inspiration

Fire Festival KAL 2016-2017

Hello! Many of you have asked if we would be doing another Knit A Long this winter and the answer is yes!

This year we have decided to take inspiration from something unique to Shetland and that is Up Helly Aa, there are a number of these fire-festivals all over Shetland from the Scalloway one in the second week of January up to the Delting Up Helly Aa in March.

Without going into too much detail Up Helly Aa is held all over Shetland throughout the beginning of the year and they all feature a Guizer Jarl (chief Viking) and their Jarls Squad, a number of Squads dressed up, a torchlight procession and the burning of a Galley. It is something which cheers up and brightens many Shetlanders during the darkest time of the year here and I have always found the colours inspiring!

So you can see from the shades chosen we have mainly been inspired by Fire! we have chosen a number of fiery shades (91, FC38, 125 and 9113) but also some darker shades to represent the dark winter skies (36, 81, 54) we have thrown in the bright blue shade 132 as when I was looking through photos for inspirations I kept seeing a brighter blue either in the sky or shadows like the photo above.

Although we have taken our inspirations from the Vikings this Knit A Long is totally open to your interpretation of the colours, all you have to do is knit something (garment, accessory, whatever you feel!) using at least 5 of the 8 shades and it must feature some Fair Isle knitting (two colours in a row)

Fire Festival Knit A Long Shades: 132, 54, 9113, 81, 36, 125, FC38 and 91

You can put together your own patterns or use a pattern that’s already out and work with putting the colours into it, we know there is still a lot of Christmas knitting going on so to coincide with the last Up Helly Aa we will have the Knit A Long running From now until 20th March 2017

I have put together a mood board of pictures on Pinterest so feel free to have a look and enjoy the Knit A Long, you can see the colours here on the online shop. If you take part and would like to Share pictures please post in our Ravelry Group and tag your pictures on instagram with #firefestivalkal

Happy Knitting!Save

Save

A Shetlanders Fair Isle Graph Book

You have probably seen this book if like us you love anything related to Fair Isle, Knitting and Shetland! Published by The Shetland Times and compiled by the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers A Shetlanders Fair Isle Graph Book in Colour is a bright and inspiring book – perfect for this dark and dreary time of year. It was released just in time for Wool Week this year and since then it has been selling like hot cakes, everytime I went to do a blog it would be sold out!

As things calm down though its a lovely book to look through. It is filled with hand coloured motif’s for Fair Isle knitting, the originals of the notebooks belonged to Bill Henry who ran the Hosiery side of Anderson & Co in the mid 20th century. They were most likely used by knitters to put together pattern to put on items to sell.

The idea of the notebooks themselves is not unusual, Shetland knitters have many self drafted pattern books but what makes this one unusual is the coloured aspect, it is very common to see the black and white dotted kind you see in many Fair Isle books like Traditional Fair Isle Knitting by Sheila McGregor, Alice Starmores Book of Fair Isle Knitting and Fair Isle Knitting Patterns by Mary MacGregor. Those kind of graph books are invaluable also because they help you to put together patterns without being distracted by the colours but this book is a feast for the eyes if you like Fair Isle and Stranded knitting.

It’s very tempting to gather up colours and try to match them up…

2ply Jumper Weight l-r: 77, 1403, 66, 1, fc15 and 34

greens: 34 and FC11, blue: FC15 and FC47, cream: 1 and 202, yellow: 66 and 121, reds: 1403 and FC55, black: 77 and 81.

The yarn on the right-hand side is the same kind of shades as the ones on the left for the pattern in the previous picture but it would give you a more subtle version of the pattern. That’s another fun part of putting colours together, you can adapt it until it is more your kind of shades.

Shetland Heritage Naturals l-r: white, fawn, light grey, moorit and black

2ply Jumper Weight l-r: 1403, 23, 21, FC15 and 202

We have the book in stock just now and it costs £20.00. It would make a great present for anyone interested in Shetland Knitting, the historical aspect is just as interesting as the colour inspirations!

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!

Deepdale Shawl Colourways

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 L3

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!

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, 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.🙂

Happy Knitting!

Last Few Days of Wool Week 2016

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 Cartoons

Students from the Textiles Course at the Shetland College

Kathy Coull was there with Fair Isle Yarn

The always bright and cheerful Neilanell knitwear

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:

410a3576 — Me with the White Lamb and Coloured Lamb winners

410a3567 — l-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!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this more relaxed look at the last few days of Wool Week, we are just about recovered, but already looking forward to next year.

Happy Knitting!

Save

Ollies Visit to Papa

Oliver recently spent the day clipping sheep on Papa, an island off the west side of Scalloway. Papa Isle is owned by the Smith family, the founders of Jamieson & Smith, he headed there with my (Ella’s) Uncle James who runs Berry Farm and a group of willing clippers and packers!

Papa Isle is one of the now many uninhabited islands in Shetland. Shetland is made up of over 100 small islands but only 16 are now lived on. Nearby to Papa there are a number of similar isles – Hildasay, Oxna, Linga, Havra and Langa were all at one time inhabited like Papa but as times changed and Island life became harder people gradually moved to the more easily assessable islands, part of Oliver’s family came from Hildasay.

James looks on while the sheep are rounded up

Brian watches as the Sheep enter the pen

Papa is now the home of approximately 90 sheep who are quite happy living on the natural grazing and feeding on seaweed. They are handled only twice a year for shearing and later in the year for taking home the lambs so with the exception of necessary drenching are virtually organic and quite self-sufficient! They are able to survive and reserve energy and fat for the harsher winters, Hill Sheep have very good wool, the environment and grazing usually leads to a very fine quality of wool.

Lots of Oo ready to head to the J&S Woolstore

There are still many examples of Papa being inhabited, the two below pictures show the plaque erected by the Slater Family and the remains of the Slater family Croft house which was attached to the school.

The next two pictures show the Papa Kirk, you can see Oxna Isle in the background with the house used for Lambing. Papa in Old Norse means the Island of the Priests and people came from all the surrounding Islands for the Sunday service. It was still active in the early 1930s and an elderly neighbour of Oliver’s said he would row over from Burra for the service. The image with the stone before it shows the rock on which the late Robert Fullerton told Oliver a Bible would be laid onto, the people in Oxna would look for this through a spyglass and if it was there they would climb the hill behind their house and wave a bed sheet which would have been seen on the Islands of Hildasay, Linga and Langa. The congregation would then row or sail over for the service. If the Bible wasn’t there it meant the weather was too poor for the minister to make it to the kirk from Scalloway.

The ‘Crying Knowe’ can be seen in the picture below, this was a small hill used by the residents of Papa to shout across the sound to the people on Oxna

You can still see remnants of the Papa Peat banks like in the picture below, many people still use Peat to heat and warm their houses in Shetland today but it was a complete necessity for people in isolated Islands like Papa. You can see a bit more information about Peats in Shetland here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look into a bit of Shetland History, you can see on the Map I’ve included above from 1806 nearly all the Islands in Shetland are named, probably because people lived on most of them! Papa is located directly across from Foula on the mid/bottom left hand side.

Happy Knitting!

Save

Waas Show

Hello! last Saturday dawned a bit damper as me (Ella) and Sandra headed out to Waas for the Walls Show.

Spirits were not dampended however and we soon got to work (after a cup of tea and a bacon roll!) judging the colourbox. This is our first year having the colourbox at Walls so there wasn’t too many entries but next year I’m sure there will be more!

As with all shows in Shetland there were plenty of animals to be seen..

and lovely knitwear..

We weren’t able to stay until everything was fully set up but I’m glad we got a few pictures! Thankfully it dried up and the rest of the day was much better than the morning. We were amazed on the way back to town how lovely the heather is at the moment in Shetland..

You can see why we have so many heathery shades in our Jumper Weight range (FC55, FC56. FC14, 87, 133 to name a few!) FC11 and FC12 are good matches for the grass too!

There are a few more shows still to come (Yell and Unst) but we probably won’t make it to those so I hope you’ve enjoyed our trip around the mainland Shetland Shows!

Happy Knitting🙂 xx