Gift Ideas 2020

Hello everyone, the season of gifting is nearly upon us and although it seems unthinkable Christmas will be here before we know it! This year we expect there to be delays in delivery times as we get closer so we would encourage you to order as soon as you can for presents – we have organised our most common knitterly and knit appreciative gifts on one page on the website which you can see here

RUGS – we have a limited number (don’t worry, more are coming!) of our beautiful rugs woven for us using our Supreme Jumper weight by Skye Weavers, they are so cosy!

YOKES – We have a range of Jumper Weight and Heritage Yokes Cardigans available (and some Jumpers) these are completely made in Shetland. The body and sleeves are machine-knitted on a domestic machine then the yokes are hand knit. Each one is different!

CREW – we also have a selection of plain crew neck jumpers knit in 2ply Jumper Weight, these are classic and timeless garments that will last a lifetime!

GIFT KIT/BOXES – we have also put together a selection of our patterns into gift boxes which contain the yarn and pattern, we have chosen a mix of patterns but if you have anything specific in mind we can always put something together for you – just email us!

COASTERS KEYRING MUGS – perfect peerie presents, our range of mugs, coasters and keyrings are made in Shetland and depict a range of our patterns.

SOCKS – we also have a selection of Toonie and Crofter socks which are knit in Shetland Heritage Naturals, these are some of the warmest socks ever and the two thicknesses are perfect for either in normal shoes (toonie) or in wellie/walking boots (crofter)

HATS MITTS – we also still have stock of our hand-knit mitts and hats, these are all totally unique and knitted by expert Shetland knitters.

We have just restocked our hand-knit Olivers hats too which are made by the designer – our own Sandra Manson and finished with an exclusive J&S tag.

NATURAL CUSHIONS/RUGS We still have a small stock of these undyed Cushions and Rugs which make great presents and keep you warm!

SELECTION BOXES If you want to buy someone Wool but are not sure what to get our Selection Boxes make a great gift!

You can also buy any yarn and add a kit box to make your own gift box.

KNITTING BELTS We have two styles of Knitting Belts, both made in Shetland so we have lots of colour options – Whalsay Belts and Tomas more muted colours

BOOKS and as always we have lots of books, including our own publications and some newer ones which have come out this year like the 2020 Wool Week Annual and the Wool Adventures Journal Volume 1

ACCESSORIES We have lots of good accessories too for gifts, many a knitter love an accessory!

Phew, if you’ve reached here Well Done and hopefully that has given you some ideas, you can find all the products mentioned here on our gift page.

Happy Knitting xx

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

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!

Voe Show 2019

Hello everyone! this past weekend saw the first of this summers agricultural shows here in Shetland and it was the Voe Show, I (Ella) headed up to judge the Colourbox Competition – this is something we do every year with some of the shows, we choose a selection of 8 shades of 2ply jumper weight and then people make things using at least 5 of the 8 shades. This years shades were: 5, FC44, 16, FC46, 32, 23, 91 and FC47

As always the standard was extremely high and it was very hard to judge, its amazing how much the way the colours look changes depending on how they have been put together. I took lots of pictures at the show so here are some of the Colourbox entries:

You have to choose a trophy winner from all the firsts and I chose this allover, I loved the corrugated rib collar and cuffs and thought the colour use and pattern were really excellent: The rest of the knitwear entries contained a huge variety of different styles from Fair Isle and Lace and everything in between – you always see amazing uses of colour, design and finishing. After I had finished in the hall with the knitwear I had a wander around the rest of the Show – the sun had come out and it was a lovely day. Apart from knitting, there is all the sheep, cows, horses and ponies, baking, plants, wool, hens, ducks etc etc.. there are also lots of places to get food, ice cream and stall selling things so it’s easy to spend a lot of time (and some money!) I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at some of the things to be seen at this year’s Voe Show, Sandra will be judging at Waas and Cunningsburgh in the next week so keep an eye on our Instagram for some pics from those shows, happy knitting!

Voe Show 2018

Hello everyone, this past Saturday saw our annual visit to the Voe Show – the first agricultural show of the year in Shetland. I (Ella) headed up to judge the Colourbox Competition. Every year we choose a selection of 8 shades of Jumper Weight which are used by people in a category on its own in the knitwear section of the show. The entrants must use at least 5 of the 8 colours – this year the shades were: 3, 53, 66, 72, 87, 366, fc37 and FC56.

The allover on the left was the Trophy winner for this year.

It is always very difficult to choose the winners as the standard is extremely high but I was really pleased with the entries. This is the Show where I have the most time so I helped the other ladies with laying out the rest of the knitwear and as a judge I got to help with choosing the trophy winners. There is everything from lace, handspun and machine knitting to yokes, all overs and hats.

This 1ply Shawl by Kathleen Anderson won lots of prizes – very well deserved! It was beautiful.

I then spent the rest of my time at the show looking at all the other entries. At Voe there are Cows, Sheep, Horses, Chickens, Ducks, Goats, Dogs… the list goes on.

The sheep are probably my favourite as the amount and variety of breeds is always so interesting but I also like to have a look at the flowers and vegetables too…

I didnt get any photos of the baking or other handicrafts but I can assure you it all looked great too! The rain came on just as I was leaving but I had a great day at the Voe Show, this week sees Cunningsburgh on Wednesday and Waas on Saturday so we will be back with more photos from those shows too, happy knitting!

Walls Show 2017

Hello everyone, happy Friday! I’m back with the final installment of our trips to the Shows – this time the Walls Show – there are others which we wont make it to but these are the three which have the Colourbox in it so we always go! Last Saturday was not too bad a day weatherwise, there were a couple of showers while we were there (you can see some offending clouds above!) so me and Sandra had a fine drive out to Waas.

Me and Sandra judged the Colourbox and the most of the knitwear at the show, this is only the second year we have done the Colourbox at Waas so it is still small but growing so we were pleased to see the entries, there was a good amount of entries in the other knitting so we had our work cut out for us.

There were lots of amazing Fair Isle and Lace to be seen..

Again once we had done our judging thing we went for a look around at all the animals and other entries..

This was a very friendly kitten in the pets section..i think Sandra would have taken it home if she could!

And then we also made friends with the Goats (there is another version of this photo in the Shetland Times today – just know I set it up and the photographer swooped in!!)

I really enjoying going to the different shows and seeing whats similar but also different about them all. We were quite lucky with the weather this year but for our judging we are always inside so its fine for us! I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos from the shows, we have already chosen the colours for next years Colourbox and people have been buying them already so it bodes well for next years entries. Happy Knitting!

PS>> Have you started your Bousta Beanie yet? We are 5 days in our KAL and lots are on the needles on Ravelry already!

Cunningsburgh Show 2017

Following on from Voe, last Wednesday was a bit brighter and Oliver and Me (Ella) headed down to Cunningsburgh for the Show, I was judging the Colourbox again alongside some other knitwear and Oliver was Judging the Wool.

I was put to work and worked my way through the Colourbox and other categories, there were some beautiful items in the Colourbox as always and the rest of the knitwear was of an extremely high quality too. The tropy winner for the Colourbox was the vest in the first picture, I loved the way the colours were put together and it was beatifully knitted. You can see above they also had a Bousta Beanie section!

The Wool is usually in another shed/tent but this year it was in the same shed as me so I was able to keep and eye on Oliver and his judging and after he was finished we started to make our way around all the other bits of the show.

There was a bit of a surprise arrival as you can see in the photo below!

This sheep obviously was trying to get on Oliver’s good side…

and this duck was interested in making friends too!

We had a great time as we always do at the Cunningsburgh show, the Colourbox is growing every year and I love to see all the animals. Cunningsburgh Show allows entries from the whole of Shetland whereas the others are all more area specific so there is always lots to see, it had 2841 entries in total this year!

Ill be back at the end of the week with our last show trip – to Waas, Happy Knitting!

Bousta Beanie KAL

Hello everyone, I cant believe we are now into August! For us that means one thing – next month is Shetland Wool Week! So we thought this is the perfect time to think about a KAL for this years hat – the Bousta Beanie..

This pattern is a great introduction to Fair Isle but also an interesting knit for those wint with it as we would say in Shetland. It is a simple motif which moves in an even repeat as you go up the hat so it makes a great knit.

The most exciting thing of course about knitting Fair Isle is choosing colours!! I love looking on Ravelry and seeing what colours people have put together – you can see all the hats knit using 2ply Jumper Weight here. You only need three shades (two balls of your main colour and one each of your contrast colours) so the possibilities are endless and of course with this kind of repeat you can use multiple colours for your contrast shades.

So the KAL will begin on the 14th of August, I have made ravelry thread so until the KAL kicks off I thought we could use it to chat about colour choices, to enter our KAL you will need to use J&S yarns and it will run until the 20th of September, just before Wool Week starts on the 22nd. We will also use the hashtag #boustabeaniekal on instagram, ill be back next week with some ideas about choosing colours so until then.. happy knitting!

PS this next week we have the Voe Show, Cunningsburgh Show and the Waas Show which all have our Colourbox Competition so keep and eye out for posts about that!

 

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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 torirtot

Fire KAL mitts by MaureeninFargo

Peat Hill Wasitcoat by Braemberi

Up Helly Aa scarf by Hadewychs

Ready For Lerwick by Claudiajano

2017 J&S Fire Festival KAL by LKLawsonknits

Spritely SMUHA by socksprite

Fair Isle Mitts by lav

Fire Festival KAL by merelide

Norse Fire Socks by tinygiraffe

Fire Festival KAL by EvaL8

Fire Festival KAL by Rubin

Fire Festival KAL by DottyBev

Fire Scatness

Up Helly Aa by JConklin

Up Helly Aa by Auchnagaoith

Ragnorok by Jelibet

Up Helly Aa Hat by jn1982

Fire Festival Bousta Beanie by JaneKAL

Up Helly Aa hat by KTMaine

Little Winter Star Fire Festival by Torirot

Shetland KAL by namihn

Up Helly Aa Mitts by Laknits

Fire Wind Water Cowl by kyspinner

Fire Festival KAL by tjitshere

American Fire by bdegar

Saudade by woolyeyes

Fire Festival KAL by merelide

Fire Festival KAL by alysmith

Up Helly Aa by Jensknits

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!

Annes Sheelagh Shawl

A few weeks ago I spotted on Ravelry a beautiful version of the Sheelagh Shawl, knit by Anne for her wedding. It sparked a memory in me of an email inquiring about receiving the kit in the Shetland Supreme Yarn, we get (of course) lots of emails every day but its always so nice to see a finished item you helped someone get the yarn for. The Sheelagh is a classic Gladys Amedro pattern which begins with the border before picking up stitches (in this case 960 of them!) and knitting it in towards the middle decreasing as you go.

I asked Anne if I could share some photos of her beautiful shawl from her wedding to her Husband Johannes and she gracefully agreed as well as telling me a bit about her knitting of the Shawl:

‘I have been a ravelry member since 2011, for the last 2 or 3 years I am online almost every day, browsing patterns, putting them into my favourites, queue, etc. … I don’t remember when, but I came across the Princess shawl from Sharon Miller. I think I discovered the Jamieson & Smith yarns there in the projects (or maybe also through admiring fair isle knitting, which came up around the same time 😉 ).

When my now-husband asked if I’d like to be his wife last year in October, I knew I would like to have a shawl to wear on my wedding. In fact I knew this already before and was admiring all the nice lace shawls on ravelry,  I started a meant-to-be wedding shawl in a nice off-white Tussah silk from my LYS. I was already done when I realised, this would be way too heavy to wear on a summer wedding. I somehow was afraid of this fact already before, but just did not listen to my inner voice. I still was browsing patterns and yarn shops online almost every day, also the J & S page. I found the Sheelagh shawl kit there and fell in love. It was just the right thing. Not too simple, yet not super complicated (I would also have liked to knit the Princess shawl, but this was out of question at this time point, but I will do it someday…).

It was already April and I am a slow knitter. By far I wasn’t sure, if I could ever complete this until end of august. The pattern called for the 1 ply cobweb lace yarn, but there wasn’t an off white available (I already bought my dress which is ivory), so I asked at J&S, if I could also get the kit but replace the yarn with the 1 ply supreme lace. Off course this was possible!

The yarn arrived middle of April and I started knitting madly. I literally used every free minute I could get: before I went to work, at work I could only think of when I get home to knit, knitted every weekend. In May I was off sick for a week, I knitted all the day! In the middle of June I finished the last stitch. One day more, it would have been 3 month… In this time I changed my mind constantly from ‘Oh gosh, I will never finish this in time’ to ‘Seems to be manageable, right?!’ and back. But I still could finish the other silk shawl, right? Just parts of the borders were missing. And then not wear it, because it’s just too hot… At least I had a plan B.

I ordered some blocking wires in the US and again was afraid, they would not get here in time. They came, and the shawl blocked from 87 cm to 127 cm each side. I sat next to our guest bed, where it was pinned on, knitting another project and proudly patting the shawl every now and then. I took it to the bridal shop, when I tried my dress to get it fitted and put it on my shoulders there to see if it fits. It was just perfect!

The wedding took place on August 27th, it was 30 °C and super sunny. I wore the shawl during the ceremony, the champagne reception and our first photo shoot in the park next to the castle where the ceremony was. I was glad to have the Sheelagh shawl instead off the other heavier one. It did not add any heat in the afternoon as it is super light and late in the night when we spend some time outside with the last guests it kept my shoulders warm. I still admire my shawl every now and then and I think I will wear it again in the winter, because in my opinion it should be used and not sit on a shelf waiting for the next wedding in our family, which might be still years away…’

Thank you Anne for sharing with us the beautiful pictures of your lovely shawl! You can see more pictures of the knitting process on here ravelry project page here. Many people see these types of Shawls as strictly for a Christening but I think this shows you can make it look very classic yet modern as a Wedding shawl.

Seeing this has got me going to sort out the Sheelagh Shawl page on the website and you can now order the kit in cobweb but also in all six of the 1ply Shetland Supreme shades here. Happy Knitting!