Seasons of A Shetland Crofter

hello everyone, just a quick reminder today about our Seasons of A Shetland Crofter competition which closes in a few weeks. We’ve had some great entries so far but we are still looking for more – To remind you we are looking for seasonal stories and photos taken in Shetland which show you the nature and agricultural aspect of our culture that crofting and farming have given us over the years..

We are hosting the competition together with Vispring, Shetland Amenity Trust and Shetland Wool Week  and for some inspiration I thought I’d share some modern and historical photos we have shared on the blog before:

Sheep at the Voe Show

Wool just been clipped, Bressay

Berry Farm

Shetland Sheep and Lambs

Suprise Lamb at the Cunningsburgh Show

Clipping Sheep

Caaing Sheep

Rams at the Walls Show

You do not have to be a crofter to enter (I took quite a few of these and I’m just a toonie with a crofter grandad!) but if you have historical or current photos that you feel show the crofting or nature of Shetland we would love to see them, the prizes include a Real Shetland Wool Vispring Bed (!) and a two night stay at Sumburgh Lighthouse so its definitely worth entering.

The competition closes on the 21st of July and you can enter and find terms and conditions here. 

Seasons of the Shetland Crofter

Hello everyone, we have an exciting competition to announce, together with Vispring, Shetland Amenity Trust and Shetland Wool Week we are hosting another competition where a Vispring Real Shetland Wool bed can be won!

If you weren’t already aware, Vispring purchases a large quantity of our very own Real Shetland Wool which they use in a number of their bed ranges, including the stunning Shetland Superb and Shetland Bedstead models.

Vispring has been making beds since 1901 and they are world renowned for their bespoke, made to measure beds and mattresses. in 2011 we hosted a competition with Vispring which led to the publication of Real Shetland Yarns – a book filled with the stories of Shetlanders (sadly now out of print) and the chance for someone to win a Shetland Bed!

Now 8 years later we want to do the same and hope the response will be just as good as it was the first time. As this is a competition to celebrate the Shetland Crofter and Farmer we ask that all entries and entrants are connected to Shetland as we want the bed to come back here (for more information see the rules linked below) but as we want to publish another book we hope you will all be interested in the competition.

Seasons of the Shetland Crofter Competition

Welcome to The Seasons of the Shetland Crofter Competition where we will give you the chance to win a selection of prizes including a luxury Vispring Real Shetland Wool Bed! We at J&S and our good friends Vispring have long admired the Shetland Crofting Community for the hard work and care that they put into tending for their sheep, the efforts of which provide us with the Real Shetland Wool that we use in our wide-range of products.

Together with Shetland Amenity Trust, we would like to celebrate the work of the Shetland Crofter by collating a selection of photos, stories and videos to promote the Crofting Industry.

All featured story and photographic entries will be compiled in a special Vispring sponsored ‘Seasons of the Shetland Crofter’ book which will be officially launched at the 10^th annual Shetland Wool Week 2019.

All winning video entries will be hosted on a J&S YouTube page.

Entry Guidelines

We would like to see what you believe defines the Shetland Crofter throughout the seasons and ask that all entries depict scenes or memories from a specific season (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter).

Entrants may enter multiple submissions but are only eligible to win one prize in total.

Entries do not have to be current; you can draw inspiration from the past, dig out old family photographs or videos or take new ones while you/your family are looking after your croft in the upcoming seasons of 2019!

All photographic submissions are welcome but we recommend entries be in their original quality or scanned to at least 300dpi and uploaded via the MailBigFile upload form (see the link below) – max file size is 4GB.

All video entries must be between 1-3min long and submitted in their original format via the MailBigFile upload form  – max file size is 5GB.

Example entries:

A photograph of family members out on their croft, tending to their sheep on a bright Summer’s day…Or An early morning Spring-time video taken by a Crofter on his/her way to check on their sheep…Or A memorable story of your grandparents out on the croft, bringing in their sheep one cold Winter…

Our main stipulation is that all entries depict what you believe defines Shetland crofting life in one of the changing seasons – this is a competition about the Shetland Crofter, for the Shetland Crofter (please see competition rules linked below).

Prizes All entries will be sorted into their respective season and winning submissions will be selected by a judging panel made up of representatives from J&S, Vispring and Shetland Amenity Trust.

Prize structure consists of:

OVERALL WINNER:

(Defined by the best overall entry as selected by the judging panel)

Vispring Real Shetland bed set* (for Shetland residents only)
Two-night stay at Sumburgh Head Lighthouse courtesy of Shetland Amenity Trust (to be claimed within 1 year)
Copy of the Seasons of the Shetland Crofter book

1^st Place per Category:
(Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter)
£100 in cash or J&S vouchers
Vispring branded J&S RSW throw
Copy of the Seasons of the Shetland Crofter book

Shortlist Entries per category:
Vispring branded J&S RSW throw
Copy of the Seasons of the Shetland Crofter book
Pair of J&S Real Shetland Wool socks

How to enter

To enter and for all the competition rules please click here.

NKCAL 2018 Winners!

hello everyone! its time to share the winners of the NCKAL, there were nearly 600 votes so thank you to everyone that took the time to vote for their favourite. It was all very close in the results but..

The winner in the Garment Category is Alix:

And the winner in the Accessory Category is Eva:

So Congratulations Alix and Eva, I will be in touch by Ravelry message about your prize, thank you to all that took part and either entered or voted. We will think up another Knit A Long soon!

Happy Knitting x

New Colours KAL 2018 – the entries

Hello everyone!

We are back today with the final items made for the New Colours KAL, there is a good mix or garments and accessories. The rules for the KAL was the item had to use at least 3 of our newly brought back colours of 2ply Jumper Weight (16, 32, 90, 1282 and FC21) along with as many other shades of Jumper Weight you wanted. 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!

Garments

Wild Flowers by Auchnagaoith

Yoke 2 by MaureeninFargo

NCKal Clover Cape by Rubyshasha

Man Vest by bessie4dogs

Never Smile at a Crocodile by Alix Pearson

Accessories

Merrie Dancers Toorie by Fabclaire

New Colours KAL 2018 by Anniejay

Babyblanket by Eval8

Decennium by ginny8

Color Challange by Jelibet

J&S New Colors KAL by HootersHall

Never Smile at a Crocodile Hat by AlixPearson

The polls will close Next Wednesday 16th May and we will announce the winners and contact them to send a prize, Thank you to everyone who took part, we love doing our colour themed knit-a-longs and we are glad you do too.

Happy Knitting!

New Colours KAL 2018

Hello everyone! things have been very busy here over January as we get back into the way of things but today we announce our KAL for the next few months – the New Colours Kal!

from left to right: 90, 16, FC21, 32 and 1282

We are constantly updating and changing the colours we have in 2ply Jumper Weight and we are lucky that we have a huge back catalogue of shades which if we need to we can take from and bring back. In recent years we did that with FC11 and FC7 which has really added to the palette and although this means saying goodbye to some shades its proof that it doesn’t always mean forever!

This KAL is a bit different than others we’ve done before in that you can use as many shades of 2ply Jumper Weight as you want but you must use at least 3 of the new shades. Hopefully it will be a lot of fun! As in the Fire Festival Kal at the end we will have a public vote so its always worth putting something in – you might win!

So the KAL: what we want you to do is –

• Knit a garment or accessory using J&S 2ply jumper weight only.
• at least 3 shades must be from our newly brought back colours: 90, 16, FC21, 32 and 1282.
• As many other shades can be used as you want.
• the item must use Fair Isle knitting/ stranded colourwork.

That’s it! The KAL begins on February the 2nd and runs until until the 2nd of May.

Now the new/old colours:

16 is a lovely bright blue

32 is a bright bronze

90 is a peachy orange

FC21 is a lovely marled lavender

And 1282 is a marled mid green.

All the new colours are now on the online shop and if you would like to take part there will be chat and discussion in our Ravelry group, if you share any progress photos on instagram use the #nckal

We’ll be back with some colour combo inspirations soon but until then happy knitting and planning!

British Craft Awards 2018

Hello everyone, happy Friday! Just a quick post today to tell you about something quite exciting! We have been nominated in The British Craft Awards 2018 in the Knitting Brand of the Year category!! isn’t that amazing??

According to the website ‘Celebrating the crème de la crème of the crafting world, the British Craft Awards 2018 are the most highly prized awards for excellence, so make sure you have your say and put your favourites in the spotlight! Whether it’s an amazing designer or blogger who gets your creative juices flowing, or a retailer or product that’s transformed your crafting in the last 12 months, this is your chance to tell us who you think deserves extra special recognition for what they do!

So if you think we deserve it we would really appreciate your vote which you can do here,

Happy Knitting!

 

Shetland College Project 2017

Hello everyone, Happy weekend! On Wednesday myself (Ella) and Oliver headed to the Shetland College, every year for the past few years we have worked with the College on a project using our yarns. The students are given a brief to produce a garment or home interiors product using the Worsted Spun and Heritage yarns (Shetland Supreme Lace 1 and 2ply, Shetland Heritage Natural and Dyed, Shetland Aran Worsted and Shetland Chunky). This year also had two woven products which was very exciting!

We were there to see the final items and hear the presentations from 3 students, Rhea Kay who’s Jumper we saw last year was also included in this module so if you want more information about her garment see last years post here. Andrea who was included with Rhea last year has moved onto another college on the Mainland so her poncho isn’t included but you can see more information about it too in that post. Rhea’s garment looked as good as we remembered it – it will be on display at the Whalsay Heritage Centre after the term ends at the college so keep an eye out for it there if you are visiting!

First up was Julia Nairn who covered a footstool in fabric made using the Shetland Heritage Natural yarns, she was inspired by the Houll Loch in Whalsay and took lots of photos of the scene. She finds it to be a timeless landscape and she was particularly inspired by the ripples in the water and the almost symmetry seen her her photos which she took through to her finished item. She used an undulating twill structure for her weaving and her main focus was to take the landscape into the home which is why she made a homeware product.

We loved the way the resulting fabric came out and found the footstool to be very effective, the heritage yarn is soft yet robust making it very suited to weaving.

Alicja Tyburska also used weaving in her project but decided to make a garment, in this case, a large wrap. She is a weaver but also extremely interested in History and Archaeology, in particular, Shetlands Natural Landscape and its features, and she took the inspiration from Brochs and other stone features in Shetland – mainly how they are seen from above in drone photography.

This gave her the inspiration for her weave structure and she combined different weights of yarns – the Shetland Aran, Heritage and Chunky together to give beautiful texture to her finished item. We loved the professional finish and texture of the wrap, and the chunky tassels just finished it off perfectly.

Marcia Galvin used knit in her project and made this lovely wrap cardigan in the Shetland Heritage yarn, she was inspired by the word ‘Heritage’ and what it means to her, although not a Shetlander she has been here for many years and was interested in how certain areas have changed architecturally in Lerwick in particular Hays Dock. The Shetland Museum and Archives and Mareel are examples of modern architecture that Marcia looked at and took inspiration from, she looked up the briefs the architects of these building had and looked at the lines and shapes of the buildings.

You can see in her finished garment how elements of these buildings came out in her motif and texture. The cardigan is oversized but can be closed a number of different ways and with a belt. We though the use of colour and inspiration were very successful.

The winner of the unit will be announced at the Degree Show in a few weeks but we think all the students did extremely well, it’s really important to us to support the local College – me and Kharis are both graduates of the Contemporary Textiles course and it gives students the skills to be able to work in the industry in Shetland, something which is quite difficult and we, as an industry, must be supportive of these students.

Happy Knitting!

PS. remember the Shetland Wool Week programme comes out on Tuesday the 16th of May, there are lots of things happening again at J&S and it looks to be another fabulous year!

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Fire Festival KAL Winners

Hello everyone, so last week I asked you to vote on your favourites for the winners of the Fire Festival KAL and you didn’t disappoint, 736 of you voted in the two category’s and the winners were:

Up Helly Aa scarf by Hadewychs

Fire Festival KAL by DottyBev

So congratulations DottyBev and Hedwychs, I have contacted you by Ravelry message, they have both won a gift voucher to spend at J&S, thank you again to everyone who took part – we have really enjoyed seeing the different ways people put the colours together!

Fire Festival KAL by alysmith

Fire Festival KAL by tjitshere

Fire Scatness

Up Helly Aa hat by KTMaine

Ragnorok by Jelibet

Fire Festival KAL by torirtot

Up Helly Aa scarf by Hadewychs

Peat Hill Wasitcoat by Braemberi

Fire Festival KAL by Rubin

Fire Festival KAL by DottyBev

Up Helly Aa Mitts by Laknits

Norse Fire Socks by tinygiraffe

Shetland KAL by namihn

Fire Wind Water Cowl by kyspinner

American Fire by bdegar

Ready For Lerwick by Claudiajano

Fire KAL mitts by MaureeninFargo

Fire Festival KAL by merelide

Fire Festival Bousta Beanie by JaneKAL

Fair Isle Mitts by lav

Little Winter Star Fire Festival by Torirot

Up Helly Aa by Auchnagaoith

2017 J&S Fire Festival KAL by LKLawsonknits

Up Helly Aa by Jensknits

Up Helly Aa by JConklin

Saudade by woolyeyes

Up Helly Aa Hat by jn1982

Spritely SMUHA by socksprite

Fire Festival KAL by EvaL8

Fire Festival KAL by merelide

We will be having a little break but we were thinking to have a KAL for the Shetland Wool Week pattern – the Bousta Beanie – probably beginning in June so keep an eye out for that.

Happy knitting!

Cunningsburgh Show

Our tour of the Shows continued this week and we headed to Cunningsburgh on Wednesday. It was a lovely day, the only one of the week so it was great to be out!

Again I was judging the Colourbox Competition and Oliver the Wool so we headed to our respective huts to get judging..

After I’d done my bit I went to see how Oliver was getting on with the raw wool

As it was such a nice day we had a good wander round and looked at some of the Sheep..

and I was amazed at the amount of dogs..

Before heading back to the Knitwear to see the finished displays, as always the skill and amount of Knitwear entered was brilliant and it was very hard to judge the Colourbox, I did a few of the other category’s too but the I’m sure the other knitwear judges would agree the standard was very high!

As we had a tour in the afternoon we headed back to town so we didn’t get a look at everything but just like the Voe Show there were Cows, Poultry, Horses, Vegetables.. lots of things to see!

The Walls Show is this weekend so after that Ill have another post to round up the J&S tour of the Country Shows!

Happy Knitting!

British knitting awards 2016

Thank you all for the kind feedback and comments on the last blog, we were so pleased with how it was received! Today I’m back with a quick reminder about the British Knitting Awards hosted by Lets Knit Magazine..

We are lucky enough to have been nominated again  in the Best Brand for British Yarn Category, this is our third year being nominated, thank you! We are in a category alongside some of the big wigs  so we really love being seen in the same regard by our customers.

The past two years we have won third place which is brilliant but we would really love to come First or Second this year! You can vote here and it also enters you into a great giveaway (a £500 spa break or a £100 yarn bundle!!) so what is there to lose?

Thanks again and happy knitting 🙂