Shetland Shawls for Sale in 2 Ply Shetland Lace Wool

Well, Christmas is coming upon us faster than ever and I'm not very organized this year. Last year I had about everything done and dusted by September but sadly this year I'm still in 'last minute mode'!
I have to let myself off a little bit though because I've been trying to start a small business from home called Croft Cottons. You can find my shop at www.croftcottons.etsy.com. At the moment there are some fabric covered buttons I made myself, pincushions, small cotton zippy pouch bags to hold your bits and pieces and also details of Shetland lace shawls you can pre-order. I am happy to discuss colours with customers and give an idea of time scale.
The shawls you see below are two 'in the making'. The shawl in natural colours is for a customer. The one in grey, blue, black and white is one I began before I got my latest commission and can be pre-ordered right now if you feel you would like it. It is available in my Etsy shop but you can also email me via my blog by clicking on the email sign top right.
There are various other colours I could do for you, eg, blues, reds, purple and lilac and green. Or you may prefer one colour such as black, white, pink, blue etc. If the shop has the colour then you can have a shawl!
Here are the two shawls I mentioned.......

I think the above shawl would make a lovely heirloom shawl for a spring baby boy. Here is the natural shawl colour arrangement......

Here are a few more colours readily available for me to knit with. There are plenty more.






Those are just a sample of colours available. If you would like more information or have something in mind please contact me and I will do my best to meet your requirements. Perhaps you've found a pattern for a shawl that you love but can't knit it for one reason or another. I'm keen to have a go for you! Just email me.

Now I'm off to get a cup of tea and get ready to wrap the last of the presents tomorrow. I hear we are in for some nasty weather so I'll batten down the hatches and tape down the wrapping paper!!
Until next time folks, take care and I hope you have a great Christmas and good year to come.

Snow has Gone.....For Now

Well, woke up to not a sign of snow or ice this morning. It hadn't stayed long anyway, perhaps about four days, and then the rain set in yesterday and seemed to not stop til this morning, although today has been more showery than constant rain. I may be able to get the sheep shelter up now before the next blast of bad weather comes. It's not so bad for the Shetland sheep. They are hardy and can withstand extremely bitter weather but the Soays are not so good in wind and rain and we can get more than our fair share of that in the winter. The climate's slightly warmer than the Gulf of Alaska, which lies on the same 60th parallel of latitude. At the moment we're not having too many hours of daylight either. Shetland winter will normally give us only about 6 hours of daylight. I'm feeding the sheep at about 1.00pm at the moment because after that the sky begins to darken and any 'good light' is all but past.

This has been a notable season in Shetland for that beautiful bird the waxwing.This is a photo I got last year in a friend's garden. Not a good photo I confess but it was taken through a window quickly!

Waxwings love apples!

Waxwings are scarce migrants to Shetland but will head here from Scandinavia if there is a shortage of berries there. They can normally be seen in October and November. On November 1st this year a flock of 55 were seen at a school in one of the northern Shetland Isles, Unst. That very same day, at the other end of the Shetland mainland, a group of about 40 was recorded. It was decided that it may be an interesting project to try to count how many waxwings were seen over that weekend. The estimated count, as near as possible for that 3 day 'weekend watch' was 975. The largest number ever recorded on one day was in 2004 and was 950. That season also saw the largest flock of 80 waxwings. I can't wait til' next year. We HAVE to beat that record again! The most we had in our garden at one time was five, but we are only establishing our garden. I think next year we could put some apples in the hedge, or other fruit. We are beginning to get more unusual birds now that my husband has made the garden bird friendly. It takes time to establish a garden properly.

I'll leave you with a couple of flower photos that I took in the garden this year. I am no use with flowers but my husband is a green-fingered genius!! I'm so glad!

I'll be back soon. Hopefully by then the sheep shelter will have been put up and I'll have a photo to post.
Take care and come back soon.