It was just a bit frantic getting from the Hebrides to our next stops. We were delayed by a day as the ferry from Uist to Harris wasn’t running due to wind and high seas. That necessitated changing flights so Bruce flew direct to Glasgow to catch his flight home, while I had a brief stop in Inverness and then on to Sumburg in Shetland. Fortunately most everything went smoothly after that.
Whizzing along on the way to Lerwick, I’m not always sure if I’m looking at rocks or sheep on the hillsides…the sheep tend to blend into the landscape. In the 11 days I was there, many sheep crossed my path, and not surprisingly, mainly white Shetland sheep. While the colored sheep have gained interest, white is still preferred as a base for dying. This is evident in the enormous color ranges of the Shetland’s two largest purveyors of knitting wool; Jamieson & Smith Woolbrokers and Jamieson’s of Shetland.
I arrived a day earlier than the start of Wool Week festivities in order to get a jump on interviewing some local artists I had arranged to visit. My first stop was in the small community of Scousburgh overlooking the North Atlantic on the south end of Shetland’s Mainland. Here you will find the Shetland Handspun studio of Elizabeth Johnston. Her lace-weight spinning is legendary, as is her command of Fair Isle and lace knitting, and dyeing with natural dyes. She also is a well-known author and teacher.
She sells her hand spun/hand dyed yarns through her Shetland Handspun blogspot, when it’s available. The left small skein was dyed with madder, and the remaining small skeins all were dyed with onion on a base of the various Shetland natural colors. The larger skein, behind, is a blend of grey and brown/morrit that gives a lovely tweed feel.
Elizabeth’s story starts out much like that of other women of her generation in Shetland. She was taught to knit the moment she could control the needles, and like the other members of her family, was producing Fair Isle knitted goods for sale immediately thereafter. Contributing to the family income was expected, and for Elizabeth, this began even before primary school. After a few years when she became tired of knitting the yokes for sweaters, she convinced her mother to teach her to put the yoke on a knitting machine to finish the garments. While most people think of that as the “boring” part, for Elizabeth it was a nice break.
While Elizabeth could knit a Fair Isle sweater in her sleep, what she really wanted to do was learn to spin. There were no spinners in her family, so she had no one to teach her. Instead, year after year she went to an annual demonstration day with an aunt, and spent the entirety of her time standing quietly between two spinners, carefully watching every move. Even though she wasn’t able to obtain a wheel until her adult years, her previous annual, intense study and observation of the mechanics of hand spinning gave her an excellent foundation that quickly earned her universal praise for her impeccable lace yarn.
Oliver Henry, of Jamieson & Smith, told me that he had asked Elizabeth to weigh in on the 1 and 2-ply Shetland Supreme Lace Weight developed with the Shetland Museum and Archives Fine Lace Project. The project was meant to replicate the fine lace of the 1800s used, for example, to knit stockings for Queen Victoria. In viewing the samples, Elizabeth quite liked one particularly fine yarn, but suggested that contemporary knitters might find it too challenging. It was rejected for the project. In the end, the two chosen produced sample swatches 28 sts and 44 rows over 4inches using 3mm needles (1 Ply) and 36 sts and 36 rows over 4 inches (2 Ply) in stocking stitch. Very fine indeed!
Elizabeth’s own handspun provided yarn for Mary’s Shawl (you can find the pattern in the Shetland Wool Week 2023 Annual). The shawl has a lovely story. Its pattern is taken from a shawl knitted in the 1940s by a family friend. At that time Mary was in her nineties and living in a care home. This would be story enough, but add to this that at the time she also was blind.
You can find photos of Elizabeth’s shawl made from her own handspun on her Ravelry page. This shawl and the pattern came about as her reaction to being locked down during Covid.
This is clearly an heirloom project for an advanced lace knitter, and I’ll admit I’m not tempted….not because of the challenge, but because I’m quite sure it wouldn’t get finished in my lifetime unless I were stranded for a year with only this pattern and yarn to work from. Elizabeth’s work is simply stunning.
The following week after our interview, I had the opportunity to take a class designed to improve our spinning. My goal was to produce a sufficiently fine single to create a 3-ply fingering weight yarn. Little did I know I was jumping into a whole new area of learning. The class was taught on a single treadle, double-drive wheel using unprocessed Shetland fleece. For some reason, I was unable to “make friends” with the wheel. I just couldn’t get it to turn without stopping. I was longing for my Scotch tension wheel, but when I discovered that we were selecting locks of the Shetland that were still full of lanolin, I was relieved my wheel was at home….we were spinning “in the grease.” I’m sure one gets used to feeling like your hands are dipping into a vat of fat, and I understand that spinning the unwashed fleece allows for creation of a thread-fine single (the lanolin coating the fibers helps to stick them together), but it was not a sensation I could get into. Granted, my hands were baby-soft by the end of the class, but between my issues with the wheel and my cringy response to the fleece, my output was meagre and lumpy. I did pretty well at drafting for long draw (something that doesn’t come naturally since I don’t use it often), so was at least pleased with that. It also was really interesting to learn how to select and card the fleece to end up with the best fibers. My carding was really successful in leaving short and hairy fibers behind to produce lovely, soft rolags. I was so focused that I absolutely forgot to take any photos during the class.
There is another option to knit one of Elizabeth’s patterns. Her recent work and patterns are featured in Spin Off Fall 2023 magazine.
She has written in depth on the classic Shetland Hap — the outdoor garment worn wrapped around the body (and sometimes pulled up over the head) and tied at the back. These are usually knitted as a large square, although there also are examples knitted as a half, triangular garment. Her pattern for the Shetland Old Shell Hap (and half hap) are given in the same issue.
The hap should not be confused with a shawl. While the construction of a full hap and a shawl is the same, the shawl is knitted with more complex patterns, and was never designed to be worn as an outer garment.
A hap is a good project for an adventurous spinner/knitter. Traditional Shetland hand spun yarn was designated as “fine lace,” “lace” (about the same weight as today’s lace-weight), “spencer” (slightly thicker — used for underwear), and “hap.”
There are no modern equivalents for either spencer nor hap, but a reasonable substitute would be “jumper weight.” Just to be a bit more confusing, Jumper Weight yarn is a 2-ply yarn equivalent to a 4-ply fingering yarn spun woolen. In other words, somewhere in between a US fingering and sport weight.
If you want to be even more traditional in your knitting of this garment, they were normally knitted on two long double-point needles using a knitting belt (a makkin belt).
One of my Shetland Wool Week classes was a chance to learn to knit with a knitting belt. The class was taught by Hazel Tindel; a knitter/designer known for the speed of her knitting. You can learn about her on her website, which describes two competitions she won for her speed knitting; one in 2004 (255 stitches in 3 minutes) and one in 2008 (262 stitches in 3 minutes). In that competition her nearest competitor knitted only 243.
I noticed two things right away using the knitting belt — a somewhat loosened gauge, and significantly improved posture. The posture part was important. You can’t slump over those long needles without stabbing yourself, and the more upright posture feels right (and not tiring).
Hazel Tindel conferring with students during the knitting belt class, Shetland Wool Week 2023
The gauge (or tension) can be improved with practice, but it’s most easily solved by the use of a raepin string. A what? I haven’t been able to find a definition or root source for the word raepin, but it’s a length of cotton cord laced through the bottom of the knitting and either tensioned around the belt, or more commonly, tucked under your leg when you’re sitting. It provides a very slight pull on the knitting, resulting in more evenly knit rows. I loved it. Both the belt and the string are truly practical solutions for knitters needing to multi-task. With practice, it also can speed up your knitting.
This is only a minuscule sampling of Wool Week 2023. There is more to come, but it’s going to be spread out over a number of posts so I can also catch up on other things I’ve been up to — like wrestling with my new knitting machine and planning baby knits for two expectant mothers in our extended family. I confess to liking teddy bears, so have been pouring over patterns for a different one to capture my interest. There are many to choose from. My “standard” baby gift always is a blanket or car seat wrap, so those are on the agenda as well. I do hate making the same thing twice, so have been considering some new patterns, and am currently working on a cabled, hooded cocoon or bunting for the one due in late December. It’s going slowly, but looks lovely, so I’ll soldier on. I have until April for the second, so that gives me a bit more breathing room.
So until the next time, keep calm and craft on. And, to my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving next week.
You got a knitting machine! What kind did you get? I have a CSM on order but won’t get it until after the first of the year.
That’s a surprise from you as well! I did get one. A used (and rather old) electronic Brother. We have it set up, but it needs a new sponge bar as it keeps skipping stitches in one place right in the middle. The new sponge itself arrived two days ago, so MR. DIY will do the replacement for me and hopefully I’ll be ready to go. It came with a ribber, so I have a bit of a learning curve ahead. Looking forward to starting it soon!
So glad you are able to take classes with my favourite teachers from 1998, 2000, and 2012. Elizabeth allowed me to take up belt knitting in 1998 in her Fair Isle class at The Spider’s Web. I remember sitting next to you at Elizabeth’s class in 2012 and a whole lot of muttering was coming from your corner! to do with lace knitting as I recall… Happy you mastered it. Cheers, SS.
Shelagh, I hadn’t remembered that Elizabeth was the teacher for that! You know I still have the handspun she was selling at that time — also all hand dyed. I think I bought enough for a simple Fair Isle vest (at least that was the plan). Must go stash diving to see if I can find it. Would be a hoot to send her a photo if I’m able to make something — even at this late date.
Thanks for taking me along! ❤️