Class Openings for 'Fair Isle for Handspinners'

Just three more weeks until Elizabeth Johnston and Martha Owen arrive to teach 'Fair Isle for Handspinners'.  We have had two students cancel out of the upcoming October 26-28, 2012 class, so we now have two openings available.  If you are interested, check out my March 30, 2012 blog posting and send me an email.  It should be a wonderful class!  All of the wool we will be using is raw Shetland wool that has come from the Wool Brokers in Lerwick!

Martha visiting Elizabeth in Shetland in 2009.

Cunningsburgh Agricultural Show

A few years ago a friend twisted my arm into volunteering to manage the sheep barn at the Whidbey Island Fair.  The previous 'superintendent' of the barn decided that after 30 years she deserved some time off. So I stepped into a 'job' that included hiring the sheep breed and fleece show judge, putting together educational displays and even doing some barn maintenance.

Franna Pitt exhibiting her Champion Shetland Yearling Ewe at the 2012 Whidbey Island Fair ( See The Sheep Barn Blog)

 Our county fair is stretched out over 4 days with another day prior to the fair set aside for the local veterinarian to examine all of the sheep that will be exhibited at the fair for good health.  When the fair is done, we all go home happy, but exhausted.

Elizabeth Johnston in Shetland recently sent me several photos that a friend of hers took at the local agricultural fair in Cunningsburgh.

Shetland ewe

The Cunningsburgh show is an agricultural show on Shetland that is held annually on the second Wednesday in August. The first show was thought to have taken place in 1935.  However, unlike our local county fair, it is held entirely outside in a field for just one day.  It seems that this is not atypical in the UK.  We attended a fair a few years ago in Masham in the Yorkshire Dales that set up temporary pens for the sheep right in the town square.

Judging cattle

Here too for the Cunningsburgh show, temporary pens and rings are set up for the day. The show accepts entries from anywhere in Shetland, unlike some of the other Shetland Shows which only serve a specific area.  Like our fairs they include exhibits in both animals, hobbies and food items.

Shetland collie

What I love about these photos is the opportunity to see the Shetland sheep that are being exhibited at this local agricultural show.

Shetland ewe

Shetland ram

Shetland 'black' sheep

Shetland sheep with interesting facial markings

Shetland ram lamb

Not a bad way to run an agricultural fair, although is looks a bit cooler than our fair (that by the way was held the same time in August)!

Shetland ponies

 

 Cunningsburgh Show

Sea Shanties,Wooden Boats and more Allovers...

Elizabeth Johnston in Shetland sent me photos this week of some of the 'allovers' she's been knitting this summer.  I set the photos aside so I could post them at some quiet moment later.  Then, off we went to see Tom Lewis sing sea shanties at the Wooden Boat Festival over in Port Townsend, WA.

Shanty singer and song writer - Tom Lewis

Tom Lewis originally hales from Belfast, Ireland, but has been living in Canada for the last 30 years.  He retired after 24 years in Her Majesties Royal Navy serving on diesel submarines and now preforms traditional sea shanties as well as writing his own original songs.  Shanties were the working songs used on the big sailing boats of old.  They provided the rhythm to the jobs of hauling on the lines and helped to alleviate the boredom of these tedious jobs.

Schooner 'Adventuress'

After listening to all of the wonderful music and seeing the tall ships in the harbor at Port Townsend it is easy to image what the harbor in Lerwick, Shetland must have looked like in an earlier century, filled with tall ships from the Baltic, Scandinavia and Britain. I could also imagine the diversity of knitwear that came and went from Shetland on these ships, not to mention the subtle influences this busy port had on the pattern development that evolved into the knitted 'Allover'. 

'Allover' custom orders that were knitted by Elizabeth Johnston

Patterns continue to evolve at the hand of the knitters today.  Elizabeth uses her own patterns in her bespoke knitting.  The allovers she recently finished were custom orders and have already been shipped off to their new owners.  The black and gray vest in the photo above is Elizabeths pattern 'Selkie' or seal.  The colorway is new - one that the customer got a hand in choosing.  It included yarns dyed with madder (red) as well as some dyed with onions skins (yellow).

Close up of 'Nyuggle' vest

The second vest is a pattern she has titled 'Nyuggle' - which is a mythical pony in Shetland.  This pattern included yarn that was been dyed with lichens as well as some dyed with onion skins.  The matching hat is modeled by her 6 year old granddaughter.  It features a small silver spinning wheel charm on the back.

'Nyuggle' design hat with spinning wheel charm

An 'Allover'

Every now and then I am reminded that although I speak English, I speak American English that is influenced by my upbringing in the Midwest and my current life in the Northwest.  It's not until my good friend Karran (who is part Manx and part English) starts talking about her mum's cottage on the Isle of Man that I have to step back and remember that the English language  is much broader than my version.

So it was a few months ago when Elizabeth Johnston and Martha Owen started talking about the 'allovers' they were knitting. Both of them have been traveling a bit this year...Martha especially.  New grandbabies in distant places have beckoned to both women, so off they have gone with knitting needles in tow. (Can you imagine a plane trip without knitting needles?!)

Martha walking in the Lake District, England in her Shetland 'allover' jumper

So, I had to ask (because obviously I wasn't paying attention when I read parts of Ann Feitelson's book "The Art of Fair Isle Knitting").  What's an 'allover'?  Allover is the Shetland term for Fair Isle knitting.  In fact in the early 1900's no one talked about Fair Isle knitting, but rather about knitting an allover - a garment with patterns all over it.  Ann interviewed one knitter who felt that the term 'Fair Isle' knitting was a bit discriminatory since many of the patterns used have been developed by Shetlanders from islands other than Fair Isle.

The allover that Martha is knitting is based on a Shetland allover she wore on her travels this spring to stay warm. Except in the case of her knitting allover project, she handspun and dyed her own yarn in 'Martha colors'.  (I have yet to see the allover that Elizabeth is working on.)

Martha Owen knitting her own allover based on a Shetland allover

Unlike traditional Shetland allovers which are made for Shetland wool, Martha has several sheep represented in hers....white - Romney/Corriedale and dyed colors - Corriedale (from her sheep), black - a blend between Shetland and Wensleydale (from those places), and grays - Shetland from Shetland.  I can just imagine the hand of this sweater - so soft and silky!

Detail of Martha's allover

Last I talked to her, she was finishing up the torso, planning on adding the sleeves and then plotting her next allover.  I don't seem to be going as fast with that new set of 000 double points and the Estonian gloves with all the yarnover braids...oh well. I guess I should have tried harder to find a pattern for my 1's!

Ornamented Journey

A friend in Minnesota recently forwarded a link to a blog she thought was quite wonderful. The blog is written by an Estonian woman, Kristi Joeste, who works at the University of Tartu's Viljandi Culture Academy in the department of Estonian Native Crafts.

Book - Ornamented Journey by Kristi Joesti

Kristi has also published a book called 'Ornamented Journey'.  It is coauthored by a childhood friend, Kristiina Ehin whose background includes studies in folk song, ethnography and folklore. Originally published in Estonian, it has just recently been translated into English.  (I had to order it from the UK, since it hasn't made it to the US yet.)

What is so unique about this book, aside from the fact that it is filled with exquisite photos of both new and traditional Estonian gloves, is that it is filled with stories.  Ehin has written a series of short stories to help us visualize the women that originally knit these gloves and the lives that they lived.  Although it is not filled with knitting 'recipes' for all of the photographed gloves, it does include a section of instructions that will allow the reader to use the instructions along with the photos as a jumping off point for knitting their own gloves.

And so I jumped...or at least I jokingly suggested to some knitting friends that we ought to try making a lovey pair of 120 year old Mulgi mittens with a Russian cross design that Kristi showcased in her May 7, 2011 blog post.

120 year old Estonian mittens

My friends thought that it was a great idea...a new knitting challenge.  The catch was however, that these mittens were knit on 000000 needles...Now I've knit on 0000 needles to make a pair of sjonaleister, a type of Norwegian folk sock last summer (well maybe not the whole pair yet).  They were a challenge to use, but I was shockingly unprepared for the 000000 needles when they came in the mail. Their diameter was not much bigger than a pins diameter.

000000 knitting needles with swatch sitting on a moorit colored shawl that was knit with size 2 needles

I did a tiny swatch of 20 stitches by 10 rows (1 inch x 1/4 inch).  The yarn that seemed to work was a Shetland 1 ply cobweb yarn by Jamieson & Smith.  Too bad my eyes didn't work as well as the yarn did!  At this point I decided that this 120 year old pair of gloves must have been knit by someone with very young eyes.  Mine needed lots of extra magnification to get as far as I did.  I was really impressed that Kristi was able to reproduce this pair - especially since it took her 60 hours to do it.  Somehow, I can't imagine that these were very relaxing hours...

I've decided to head back into her lovely book and find a pair of gloves that can be knit on size 1 needles...they seem like giant needles after my little diversion with the 000000 needles!!!

The Art of Wool Grading

If you own sheep, they need to be sheared at least once and often twice a year, depending on the wool growth of the particular breed of sheep that you raise.  Once shorn, you end up with big bags of fleece that need to be shirted.  (Skirting is the process of removing all of the unusable wool- primarily the belly wool, the 'tags' or dirt and manure encrusted wool often from the very rear end of the sheep and the strip of wool down the center of the back that is often damaged by the weather.)  Once this is done, the wool that is left needs to be graded or sorted.

Martha Owen from the John C Campbell Folk School, North Carolina visiting with Shetland wool grader, Oliver Henry in the Lerwick warehouse of Jamieson & Smith, Ltd

With Shetland wool, the fleece is sorted into five different grades.  The grades range from 'Super Fine' all the way up to 'Rough'. Each grade of wool has it's own specific uses.  'Super Fine' can be spun into delicate lace weight yarn for fine lace shawls while 'Rough' is best suited for carpets.

With the older, more primitive versions of Shetland sheep you would probably find all five grades on one sheep.  From an evolutionary point of view, each grade had it's purpose.  The 'Super Fine' grades would be found surrounding the jugular vein areas on the neck of the animal.  It's downy character would have been extrodinarily insulating in the very worst of weather!

Wool classified as 'Rough' would most likely be found on the britch or hind quarters of a sheep.  On an island known for it's gale force winds, sheep tend to stand with their backsides facing into the wind for weather protection.  This 'Rough' wool would serve as a bit of a wooly wind breaker.

Jamieson & Smith LTD in Lerwick, Shetland

 Martha Owen had the chance to visit with Oliver Henry in the warehouse of Jamieson & Smith, Ltd in 2011.  Jamieson & Smith have been in existence in one form or another since the late 1940's.  Oliver came for a summer job in 1967 and never left.  Oliver grades Shetland wool for Jamieson & Smith which purchases 80% of the Isles annual wool clip.  The company also produces extremely high quality Shetland yarn that can only be purchased in Shetland or through the internet http://www.shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk/

I personally understand the concept of wool grading from a visual perspective.  However, when Elizabeth Johnston of Shetland came to teach in 2010 along with Martha Owen, I had the opportunity to watch her grade a local fleece.  She essentially closed her eyes and placed her hand into the fleece and 'felt' the wool in her hand.  From that short 'squeeze', she was able to tell what grade the wool was in that particular portion of the fleece.  In much less than a minute she had graded the entire fleece.  I was in awe of her abilities.  It is definitely an acquired skill (which I have yet to acquire)!

Here are some links with more information about:
Jamieson & Smith
Their book  - Knit Real Shetland
Shetland Wool Week

Card Woven Halter for Shetland and Icelandic Stallions

 

When I first met Elizabeth Johnston several years ago, she was working as an Iron Age interpreter at Scatness in Shetland.  From my point of view at that time, she was a weaver who just happened to spin and knit. Most of you however know her as an exceptional Shetland knitter and spinner.

Last week she sent me these great photos of a new weaving project - a tablet or card woven halter for a friends' horse.  She had the chance to model it on both a Shetland and an Icelandic stallion.

Indy Ping-pong : Shetland stallion

Indy Ping-pong with card woven halter

Elizabeth made this halter using an ancient weaving technique called tablet or card weaving.  In this case she has handspun and hand dyed all of the yarns she used in the weaving.

Detail of card woven halter - note that this pattern imitates the look of a knitted object

 

Card weaving dates back to the Celtic Bronze Age in Scandinavia with the earliest findings in the second century A.D.  The earliest known cards from this area were made of wood. One of the greatest archaeological finds relating to this type of weaving was from the Oseberg ship found in Norway dating back to A.D. 850.  Here a tablet loom with 52 threaded cards, a partially woven band and a number of other card-woven bands was found in the tomb of Queen Asa.

Tablet loom in the Oseberg ship find from A.D 850

 

The pattern on the card woven bands is determined by a number of factors including how the cards are threaded, the number of cards used and the sequence that the cards are turned in, to create each new weaving shed.  The variation can range from simple to endlessly complex.  

Although today, we have a limited use for these bands, historically woven bands were used for reins, bridles, saddle girths, cloth edging as well as being used for tying and attaching all manner of things.  They were the decorative forerunner to zippers, pins, elastic and Velcro.

Haakon - Icelandic stallion with card woven halter

Note chevron pattern that is woven into the halter

For more details on the weaving and dyeing of this halter as well as links to the horse owners website, go to Elizabeth's blog http://www.shetlandhandspun.blogspot.com/ .