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More Patterns..
Hello everyone, this week's patterns have been uploaded to Ravelry and Loveknitting (soon to be Lovecrafts) We've chosen a mix of Fair Isle and lace this week - and I know it is a heatwave in many places so it might seem a bit strange to be thinking about Gloves and Hats but we are sitting in a usual Shetland Summer day of 11 degrees..! The Fair Isle Cap was a design we published in 2012 at the launch of our Shetland Heritage yarns, worsted spun to match items in the Shetland Museums collection. This hat is knit fully lined with a plain inside and a traditional Fair Isle outer. Skerry Gloves is a design we recently commissioned from Lesley Smith as we felt we were missing a traditional Shetland Glove pattern, it features a traditional Norwegian Star and is perfect for using up your odds and ends of 2ply Jumper Weight. We decided to also make available one of our all-time best selling patterns - the Gibbie Shawl, named after our former manager Gibbie Johnston and designed by Gladys Amedro. Knit in 1ply cobweb the pattern is written out line by line and not charted and the abbreviations used are those Gladys Amedro coined so although different to modern abbreviations once you get them, you get them! The Shetland Bound stole was designed for our Lace Collection in 2012 by Monqiue Boonstra, knit in our 1ply Shetland Supreme yarn, it is a beautiful and impactful lace project. Perfect for when you want more than a scarf but not a wedding ring shawl! We hope you are enjoying being able to get some of our patterns as downloads and we thank you for the feedback we've had, remember if there are specific patterns you would like to see please leave a comment. Happy Knitting!
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Pattern PDF's
Hello everyone, its the beginning of another busy summer here in Shetland. We have lots of tours during the summer and gearing up for another Wool Season but as always we are working behind the scenes on lots of things - for a while now we have wanted to make available our single patterns as PDF's as well as in kits we sell. To begin with we have chosen to make the patterns available on Loveknitting. (also now available on Ravelry!) We decided to start with a selection of our Fair Isle patterns knit using 2ply Jumper Weight: The Roadside Allover, Antarctica Jumper, Antarctica Set and one of our most popular patterns the Hairst Yoke. These are all great examples of Shetland designs by a Shetland designer - Sandra Manson who you will have met if you've ever been in J&S is the designer of all 4 patterns and I think her expert colour sense can be seen in them all. The Antarctica Set was released in 2012 and you may remember they were released after being made for Dr Alexander Kumar on his research trip to Antarctica, the set includes a Double layer hat, neckwarmer/cowl and mittens. The Antarctica Jumper is knit using the same motifs and colours and is knit from the bottom up with steeks for the armholes and neckline, this is a traditional Shetland technique where extra stitches are cast on and then cut open later so you can continue knitting in the round. The Roadside Allover features the same construction, it was knit for Oliver to wear at Edinburgh Yarn Festival as his Wool Week Patronage was announced in March. it features a softer but equally striking colour scheme. The Hairst Yoke is our version of a traditional Shetland Fair Isle yoke, it is one of the most well-known Shetland styles and we released this pattern in 2013, it has been one of our best sellers ever since. A Fair Isle yoke is a great way to use up your odds and ends and if you use a cone for the main shade it can be a very economical project. So you can find these patterns on our designer page on loveknitting here and on Ravelry. We will be adding more over the next while so let us know of any of our self published patterns you would like to see as an individual PDF. Happy knitting!
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Shetland College Project 2019
Every year for the last few years we have taken part in a Professional Practise module with the Textile Students and now also featuring the Fine Art students of the Shetland College. Last week me (Ella) and Oliver went over to the college to see this year's final projects, there were six students work in total and as always we were impressed with the results. Rebecca was inspired by the history of J&S and our former managers Eva and Jim Smith - she read into the history of the family and they're interests from our book, Jamieson & Smith: A Shetland Story. She took inspiration from the photos of Jim with his plane and Evas jacket to adorn a Jacket featuring embroidery, crochet patches and felted applique which she also dyed and altered. Tomas took his inspiration from the lines and textures of the Woolstore to create a range of knitwear to appeal to different and perhaps younger market. From his home country of Slovakia, he took colour and use inspiration forward in his hat, balaclava and headbands which can be worn in a mix and match way. Rachel was inspired by elements in the Woolstore - the story, materials and abbreviations we use on Wool bags were some things she took forward into her art piece. There is a use of mixed media, screenprinting, felting and embroidery onto Hessian and use of the raw wool too. Rosalynd took inspiration from the colour and texture of raw fleece into her garment, the panelling of different weights of yarn together with fringing which is reminiscent of the raw fleece. The large stitches also reminded us of the way bales are sewn together. Kirsty was inspired by the lightness of the 1ply Shetland Supreme and with the idea of using the wool as a drawing tool. Knotting, tieing and draping the wool into words reminded her of fish nets - another strong shetland pastime, combined with photography of the croft she was interested in the journey of the wool and the process from croft to wool. Sue took her inspiration from the Global reach of Shetland Wool week and how the history and culture of Shetland textiles bring so many people to us. This led her to look into Navajo weaving and this is where she took her colour inspiration from along with the linear aspect and block patterns. Her final scarf included a textured weave with triangular and wavy motifs in the Shetland Heritage yarns. Me and Oliver enjoyed our visit as always and it was inspiring to see the way the Students used our yarns in different and unusual ways. To see more work from the Shetland College you can follow both the Fine Art programme and Textiles course on Instagram.
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Harriets Hat
Hello everyone, Happy Friday! Just a quick post today to tell you about a local charity pattern which has just been released. Harriets Hat has been designed by Harriet Middleton to raise money for the Shetland MRI Scanner Appeal. Annually over 600 people have to travel to the Scottish Mainland for an MRI scan as we don't have one here in Shetland - this places a big impact on people as there can be many issues with travel disruptions, weather and the general stress on having to make the trip and what it could be for. An MRI scan can be used to diagnose and monitor such conditions as: Cancer Heart conditions Multiple sclerosis Arthritis bone and joint damage Stroke Dementia Fertility issues Heart defects Liver problems Infection Internal bleeding So you can see it would really benefit the Shetland community for us to have access to one. To raise money Harriet (who had to have MRI scans herself over a two year period) has designed a traditional Fair Isle hat in the appeal colours. The pattern is available to download as a PDF here and we are offering yarn packs of the J&S colourway with all the yarn needed here. (If you purchase a yarn pack it will not include the pattern - make sure to download it) We have paper copies of the pattern available to purchase in the shop and we will also be donating all the cost of the yarn purchased in the shop here in Shetland. For more information about the appeal and to donate you can see the website here. Many people all over the world have already purchased the pattern and we know Harriet is very proud of how well the hat is being received so if you have benefitted from the skills of Shetlanders, our knitting and our wool it would mean a lot if you either downloaded the pattern, bought the wool to knit one or donated to the appeal. Thanks and happy knitting xx
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Roadside Allover
Hello everyone! We have been delighted with the feedback on the Roadside Beanie, both here in Shetland and at Edinburgh Yarn Festival over the weekend. If you were there you may have seen Oliver in a very striking Fair Isle Jumper - which is what we are sharing today! When Oliver was thinking about going to EYF he asked Sandra if she would make a jumper for her, so in a couple of weeks (!) she knitted up the Roadside Allover for him to wear when he got to Edinburgh. It was a design she had made before and we all agreed he would really suit the colours. It features a mix of blues with some surprising shades thrown in and a lovely all over OXO pattern. Its knit in the traditional Shetland way - in the round with steeks added in for the armholes and neck. Me and Oliver headed down the new pier in in front of J&S a few weeks ago to get some photos and it fitted in perfectly with the fishing boats So if you would like to knit yourself a Roadside Allover you can find the kits on our website here, we are running out of a few shades which feature in both the Roadside Beanie and Allover but we are expecting a stock delivery in the next week or so so if you see anything sold out dont panic, Happy Knitting!
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Roadside Beanie
Hello everyone, today is the first day of the Edinburgh Yarn Festival marketplace, Derek and Sandra are there (if you are going we can be found at stand K8) but Oliver is also down because he has been announced at this year's Shetland Wool Week Patron! We are very excited of course as Oliver was instrumental in organising the first Shetland Wool Week 10 years ago as J&S founded the event. It has gone from strength to strength every year so for the 10th anniversary, it's great to see such an important figure in the Shetland Wool Industry as the patron. Oliver's design - the Roadside Beanie has been launched today and you can find kits here on the website and the pattern here on the Wool Week website. The design features common motifs for a Shetlander, sheep and fishing boats! To learn more about the Roadside Beanie have a read of the pattern. We are extremely proud of Oliver and look forward to seeing all the Roadside Beanies this year. Happy Knitting!
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Cobweb White Cones
Hello everyone, just a quick post today for the lace knitters, our 1ply Cobweb Wool has been a staple of our yarn collection since the 1970's, its a woollen spun 1ply (obviously) 50% Shetland 50% Lambswool mix which is commonly used for shawls and scarfs like the Gibbie, Sheelagh, Rosemary etc. It has a crisp finish when knitted up and it was used often by Gladys Amedro in her Lace designs. You might have noticed we often have cones of our 1 ply Shetland Supreme but we recently took in some cones of the 1 ply Cobweb which we've never had before.. so they are online now at £40, they are appox 600g which is about 8400 metres! This is equivalent to about 24 balls which if you are a shawl knitter means a big saving on the price of the balls. You should be able to get 4 or 5 shawls out of it. So if you would like a cones of 1ply cobweb you can find it on the website here! PS: We also just took back 3 shades of 2ply Lace.. L125, L69 and L28 which can be seen here.. Happy Knitting!
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January Special Offers
hello everyone, we shared this on our Social Media the other day but I thought i'd also share here on the blog some of the items we have on offer at the moment: All our discontinued BSS Aran yarns are now £2.00 a ball each, this is a lovely woollen spun Aran weight perfect for cabled or warmer garments and accessories. A few Jumper Weight shades: 47, 66 and 95 are only £2.00 a ball - that's about a 30% saving on the £2.85 usual price. two shades of our Shetland Chunky yarns: Raan (bright pink) and Olnafirth (bright blue) are now £3.50 per 100g ball which is better than half price. This Worsted Spun chunky is a lovely soft wool due to how its been spun. A couple of shades of 2ply Lace are £1.90 a ball, L3, L93 and Lfc17. We have a selection of 11 different shades of Jumper Weight 500g cones which are now £21 each, if you like pinks, oranges, yellow and turquoise there will be one for you. We have some Fair Isle for Beginners and Lace for Beginners kits which we have reduced, the pattern is free and the kit just costs the yarn price. Finally we have some Faulty Optic White 1 ply Shetland Supreme. This yarn came to us from the spinners with some issues in that when it was balled onto the cardboard core some were getting caught on machinery and the yarn was breaking. We had them all checked and because we cannot be sure there are no breaks within the yarn we are offering it for only £1.50 per 25g ball which is a big saving on the usual £5.00 price. You can find the offers on our website here. Happy knitting!
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Olivers trip to Visit the Shetland Sheep Society
Oliver and Catherine recently returned from a few days away visiting the Shetland Sheep Society, they invited Oliver down to give a talk on Sheep, wool and its uses and his work at Jamieson & Smith. The event took place in Nuneaton at one of the groups conferences. In 1985 the Shetland Sheep Breeders group was formed to help breeders outside the Shetland Isles to maintain flocks conforming to the 1927 Shetland Breed Standard. The group then became responsible for registering Shetland sheep on the U.K. mainland, overseeing and maintaining the strict breed requirements by inspecting the animals. The group admits they are not totally dependent on breeding the sheep classing themselves as part time unlike in some cases in Shetland where sheep is the bread and butter of the sheep producer. Oliver was greatly surprised and delighted to see the high standard of Shetland sheep in person at the Ashby by owners Lynne and David White. It was obvious that a great deal of care and attention into the flock breeding and husbandry of the animals. There was a big focus on quality, fibre fineness, uniformity of staple length and handle ( softness). After his presentation and question and answers Oliver was asked to judge a small amount of fleece some members had there and as with the sheep very impressive the fibre fineness and handle was quite exceptional. There is no doubt that this group containing approximately 500 members from the North of Scotland to Devon and Cornwall in the south of England play an important part in the Shetland breed of sheep. Not only does the group members travel to Shetland frequently and purchase high quality fine wool breeding stock, it is not unusual for some Shetland sheep breeders to do likewise. There are many reasons for this. One being the numbers of natural pure bred coloured sheep flocks are diminishing, also blood lines in Shetland are in some cases becoming to close thus the need for new stock. There is also an exchange of Shetland sheep judges wherein mainland judges travel to Shetland and judge at local agricultural shows, in turn Shetland sheep breeders travel and judge on sheep at U.K. mainland shows. It is very clear there is a combined dedicated effort to preserve the Real Shetland sheep, and this connection has resulted in many close friendships over the years. The visit was not just confined to sheep and wool but also a visit to Ashby St Ledgers a very important part of English history the home of the Gunpowder plot of 1605 where Guy Fawkes and the co-conspirators would have hatched up their plans to blow up King James and his Parliament. The church dates back to the 1100 s and is still in use today. Very grateful thanks from Oliver and his wife Catherine for the excellent and kind hospitality shown to them by the group, and a special thank you to David & Lyn of the Ashby Flock for letting me see and handle their outstanding Shetland Sheep. A never to be forgotten journey.
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