if you would prefer a paper copy and kit they are all available on the website. Happy Knitting!
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Christmas and New Year Closing
Hello everyone, just a quick post to let you know our closing dates over Christmas and New Year. We will close today (Monday 23rd December) at 1pm and reopen Monday 6th January 2020 at 9am. During this time no orders will be dispatched or emails replied to but if you have any burning questions you can message us on Facebook, Instagram or in our Ravelry group and we will do our best to get back to you. Thank you for all the support and business this year and we hope you have a happy Christmas and New Year!
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2020 Calendar
Hello Everyone, just a quick post today to share with you our 2020 calendars which have just arrived! During our Seasons of the Shetland Crofter Competition we received so many amazing photographs displaying the life and work of crofters and farmers in Shetland, we included as many as we could in the book but then we had the idea we could share even more of the photos in a calendar! here is a peerie look at the photos featured: Clockwise: Dave Wheeler, Ian Reid, Heather Gray and Anne MacDonald Clockwise: Margaret Towriess, Heather Gray, Anne MacDonald and Dave Wheeler Clockwise: Sally Sanford, Ian Reid, Heather Gray and Elaine Tait. The calendar is A4 folded so opens up to A3, if you would like one you can find them on the website here.
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