Jamieson & Smith Shetland Wool Brokers Ltd. purchase Shetland wool from over 700 of Shetland’s crofters and farmers and transform it into high-quality Real Shetland Wool products including yarns, knitwear, blankets and carpets.
Real Shetland Wool is an incredibly natural and sustainable fibre and is world-renowned for its fineness and warmth. Shetland Sheep graze on the islands’ hills and beaches eating wild heather and seaweed. This diet, along with the not-so-great weather, makes Shetland wool soft, strong and warm.
Our wool is perfect for hand-knitting both Shetland Lace and Fair Isle, as well as for knitwear manufacture and weaving. We hand sort and grade our wool and, to make sure that we do not waste anything, the coarser parts of the fleece are used in carpets and mats produced by our friends at the Real Shetland Company.
Everything we do at Jamieson & Smith is with the aim of enhancing the profile of Shetland wool, so as to raise the prices for local wool producers.
What a joy to watch you knit. I love the different cast on methods and the live edge… well what a cool skill to learn. Your video has convinced me that I really need to try a knitting belt. What a wonderful video. A treasure of information!
Such a lovely, interesting video. Thank you so much! I love how Shetland knitters are always so modest about their incredible skills. Thank you for sharing those skills so generously with us. ❤
Thank you Ella...your little video is so clear and really helpful. I have been trying to work out how to swatch in the round and now I have found an easy and achievable way....🙂
Thanks for this video - I tried doing swatches with the yarn stranded across the back - hopelessly messy and I couldn't see my floats. Tried also doing swatches with the yarn held in a "bubble" so that I only had ends on one side - kind of a pain to do that and you run out of yarn. I think I will try this method of breaking the yarn at every row - the yarn is sticky enough to not fall apart, more convenient, and it's a small investment of yarn to ensure the colours work out. I do find that knitting the first and last stitches through the back loop with both colours helps anchor and secure the yarns.
Fascinating video. Loved hearing about your life and the development of the wool brokers. My mum must have been one of your early “word of mouth” customers and I remember how much I loved it when your wonderful shade cards would arrive. Mum (daughter of crofters) would buy the wool for her lace knitting ( using Gladys Amedro patterns) and she’d always buy me some to make a jumper - I would have been 10 when I first did that. Great memories. Important to have the history of the wool brokers recorded like this. Wonderful 👏👏
Hearing about Shetland wool and the people involved is so interesting. It has been so sad to see knitting being less popular in youngsters today. Many say its the cost involved its cheaper to buy, what they don’t understand its the quality you get when making items yourself and if cared for how much longer they last. The Shetland knitters have proven this last point. Oliver you have spent your adult life committed to the survival of the Shetland wool, well done sir.
I completely loved and enjoyed every second of this! As a new knitter, Jameson & Smith is on a page in my maker diary that is entitled “Dream Yarn.” It will no longer be a dream yarn to acquire and work with. It will be an honor!
I just found your video and immediatly bookmarked it, never have I seen a better tutorial for a thumb gusset! Thank you - especially for the reminder for the left and right hand. (Ask me who made two left sleeves when sewing a shirt) Thank you so much! Pinguinpullover, Germany
Love your smile also. The real one at the end that says "Whew, it's over". I've smiled that one a few times myself. There aren't many redheads here so it's nice to see a sister redhead. Besides beingca knitter, I'm also a nurse. This urges me totell you, if you don't already know, to look up online- the redhead gene. MC1R. This gene not only gave us redhair, it also affects other things. Wetake at least 20% more loval anesthesia than the average large man because not only does it take more to havve the numbing affect but metabolize it extremely rapidly. I know this is odd for a knitting comment but this isa fairly recent discovery and it burns my backside thinking another redhead has been made to feel like a weakling or a whiner because the medicine didn't last very long. This can happen for dental treatment or epidral during surgery or childbirth (no longer my concern😉). Please look it up and pass it on to any other of our kind.
My goodness, what an interesting comment! I had no idea why I've always needed to ask the dentist for double the amount of anaesthetic as the first injection never works! Thanks for watching and for letting me know!! Sister redheads unite:)
I love the colos. The blues really sing out. I'm in Texas and while you'd die in a sweater in the spring summer or fall, winer would be great. Here it's either over 100°f or heading below freezing. I've always wanted to try steeking. You probably hear this alot, cutting my knitting terrifies me. I'm going to try your mitts. I might even try them with my knitting belt. I've only played with i bt it does fascinate me. Thank you for the lesson.
@@AlisonRendall I'm so embarrassed. I have rheumatoid arthritis that has really kicked into gear. I've almost given up the fiddle because it's like my fingers are pointing in new directions every day. I'm not saying that for sympathy, many have it worse. I've only just realized my typing has been affected and I have got to start proofreading. I promise I am literate. You must wonder if Texans actually go to school. As to the local anesthetic, yell, scream, be a pain in the butt if that's what it takes. We have a high pain tolerance EXCEPT our skin, low tolerance. I wish I knew why. Maybe we have such sesitive skin because it's an early warning system, more finely calibrated than most, because our skin is all that holds in our massive amounts of magic. Who knows what would happen if it ever got loose!😉 (My oldest granddaughter was 16 before she realized Granny can't really turn herself into a bear or make it rain)
most Shetlanders would knit an in the round jumper with a belt and long needles - usually you have the front on one needle, the back on one and knit with the third. :)
@@JamiesonSmith thanks for the length of the dpns however I was wondering what the length was that you preferred and are you using bamboo stainless steel or something else
A very informative video, i have done a lot of the provisional cast on with making shawls and there are a few other methods but any decent knitter will know that. I have never tried a belt myself but most of my work is on very long circular needles. I may try a belt when i next get onto very long double ended needles as i can see the benefits.
Dear Hazel Tindall, you’re a true master of your craft and I feel immensely grateful that you’re sharing your knowledge and experience with us like this! I’m about to embark upon my first Fair Isle project, and choosing colours is very tricky indeed. You have such a lovely voice to listen to, and you explain things very clearly and show everything so it’s easy to see what you’re doing.
