Hello everyone! A quick post from us today to let you know we recently got more stock of our 5ply Shetland Cones, this is our newest range of yarn which we launched at Wool Week in 2023. Its a lovely yarn (if we do say so!!) made from 100% Real Shetland Wool and inspired by our maritime history and environment here in Shetland. Although we are rightly famed for our bright Fair Isle and Lace knitting there is also evidence of Gansey/Guernsey type jumpers worn in Shetland which makes sense when you look at our location, we are and have been for many years a main port in the Fishing industry ..read more

Hello everyone! You may remember during 2020 and 2021 when we had no in-person Shetland Wool Week we decided to produce along with Keiba Clubb online videos, featuring some of the classes we usually host at Wool Week. They are a great source of tips, tricks and information, so we thought we’d highlight them here! In 2020 we had two videos from Wool Week patrons, one being the current one, Alison Rendall and Fair Isle Cuffs and Thumb Gussets and Knitting a Fair Isle Bookmark with Hazel Tindall, this is one of our most popular classes we hold at Wool Week: We also have two videos from J&S ..read more

Hello everyone! Just a quick update, apologies if you’ve already seen this in our monthly newsletter (sign up here): we are now closed for our Christmas Break from 1 pm on Thursday, December 21st, 2023, reopening at 9 am on Thursday, January 4th, 2024. While our online shop remains open, no orders will be dispatched until the 8th of January at the earliest, and email responses will be delayed. Thanks for your support in 2023! However you choose to celebrate, may your Christmas be filled with peace and joy! Best, all of us at J&S x ..read more

Hello everyone, thank you for the great response to our new Yarn, 5ply Shetland! Today we thought we’d show you a closer look at the colour palette we chose to produce. The yarn is available in 20 shades, 14 solid and 6 natural/overdyed. As discussed in our last post the colours were inspired by our maritime history, Shetlands landscape and those classic seafaring colours: We knit up a square of each shade, so today we thought we’d go through them: We had to include two Navys, both a mid and dark – these are timeless nautical shades. The blues continue with Turquoise and Marine, two blues t ..read more

Hello everyone! The dust has settled on another Shetland Wool Week and we had a great and really busy time, during SWW we launched a new yarn range in the shop and we are delighted to say it is now available Online – 5ply Shetland! As a company that’s been around for a while (we just had our 72nd birthday in September!) we have produced many different ranges over the years, our main focus has always been creating yarns that work for both traditional and timeless knitting styles. One thing we have often been asked about is a yarn that would work for knitting fine textured patterns like Ganseys ..read more

Hello everyone, today we are discussing one of the more hands-on aspects of the wool side of our business: hand sorting. This is physically sorting each fleece into different grades for its intended final use. If a fleece is not sorted and split into its different grades and then the wool is used for making knitting yarn you will end up with an inconsistent yarn – it will be thick and thin and may break easily. This is because there has not been uniformity in the wool. You can see how different it can be in the examples above – these samples both come from the same fleece, the fine soft yarn ..read more

Hello everyone, thank you for the good feedback on our last post! Today we will go into something else we always get asked about – knitting with cones! cones in our new back-shop area. We offer quite a few of our ranges on cone but by far the most popular is our 2ply Jumper Weight, this is our traditional Shetland 4ply thickness wool that we have been producing since the 1960s. It’s available in over 100 shades and we often have most of these available. We produce them in 500g cones. This is equal to 20 balls – approximately 2500 yards/2300 metres Two shades we took back last year, left 9 and ..read more

Hello everyone, today we are going a bit more in-depth about something we get asked about all the time – what is the difference between the Supreme Lace and ‘non’ Supreme Ranges aka 1ply Cobweb and 2ply Lace, and why would you choose one over the other? left: 1ply Cobweb right: 1ply Supreme Lace There are some differences but the main one is the Supreme Lace 1 and 2ply are Worsted Spun whereas 1ply Cobweb and 2ply Lace are Woollen Spun. Worsted Spun – all the fibre is combed before spinning, this results in a softer and stronger yarn because the fibres are all aligned and not poking out (this ..read more

Hello everyone, long time no see! we have had a jam-packed summer in the shop and as you probably know last week was our first in-person Shetland Wool Week since before 2019! So to mark the occasion we launched a new yarn which is now available online, Shetland Worsted Aran in 5 natural shades: Left to Right: Shetland Black, Dark Grey, Moorit, Light Grey and Fawn. we already have this yarn in a range of 12 solid shades, but adding these undyed ones opens up a whole new world of possibilities! This yarn is spun in the same way as our Shetland Heritage range – in that they are worsted spun from ..read more

Hello everyone, a few weeks ago we launched Sandra’s most recent garment pattern – the Joseph Slipover: This tank top features traditional motifs and techniques but uses 10 zingy shades of 2ply Jumper Weight, we have the sample in the shop and everyone comments on just how bright it is! It’s knit completely in the round using steeks for the neck and armholes, you might recognise the motif and colours from the Parrots of the Rainforest Mitts, Sandra just wasn’t finished with it.. We thought we’d go through our other single garment patterns we have available at J&S, knitting a full garment ..read more