"A Legacy of Shetland Lace"

Published by The Shetland Times Ltd, Lerwick, 2012

Elizabeth Johnston of Shetland sent me this lovely book this past winter.  Most books that are available about Shetland lace are written by writers that are not from Shetland.  This book is actually the work of the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers that was founded in 1988.  It's purpose is to preserve and further Shetland's traditional textile heritage.

This knitting book has all of the things that I most love about knitting books.  Not only does it have good patterns, it also has clear directions at the beginning of the book for finishing and grafting.  All of the pattern designers, including Hazel Tindall, have interesting bios so that we get to know who these Shetland knitters are.  

The Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers logo is used to indicate the difficulty level of each pattern using one to five spinning wheels - five being the hardest.

Knitting Advise

 Throughout the book you will find tidbits of knitting advise from these masters written in their native English.  It brings the reader just that much closer to being in Shetland to be able to read all these little gems of wisdom.  It's a book that I highly recommend!

Shearing Day at Whoamule Shetlands

Skirting Fleece

Chris and Jerry Lubinski of Clinton, WA on Whidbey Island let me photograph their shearing day recently.  If you'd like to see the whole story, follow this link to my other blog...http://thesheepbarn.blogspot.com

In search of bed rugs and boat rya...

My sister and I are planning a trip to Finland this spring in search of our 'roots'.  Although I truly am an American mutt, 1/4 of my ancestry is Swedish-Finn...and for reasons I can't explain, I have always had a very strong interest in early Scandinavian textiles.

Reproduction of a 'proddy' rug that is on display at Stundars Museum in Korsholm, Finland

  Unbeknownst to my poor sister, I have already started my search for museums in the Ostrobothnian region of western Finland that have interesting 19th century household textiles.  Much to my delight I came across the website recently for the Stundars Museum in Korsholm, Finland.  Even better, their artifact of the month was a 'proddy' rug.

I had never heard of a 'proddy' rug before.  However, when they started describing this textile that was woven in two sections with a hemp warp, rags for filler and a pile made out of wool fabric strips and wool and cotton yarn, I started to get excited!

Rag rya that is part of the collection at the Nedreberg Farm near Stryn, Norway

While in Norway in 2011, I had the opportunity to see some interesting ryas that had a pile made out of rags.  The back or ground, like many of the Norwegian ryas (rya is the Swedish name for these rugs) was a twill weave with colored stripes.  These ryas were designed to have the pile side facing down and the woven 'back' facing up. The pile would trap the air, not unlike our down comforters and create a very warm bed coverlet.  (The owner of the farm however, told us that the children slept under this rya with the pile side up because the wool rags tickled their noses.)

Detail of rag rya from Nedreberg Farm

The 'proddy' rug at Stundars also captured my imagination because of it's history.  Museum founder and curator, Gunnar Rosenholm, ..."During his expeditions in the region in the 1950's, he (saw) a rag rug in a seal-hunting boat in Replot.  His research showed that in the 18th century only farmers and people of rank could afford rag rugs, so called proddy rugs, with pile made from wool yarn.  Crofters had rugs made from rags.  Still in the 1880's, crofters used the proddy rug as a bedspread.  The rag rug was used in much the same way as a skin rug but sometimes the rag rug was more practical.  A skin rug would turn stiff and cumbersome once it had become wet.  This is why fisherman preferred proddy rugs in their boats well into the 20th century, and why the last rugs were found in the archipelago."

Batrya on a bed in a rorbu (fishermans cabin) at the Lofoten Museum in Storvagen, Norway

The proddy rugs got me thinking about the batryas (boat rye) that are found on the west coast of Norway. They have several nice examples on display at the Lofoten Museum in the Lofoten Islands. The batrya has a woven ground with a pattern in it, but the pile is made of plied wool yarn.  They were woven for the same reasons that the proddy rugs were woven.  When the fishermen went out on the fishing grounds and spent the night in their boats, these rya kept them warm and dry, were relatively easy to wash and did not deteriorate in the salt water like a skin would.

Detail of the front and back of a batrya at the Lofoten Museum.

In Shetland, a more decorative bed rug version of the rya is found in the form of a 'taatit rug'. The ground is woven on a loom like the other bed rugs in Scandinavia, but the knotted pile is then looped onto the ground after it is removed from the loom with a needle, and then cut...in some ways like the rya 'kits' that are available today from Finland.  Unlike the modern Finnish rya which is purely decorative, the taatit rugs were functional bed rugs.

Taatit Rug in the collection of the Shetland Museum

One of my favorite versions of the batrya dates back to Viking times in Iceland in the form of the 'varafeldur', a woven shawl that was used as currency. The pile in this case was made of locks of the sheeps fleece knotted around the spun wool warp yarns.

Detail of the 'varafeldur' woven by Elizabeth, Marta and Hildur

 
A few years ago Elizabeth Johnston (Shetland) along with Marta Klove Juuhl (Norway) and Hildur Hakonardottir (Iceland) wove a 'varafeldur' in Iceland using the old viking methods on a warp weighted loom.  They used the fleece from local Icelandic sheep.  The finished varafeldur is a remarkably soft, light weight textile that would keep any fisherman warm.

Marta Klove Juuhl with woven 'varafeldur'

Although I didn't have the privilege of seeing this piece woven, I did get to handle the finished piece.  This weaving technique is quite rare.  The only place I have seen it demonstrated was by the interpretive staff at the Lofotr Borg Viking Museum in the Lofoten Islands in Norway several years ago.

So as I plot 'my version' of our trip to Finland in search of our roots - I guess I'll also have to take a detour to the Ostrobothnian Museum in Vaasa to see the original 'proddy' rug.  It would be a shame to just see the reproduction and not the original...I do hope my sister ends up falling in love with these Scandinavian bed rugs like I have!

More on sweaters and ponies...

Here are photos and commentary from the blog of the pony owners with an exhortation to 'Not try this at home."  This link was kindly sent to me from Elizabeth Johnston in Shetland.

http://shetlandponyeverything.posterous.com/please-do-not-try-this-at-home

Shetland Ponies with Fair Isle Sweaters promote Tourism in Scotland

Who can resist these beauties!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2266196/How-turn-pony-jumper--combine-Shetlands-favourite-exports.html

Inspiration...

My flock sweater

After watching Martha and Elizabeth knit their allovers in October, I decided it was about time to get back to work on my 'flock sweater'.  I'd set it aside a few years ago after I finished the sleeves.  I'd run out of black and needed to spin some more, all the bobbins on my wheel were full...you know the drill...So it went into what my husband fondly refers to as the 'Great Hall of Unfinished Projects' - we all have one.  Mine really isn't all that large, it's just that DH finds the whole concept rather odd, but then he doesn't knit (or spin or weave or...).

'Buttercup'

 All of the colors in my sweater have a corresponding face that goes with them.  Most of the browns in the sweater come from different shearings from different years from Buttercup, a now 8 year old Shetland ewe.

Ylletroja Shetlands

An advantage to raising Shetland sheep is the wide range in the fleece colors 'on the hoof'. That diversity made the planning of the colorway for my sweater a lot of fun.

As for the design, I headed for one of my favorite knitting books, Poetry in Stitches, by Solveig Hisdal (published in 2000).  Solveig is the designer for the Norwegian knitwear company, Oleana.  She has won numerous awards for her knitwear designs.  On a warm summer night in Oslo before the theater starts you can see numerous woman dressed in Oleana sweaters and matching silk skirts stroll by - her designs have become the contemporary version of the bunad or folk costume in Norway.

Solveig Hisdal sweater design from Poetry in Stitches

The pattern I used for my sweater in her book was knit in red, blue, green, gold and black.  I have been able to adapt it really well to the natural Shetland colors.  But the thing that really excites me (again and again) about her pattern design and color choice is the fact that they are often inspired by old textiles.

Woolen bunad bodice form Hallingdal from Poetry in Stitches

Museums contain a wealth of old textiles that are often ignored.  Solveig Hisdal has used these old textiles and artifacts as inspiration for her designs.  She's able to see in a way that most of us do not and create a thoroughly modern textile that honors the spirit of these old pieces.  Her book not only includes her own sweater designs, but also photos of the old pieces that have inspired her.  Many are textiles, but she has also included photos of architectural details of old buildings, old paintings of bunad, flowers and the landscape.

My Christmas sweater

Many years ago, I found this sweater in a little shop in Stillwater, Minnesota.  I fell in love with it immediately.  At that time I had never heard of Oleana or Solveig Hisdal.  (To this day, you still have to work really hard to find her work in the US - not so in Norway!)  The price was dear, but I have never regretted buying it.  Each year I pull it out of the closet in December and remember again why I love her work so much.

A few pieces in the 2012 Oleana knitwear collection

Each year Oleana continues to put out new designs.  They continue to offer new pieces in their lines that now include home furnishings as well as women's wear.  As time changes, so do the materials that they are using.  My Christmas sweater was all wool.  Today, you will find more wool/silk blends and alpaca fibers, much as you would in other contemporary women's wear, but the essence of her designs remain the same.

I'm happy to be back knitting my 'Flock sweater'...inspiration comes in many forms....Thank you Martha and Elizabeth!

Martha's newly finished allover

For more information about Oleana, click on this video link to watch their 2006 video about the company.   Although the video is in Norwegian, it will give you a chance to meet the owners of Oleana - Signe Aarhus and Kolbjorn Valestrand - as well as the companies designer, Solveig Hisdal.  It includes a factory tour of Oleana (they've chosen to make their sweaters entirely in Norway), their employees annual trip abroad as well as a fashion show that they held at the Nordsik Museum, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Fair Isle for Handspinners Class

Elizabeth Johnston of Shetland and Martha Owen of North Carolina, recently visited the NW to teach traditional techniques for Fair Isle knitting.  Elizabeth started the class by informing us that it was not a dye class or a spinning class or a knitting class, but rather a color class...and off we went! 

Natural colors of Shetland fleece (gray and light moorit) just removed from a dye bath containing cochineal and onion.  Other dye pots contained onion skins for yellow and green and logwood for blue and purple.  Several colors of fleece were dyed to get a large selection of colors.

The Shetland sheep in Shetland are shorn in the summer after the rise or natural break that occurs in the process of the shedding of their fleeces. If you look closely at this photo you can see where the old lock ends and the new fleece begins toward the cut end of the lock.

Two dyed locks of Shetland fleece just out of the dye pot.

Holding the lock firmly in your hand, the end with the break needs to be pulled off at the rise area or break in the fleece before it is ready to work with.

Dyed locks that have had the ends pulled off at the break or rise location.

Once the tender ends are removed from the fleece it is carded into rolags, either by hand or with a drum carder.  This is the time that the dyed fleece can be mixed with other colors or light or dark natural colored fleece.  The color possibilities at this point are endless.

Elizabeth Johnston demonstrates the use of the drum carder for color blending as well as for creating a lofty, woolen style yarn.

Creating a lofty, woolen yarn for Fair Isle knitting requires the perfect rolag as well as the perfect spinning method.  Here teacher Martha Owen demonstrates her 'long draw' spinning technique. Once the single yarn is spun, it is then under-plied for an unbalanced two plied yarn...just what 'they' tell you never to do. The finished yarn is strong, light and airy...done in the style of the traditional Shetland production spinners.   

Student Denise Mor with her dyed fleece and carded rolags ready for spinning.

Denise's spun yarn ready to be knit into a traditional Fair Isle pattern.

One of 'Fair Isle for Handspinners' students knitting in progress.

A finished project on top of the raw Shetland locks that the class started with.

I'm looking forward to working with the wonderful stash of dyed and undyed fleece that I came home with after this class.