Hello! We had our last Up Helly Aa of 2017 on Friday so that marks the end of our Fire Festival Knit a Long, we have been so pleased with the amount of people who have knit something with the colours we chose, due to the number of entries I decided to try something different and have you guys vote for your favourite, I have broken it down into Garments and Accessories/Others.
I couldn’t do a poll with the images in it so you might have to make a note of your favourite piece and then put it in the poll for the two categories. For more information have a look here which list all the entries and you can go into each project to find out more from the knitter.
Garments
Ready For Lerwick by ClaudiajanoFire Festival KAL by DottyBevUp Helly Aa by AuchnagaoithPeat Hill Wasitcoat by BraemberiLittle Winter Star Fire Festival by TorirotFire Festival KAL by Rubin
Accessory/Other
Fire Festival KAL by alysmithAmerican Fire by bdegarFire Festival KAL by EvaL8Up Helly Aa scarf by HadewychsFire Festival Bousta Beanie by JaneKALUp Helly Aa by JConklinRagnorok by JelibetUp Helly Aa by JensknitsUp Helly Aa Hat by jn1982Fire Scatness by KnitMomWiUp Helly Aa hat by KTMaineFire Wind Water Cowl by kyspinnerUp Helly Aa Mitts by LaknitsFair Isle Mitts by lav2017 J&S Fire Festival KAL by LKLawsonknitsFire KAL mitts by MaureeninFargoFire Festival KAL by meigsviewFire Festival KAL by merelideShetland KAL by namihnSpritely SMUHA by sockspriteNorse Fire Socks by tinygiraffeFire Festival KAL by tjitshereFire Festival KAL by torirtotSaudade by woolyeyes
The poll will be open until next week when we will reveal the winners in the two categories, good luck to everyone and thank you so much for taking part in the Knit A Long – we love doing them and seeing all the different things people make from the same selection of colours!
Hello! it can be quite hard sometimes to choose colours, especially if you are looking to try out a yarn range with no particular project in mind, we have been thinking of ways you can pick up a one stop box full of Shetland Wool so in that vein we have put together a selection of… Selection Boxes!
In a few of the smaller ranges you will receive each of the available shades (1ply Supreme, Shetland Heritage Naturals and Supreme Jumper Weight) but for the rest we have picked a range of shades which we feel will work well together in a project or just round out your stash!
You will get your selection box in a sturdy, naturally finished box stamped with the J&S logo which is included in the price. It makes a great gift for knitters but also makes a nice treat for yourself, we have started with a smaller range of choices but if you think there is something else you’d love to see – let us know! You can see the boxes on the website here.
Happy Knitting!
PS – remember there is still time to take part in the Fire Festival Kal, there have been some really beautiful projects appearing in our Ravelry group!
Every now and again we come into work at the shop and find there are a lots of orders for the same thing without knowing what its for! a few months ago that happened and we noticed there were a number of orders for 2ply Lace in shades L54, L203, L3 and L202. I thought they looked lovely together and then when I went on Ravelry later on I realised Gudrun Johnston had chosen to use those shades for one of her colourways in her MKAL pattern.
For the past couple of years Gudrun has run a mystery knit along where each week new clues are revealed and you don’t know what the final project will look like! this shawl was this years effort and the final pattern is now available itself: Deepdale
It gave me an idea to put together a few colourways using the 2ply Lace, it’s a sometimes overlooked yarn but it makes for lovely lightweight but warm projects.
the original colourway: L54, L203, L202 and L3warm browns: L5, L4, L78 and L202greys: L77, L54, L27 and L203blues: L21, L63, L15 and L16pinks: L43, L68, L136 and L101
A number of people also ordered the Shetland Heritage Naturals for this project and they would work beautifully, the Heritage is a little bit thicker than the two ply lace but that only makes for an even more snuggly finished shawl!
grey, light grey, moorit and fawn
The above colourways is very similar to the original, but the two below will give you more of a brown finished shawl or a grey one – I love the greys!
shetland black, moorit, fawn and whiteshetland black, grey, light grey and white
I hope this has given you some ideas for colours for a Deepdale Shawl, if you make one using J&S yarns remember to tag us on Instagram, our username is thewoolbrokers and we love to see in progress pictures. 🙂
I hope you liked our post last week about the classes at J&S during Wool Week, again I’m sorry it was so brief, I still can’t get over how busy it was! We were still working on Saturday but I nipped out quickly to visit the Makers Market at Islesburgh – which was pinned! Its a great chance for local makers and small yarn producers to show what they make to a very appreciative public.
My (Ella’s) Dad Smirk was there with CartoonsFoula WoolStudents from the Textiles Course at the Shetland CollegeKathy Coull was there with Fair Isle YarnThe always bright and cheerful Neilanell knitwearbusy busy!
I came back from the Makers Market and me and Sandra headed up for a quick look at the Marts, every year the Flock Book have the sale of Pure Shetland Sheep and Lambs, its always good to see the Sheep (reminds you what Wool Week is all about!) Scott who works in the Woolstore had been there all morning as Oliver and Jan were judging the wool on the hoof so the next photos are all taken by him
Vispring always provides the sponsorship for the Fine Wool and I was asked to present it to the winners:
Me with the White Lamb and Coloured Lamb winnersl-r: Lamb White winner and Overall Champion, Coloured Lamb winner, Adult White winner and Coloured Adult Winner.
On Sunday after a bit of a lie in I headed out to Tingwall for the Sunday Teas held by the Guild, its one of my favourite bits of Wool Week..
As well as the lovely food there are brilliant displays of the Work of the Guild which is always so inspiring!
Hello! I’m so sorry we haven’t been able to update you this week of all the happenings at J&S for Shetland Wool Week, I’m afraid it has just been so busy!!! A great problem to have of course, We have just about managed to get some snaps here and there during the week so this post is all about what we had going on in the shop
fair isle knitting with Hazellace with Elizabeth Johnston
On Monday we had a Fair Isle Class with Hazel Tindall in the Morning and Shetland Lace with Elizabeth in the Afternoon, we always have these classes and they are always some of the first to sell out, Hazel and Elizabeths years of experience make them excellent teachers!
Drop Spindling with Deborah
On Tuesday Morning we had a Drop Spindle class with Deborah Gray, I always think this looks like a really fun class to do!
Tuesday night we had a trunk show for Monique Boonstra, Monique is a fabulous lace knitter and she had samples of her lovely patterns and knitting
Haps with Gudrun
Wednesday led to more lace knitting, Haps with Gudrun in the Morning and more lace with Elizabeth in the afternoon. Gudruns Hap class is always very popular and she has the students make a mini version of her Hansel hap, it’s very manageable for the length of time of the class and gives everyone a taste of all the elements of this traditional Shetland garment.
This is the only photo I got on Wednesday of Elizabeths second lace class but it looks like they are learning a lot! Elizabeth is always great to have at Wool Week and she teaches lots of classes in Hoswick also.
Of course, we have spent the week spotting crofthoose hats too! It’s great to see all the different colours people have chosen.
Thursday morning had Hazels second Fair Isle class, she had the ladies knit in the round and then steek! Everyone seemed to have a great time and I loved the samples at the end.
Friday morning we had no classes so we got caught up on our post and then in the afternoon Monique Boonstra was back with a class using 1ply Shetland Supreme
Oliver has been doing his tour this week too, and yesterday was the last day of that, he has it down to a fine art and we always get lots of people coming for the tour.
photo by Scott Goudie
Today is the Makers Market and Flock Book and tomorrow is the fabulous Sunday Teas hosted by the Guild so I’ll be back next week with a few photos from that. It’s been a great week and as always we are so proud to be involved in Shetland Wool Week!Save
Hello, thank you all for the kind comments on the last blog!
We have been so pleased with how well the new Natural Heritage yarn has been going and now you can get it on cone!! We get the cones for machine knitting but you can hand knit with them of course, the Heritage yarn is slightly waxed on the cone so it goes easier through a knitting machine. So we would always suggest washing your finished item and even your swatch if you are using coned yarn to get the accurate measure of your gauge.
We have a lot of 500g cones is all the shades and a number of 1kg cones in most shades so if you are planning a project using a lot of one of the shades it works out to be a great deal!
The 500g cones are £27.00 which is equivalent to about 20 balls and 1kg are £54.00 which is like 50 balls. You can see them on the website here.
Happy Knitting!
PS. you can now pre-order a copy of the 2016 Shetland Wool Week Annual! see here if you would like one.
hello! Today I thought we take a closer look at the new addition to our Heritage Range – Shetland Heritage Naturals! Its only been available for a few weeks but its been flying off the shelves..
When we got our sample cones I (Ella) rushed some home to do some swatches on my machine to see how the yarn would knit up, its spun to the same thickness as our Shetland Heritage but the natural yarns always behave a little bit differently than the dyed ones and I wasn’t disappointed! The yarn smells lovely and sheepy in the ball so the yarn feels a bit thinner until its washed, it fluff’s up and fills the gaps between the stitches beautifully.
The heritage range has a beautiful soft handle thanks to being worsted spun, (see more info here) I knitted it on my machine at tension 9 for a quite drapey fabric but you can knit it with lots of needles sizes to get a different finish. Heritage yarn bridges the gap perfectly between 2ply Lace and 2ply Jumper weight and most resembles the traditional Hap weight yarn we used to produce, its a versatile yarn as it works for lace knitting but also is perfect for colourwork. You can see more about the story of the Shetland Heritage yarn from our yarn series post last year.
Here is a side to side with the yarn and swatch of each of the six shades:
WhiteFawnLight Grey (a first in our undyed worsted ranges)GreyMooritBlack
The Shetland Heritage Naturals are available here and cost £3.20 per 25g ball, we will shortly be getting in some cones so keep an eye on the website for that, we are so pleased with our newest yarn and hope you are too! The coloured Shetland Wool was at one time such a unwanted fibre (people used to dump it rather than sell it as it was worth so little) that we are so proud to give it value and we now have a 1ply/2ply lace weight worsted spun, light 4ply worsted spun and a woollen spun 4ply yarn all using this precious fibre. By using it in yarns and products it makes it worthwhile for crofters and farmers to keep coloured Sheep and that’s always a good thing!
This is the only photo I got on Wednesday of Elizabeths second lace class but it looks like they are learning a lot! Elizabeth is always great to have at Wool Week and she teaches lots of classes in Hoswick also.
