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.

View South from Sheep Hill Park

Hi again, just me checking in with a quick photo or or two for you today. It's VERY hot and sunny for Shetland today and certainly too hot for me, but it LOOKS amazing!! Shetland in nice weather is unbeatable.
Hubby and I went up to the sheep today. While he finished off the gate to the outer pen I went calling on the sheep to come and get their extra feed. They don't really need it every day, but I'm trying to get them to keep coming down the hill towards me as it's a very steep hill and I have no sheepdog!
I'm delighted to report my one and only Cheviot ewe responded to the pedicure and antiseptic treatment I administered the other week and she's now fleet of foot. Probably much more so than I am!!! But the exercise is good for me. I recently sold my Reebok stepper because I figured I was getting better exercise chasing sheep all over the place. It's a whole lot more fun than stepping on and off a piece of plastic!
So first of all, here's the view south from the hill park......

And here's my new (primitive) gate! It cost a whole £4.00 to make!

I also managed to get a photo of my two "Golden Girls" together today. They are in the autumn of their years and not looking their best but they are just adorable! I am planning to get them in the pen this week and perhaps just 'roo' them (pluck the fleece off) instead of clipping them as it's very straggly anyway and I don't want to lose the fleece among the heather. Here they are......

Golden Girls in Glad Rags!

And just to end with, I took a photo of hubby's jumper hanging over the pen and gave it a little post-click treatment and it looked quite good......

I'm easily amused!
Until next time, take care.

Magda on Retreat

Weather wise today is the best day this year up here in Shetland. The sun is shining, we have 'wall to wall' blue sky and there is very little wind. What a change from the last five months when we have experienced relentless rain. The garden is way behind what it was this time last year and hubby says a lot of the plants have been lost. he's the gardener by the way. The only time I go into the garden is either to admire his handiwork or take photos he has asked me to take of the various stages of growth and lovely blooms he manages to grow. If it were up to me we would be neck high in weeds!!
Here's a little someone who enjoys taking her place in the garden.........

That's our younger cat Magda sitting on top of her purpose-built retreat in the garden. She took ownership of it as soon as my hubby finished making it. Our other cat Dougal doesn't get near it. But he's quite happy lying under some foliage.

His favourite place is actually indoors on top of a chest of drawers that has a few blankets on top. I'll go and have a look to see if he's there. See if I can sneak a photo or two.

Yip, I thought so!

Unfortunately I disturbed his slumber, but he very forgivingly posed for me and gave me this handsome shot.....

But while we're on the subject, here is one of my favourite shots of Dougal.....

Dougal disgruntled

Well, I'd better go and make some dinner or my hubby might become disgruntled too!
I hope you're day has been as sunny as mine here in Shetland. It makes such a difference to everything and everybody. People even SMILE when the sun shines!
Until next time, keep smiling and stay creative. My next post should show my finished shawl.

First Soay Fleece

What a birthday present! My first little bundle of Soay sheep fleece taken from my lovely ewe Yaisah today. Just look at this.....

There would have been more but, as Soays shed their own fleece, half of it was gone before I got to her to get the rest off. I may get nearer the full fleece from Shulah as she hasn't started shedding too much yet. Here are a couple more pics, a little closer up this time. Their fleece is very oily. Good for the hands!!

I've never worked with raw fleece before and as I want to learn how to spin I need to learn how to go through the whole process so I've oredered this book through Amazon......

And then of course because I want to learn to spin using a drop spindle I just HAD to order this book as well.......

I've found someone who is willing to teach me how to use the spindle and I'm so thankful and very excited about it. I would love to knit a shawl from my very own fleece. That is my goal.
And if all this isn't enough excitement for me, I'm getting 2 more Soays next week. This is my birthday present from my hubby. They are 'wethers' (castrated rams) and were born last year around the same time as the 2 ewes I have so it will make a nice little group. I plan to have perhaps half a dozen Soays and that will probably be my limit so I can add a few coloured Shetlands to my small flock too. About a dozen sheep altogether will be my flock size.
My hubby made a lovely gate for the larger sheep pen today. I was so grateful as it will help enormously when it comes to shearing time. We just need a couple more bits of wood to make it completely safe and sound. My hubby is so good to me and if I need something done or made he always does it and doesn't leave me hanging on or having to nag!! I wouldn't nag anyway, it's just not me.
So, I'll leave you today with a photo taken from the batch I took on Saturday at the Shetland Alpaca and Soay farm. Thanks for calling by my blog. As always feel free to comment, join, follow, ask questions......whatever you want. Here's a pic for you................

Three light Soays

Baby Soays......Adorable!

Just look what I got to photograph yesterday! I had made plans with the couple who own the Shetland Alpaca Farm to come up yesterday and take photos of their baby Soay sheep. I couldn't wait. I slept very badly the night before and got up at 6.00am because of my utter excitement! I know, I'm just a hopeless case.
Here is one photo I just love......

Just chillin'

As you can see, Soay babies are not really like the lambs of other breeds of sheep that we are more familiar with. They are much more like young deer and I noticed the 'bleating' sound they make is also unlike a lamb's bleat. Their coats are quite tight and very wavy, almost curly in places.
Here's a few more pics for you.....

Look at that face!

One of the ram lambs this year has a much lighter coat than they expected, but I think they are keen to keep this little ram to use as a breeder in the future. Soays can be light or dark. They can also have white on their faces. Some people prefer this. It's a matter of personal taste really. As long as the lamb's generational history can be traced back and there is only Soay blood in them then it's perfectly ok to have a change in colour. Sometimes a breeding ram may "throw" a lighter colour, even though he is dark. This is obviously a throw back from a previous generation.

Light Soay

Dark Soay

Soay sheep shed their own fleeces, although you can pull it off yourself if you see that is is becoming very loose and patchy. I notice one of mine is looking particularly straggly so I may try to get as much of the wool as I can so I can try to spin it. Phill from the farm showed me yesterday how to take off the loose fleece. You just get hold of a piece and 'roll' it upwards away from the skin. This doesn't hurt or harm the Soay sheep at all. The new fleece grows back quite quickly too. You can see in this next photo how the adult light coloured Soay is beginning to shed her fleece. Those loose clumps would easily come off with a gentle pull upwards.

I'm just going to finish off this post with a photo of one of their rams called Gambit. He is quite a character. When I arrived yesterday to take photos he was lying back in the sunshine watching all the mothers do the hard work............enough said!!! Here he is in all his glory..........

What a dude!

Back soon with more news and photos. Take care.

The Makkin (Knitting) Belt

Well, it's almost 3.30am and as usual I'm up and about amusing myself til' sleep finally takes over again! So I thought I'd keep to my promise and tell you a little bit about the 'makkin' or knitting belt that we Shetland folks use. (Makkin is just our local dialect name for knitting).
Here's a photo of my one. (Also seen in my blog header.)



My one is actually a child's one! I haven't had it since I was a child. I just happened to find it in a charity shop and I've added another belt to it so it can fit me!!
Makkin belts are made of leather, stuffed with horse hair and tightly stitched around the edges to make them very strong and to keep the hair in. The belts are worn on the right hand side of the knitter, who will then put their knitting needle (we would call this a makkin wire) into one of the many holes that are put on the front of the belt. Here's another photo so you can see how it works.....

link to original image

Makkin belts are particularly helpful when knitting socks and Fair Isle jumpers as they are most often knitted 'in the round'. By placing the makkin wire you are knitting with into one of the holes, it immediately stabilizes the wire and the garment being knitted, thus making it far easier to keep the tension on the makkin continuous and stopping the garment from moving around too much.
The older generations of Shetland women would really have been the ones to benefit most from these belts, and of course they date back a long way. You'll see what I mean by this next photo........

An old Shetland postcard
A hardy breed indeed!
This woman has probably walked all the way to the peat hill and back, knitting as she went! It was normal for the Shetland women to do this as their husbands, brothers or fathers were away at the fishing, often for very long periods of time, so they had no choice but to take care of everything else. You can see just how tough these women were. Their hands were the hands of workers. No acrylic nails in those days! Probably no nails here and there!
Here's two more hardy women makkin, 'yakkin' and 'takkin' the peats home!

An old Shetland postcard
Can you just imagine walking, perhaps miles, over a rough track with a 'kishie' of heavy peats on your back, knitting an intricate Fair Isle pattern as you go? No wonder they all had their makkin belts to help out. And remember, it was necessary to be knitting all the time as this was a source of income for them while their men folks were away at sea. Plus, some of the garments would be for the men at sea to help add an extra layer when exposed to the wild Shetland elements. Interestingly, the sleeves of fishermen's jumpers were made a little bit shorter than normal so that the arms could be kept drier and warmer. This was especially necessary in the icy cold waters of the winter season, although thick gloves would have been worn too.
Well, I'm just going to finish off with a cute little photo that I hope will make you smile. I also hope you have found this post interesting and informative. As always, if you have any questions or want to know more about the fascinating islands of Shetland, please comment or email me and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

link to original imageI love this photo!

World's Fastest Knitter Comes from Shetland!

Knitters to Know – Speed Knitting Champion – Hazel Tindall

Hand knitting at great speed, Hazel won the world speed knitting championship with an eye-popping speed of 255 stitches in 3 minutes.



















Hazel proudly holds up the Shetland flag!!

When did your your love affair with yarn start?
From first days as a baby I was surrounded by three generations of knitters as the ladies of the household, my grandmother, mother, aunt and older sister, all knitted. All neighbours and visitors also knitted. Everyone knitted quickly. There was great excitement when a huge bag of coloured hanks of yarn arrived some weeks after our own Shetland wool had been sent to the commercial spinner.

What are your 3 favourite yarns and what do you like about them?
Shetland yarn from Jamieson’s or Jamieson & Smiths. I like the way the wool handles and I know I will always get good results as well as light weight garments. Don’t often use anything else.

Who taught you to knit/crochet?
I don’t remember learning to knit so I guess I learned from my mother, or perhaps my older sister. I taught myself to crochet by following pictorial instructions in a book.


What’s the favourite thing you’ve ever made?
I have so many favourite things!
Here is a photo of one of my most recent creations.









What else do you do for love? (Any other hobby?)
I play cards at least twice a week in winter. I enjoy spending time with my family, especially my grandchildren.

Favourite book/film?
I enjoy autobiographies and biographies. Rarely watch films.

Is there a knitting/crochet tip you’d like to share with us?
For someone who wants to learn: watch others knit or crochet and if their actions look comfortable and ‘flowing’, that’s the person you should ask to teach you.
For everyone else: make sure you finish off the work carefully and neatly. A poor finish can spoil an otherwise beautiful piece of work.

If someone wanted to start knitting, what would you recommend they attempt as a first project?
At school, we always started with a hot water bottle cover! I guess an oven glove or a pin cushion would be just as good as a starting project – or a cover for a Kindle or mobile phone.

What do you like most about knitting?
The magic of converting beauty from long lengths of yarn, as well as the relaxation from the rhythm of knitting.

Knitting’s taken me to America several times to demonstrate, teach and give short lectures. The last speed knitting competition was in America where I met the Guiness World Record Holder, Miriam Tegels; she took second place. Winning that competition led me to being invited to appear on Weakest Link (along with other ‘alternative’ champions) and I feature in a new book “Significant Figures in Art and Craft Today” (a great honour).
In Shetland I have taught evening classes in crochet, and a few short Fair Isle knitting courses. Demonstrating knitting is always enjoyable. I’ve rarely had the opportunity, or invitation, to teach or demonstrate elsewhere in the UK – disappointing but travelling between Shetland and mainland UK is expensive so I guess that’s one reason for few invitations.

What do you admire most in the knitting community?
Willingness to share ideas.

How did it feel to represent the UK overseas at speed knitting and then to win?
I felt I was representing the many generations of Shetland knitters who had to knit quickly in order to get food for their families. Up till World War II, knitting was bartered at local shops for basics such as tea and sugar. For many families this was their only source of income. The ladies I watched as a young girl were always knitting at speed so it doesn’t seem anything unusual to me.

Will you be competing again, and if so when and where?
If invited I’ll compete again but have no idea when or where.