Spirit of Shetland Knitting Holiday

This morning’s excursion will take us to Jamieson & Smith Wool Brokers and Shetland Textile Museum. Jamieson & Smith have been around since the 1930s, when it was founded by the Smith family of Berry Farm in Scalloway, on the east coast of Shetland. In the 60s, they re-located to their current premises overlooking the harbour in Lerwick. In 2004 the Smith family retired, and Jamieson & Smith joined with Curtis Wool Direct in Yorkshire. However, Jamieson & Smith continues to be staffed by Shetlanders and remains a standalone company. The profits received from the sale of Real Shetland Wool and Real Shetland Wool products come back into the Shetland economy and are passed along to the wool producer. All their products carry the 3 Sheep Logo, which signals that the product is manufactured from 100% Real Shetland Wool from sheep that are born and bred on the islands.

Shetland Textile Museum is a community museum dedicated to the island’s textile heritage, particularly knitting. The collection comprises over 700 items including Fair Isle and lace knitting, knitwear, Taatit rugs, tools, tweed, and items by contemporary Shetland makers.

This afternoon, we will return to our hotel for the first of our Fair Isle workshops with local expert Hazel Tindall. Hazel has been knitting for over 50 years and is passionate about continuing the long tradition of knitting on the Shetland Islands. After dinner, Hazel will share her insights on ‘Knitting in Shetland in the 1960’s’, which is based on her mother’s diary entries.

This morning, we continue with Fair Isle under the guidance of Janette.

Our excursion this afternoon will take us to Jamieson’s of Shetland and Shetland Museum & Archive. Jamieson’s is a family-owned business, which has specialised in wool from the native Shetland sheep for five generations. Shetland Museum & Archives is a 5-star VisitScotland rated Visitor Attraction, which welcomes an average of 86,000 visitors per year. In 2007, the extensive and rich collections of both Shetland Museum and Shetland Archives were brought together in one building for the first time to tell the fascinating story of Shetland’s heritage and culture and provide an unforgettable visitor experience. Our ‘Textile Treasures’ guided tour focuses on the museum’s fantastic Fair Isle and Lace collections.

In today’s workshop with Kathleen Anderson, we will focus on Shetland Lace. Kathleen is from a family of experienced shawl knitters and her specially designed project will teach us about shawl construction – lace edges, picking up, knitting on, finishing, and grafting.

This afternoon’s excursion takes us to the small but creative community of Hoswick with its popular Visitor Centre and Nielanell Shetland Knitwear. Contemporary in design and colour, Nielanell Shetland knitwear is individually made and hand-finished by local craftspeople. Their designer Niela Nell Kalra also produces collections of unique handspun yarn.

This morning, we join Kathleen for our final lace knitting workshop before today’s visit to The Silly Sheep Fibre Company, a small family croft. Here we will enjoy a light lunch and learn what farming and crofting life in Shetland is really like.

Becky and her family have approximately 75 sheep, mainly Shetland, who provide them with beautiful fleeces. They use their own fleeces and some from other local crofts to produce batches of white and natural coloured yarn, as well as fibres for spinning, weaving, and felting. All the dyeing is done in-house in small batches.