Wool Week at J&S

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 Hazel

lace 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

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baa-ble hat

The 2015 Shetland Wool Week pattern is now available! The Baa-ble Hat designed by this years patron Donna Smith features a wide brim, lovely sheep motifs and a snowy sky, very appropriate to Shetland and most of the UK this week, I thought it was spring?? This hat is a great introduction to Fair Isle knitting and as its worked in Aran weight yarn it makes for a quick knit, great for keeping you warm in this chilly springtime!

The Jamieson & Smith colourway uses our Shetland Worsted Aran in the shades Peat, Coll Black, Silver Grey and Snaa White, and you can now buy a kit via our online shop here. If you would like different shades for your baa-ble hat just order two of your main shade and one each of your contrast shades. You also use our now discontinued Shetland Aran which we still have a number of shades available. For that yarn you will only need one ball of the 4 shades.

To get the pattern you will need to apply for it here on the Shetland Wool Week website and then you will be emailed a copy of the pattern.

Ill be back later this week to carry on out yarn series, til then Happy Knitting!

Wool Week Saturday and Sunday

Our last class yesterday was with the brilliant Felicity Ford, who’s new book arrived on Friday, nearly ready to post to all the people who backed the campaign to publish it!

Felicitys friendly teaching style meant for a great class on being inspired by pictures and your life in your Fair Isle Knitting

The shop was open til dinnertime then I headed to the Wool Week hub at the Shetland Museum, it looked really great!

This map was full of pins showing where all the visitors have come from!

As well as the hub being open the Town Hall was filled with producers at the Makers Market, from Foula Wool to Shetland Handspun.

There was also some historical things there, one of the makers, a knitter also had on her table some Wool related memories, including these vintage slips from Jamieson & Smith in the 1970s!

Today marked the end of Shetland Wool Week and I went out to Whiteness for the annual Sunday Teas held by the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers

As well as the great teas and fancies the Guild also has a presentation of their work, and there were some fantastic things to be seen from some well known Shetland Knitters: Ina Irvine, Hazel Tindall, Linda Shearer and Kathleen Anderson to name a few!

I also spied a number of things which were entries to the Colourbox Competition we hold at the Voe and Cunningsburgh shows like Lindas jumper seen above.

Members of the Guild were also demonstrating which was great to see!

Sue, Loretta, Outi and Eve spinning and knitting away.

This marks the end of my posts about Shetland Wool Week, its been a fantastic week and I hope you have enjoyed seeing what was happening in Shetland. I have so many pictures I didnt get to use that you may be seeing some more! For now though its time to tidy up the shop and get things back to normal,

Happy Knitting! xx

Wool Week Opening Ceremony

So today saw the opening ceremony of this years Wool Week, it was held in Mareel and there were lots and lots of visitors around!

For something different this year different textile makers and yarn producers all had a table to show off our wares to all the visitors. It worked great and we got to speak to lots of people

It was hard to know what to bring so I just took a selection of the yarns and products we make. It was inspiring to see the other makers too, like Mati Ventrillon

Linda Shearer and Ina Irvine, mother and daughter super knitters from Whalsay

And Kathleen Anderson, a beautiful lace knitter

As well as lots of others. Of course like last year there was the fabulous Fair Isle Cake!

and lots of Shwook hats to be seen, the exclusive pattern designed by Hazel Tindall, patron of this years Wool Week

Oliver was one of the speakers who opened Wool Week, and as always it was interesting to hear from him the origins of Shetland Wool Week and amazing to see how far it has come!

Cheers to a great Wool Week!!

Kate Davies’ Sixareen Patterns

Kate Davies’ Sixareen Kep and Sixareen Cape are now available on our online shop as kits! The patterns arrived this morning so we couldn’t wait to get them online. They’re the first patterns that Kate has designed in our Shetland Heritage range, which makes us even more excited about them. As with all Kate’s designs they have been very popular so far judging by the distinctive yarn combinations we have been posting out from J&S.

These two new kits add to a number of Kate’s other patterns that she has designed to suit the specific character – the unique softness, bounce and ‘halo’ – of our Real Shetland Wool yarns: the BMC in our 2ply Jumper Weight; the Sheep Heid, Rams & Yowes Blanket, Sheep Carousel and Toby’s Coat in our Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight; and the Warriston in our Shetland Aran; and that is even before we mention those designs in her book Colours of Shetland. Also to make it easier to find all these beautiful designs in one place we have added a Kate Davies section to the kits part of the online shop. I’m sure there will be more to come in the future!

You can find the Sixareen Kep here and the Sixareen Cape here on our online shop.

You can also find out more on Kate’s Blog about the Kep here and Cape here where you also get to see beautiful photography such as this. Amazing!