Armchair Travels: Shetland - Meet the Makers

Every journey must end, and ours ends in the best possible company. We have walked the islands, marveled at their great wool festival, met the hardy sheep behind it all, and watched two knitting traditions take shape on the needles. Now, for our final stop, we meet the people who carry the whole story forward: the mills and crofts that turn raw fleece into yarn, and the designers who dream up what to make with it. This is where Shetland wool leaves the islands and finds its way to you.

A Tale of Two Jamiesons

Few things confuse newcomers to Shetland wool more than its two most famous names, which sound almost identical and are forever mistaken for one another. They are, in fact, two entirely separate companies, each named for a different Jamieson.

The name itself tells a story older than either company. Like so many Shetland surnames ending in "son," Jamieson is a relic of the old Norse custom of patronymics, in which a person's second name simply meant "son of" their father and changed with every generation. A Jamieson was once, quite literally, the son of a James. Shetland held to this system long after the rest of Britain, and only around 1800 did these patronymics settle into the fixed family names the islands carry today.

The elder of the Jamieson yarn companies is Jamieson's of Shetland. It began in the early 1890s when Robert Jamieson opened a shop in Sandness, on the far west coast, trading in the handspun knitwear of local crofters. Five generations later the family still runs the business, and in 1981 they built something remarkable: the only spinning mill in all of Shetland. For the first time 100% pure Shetland yarn could be sourced, graded,  dyed,  and spun under a single roof. Today, Jamieson’s produces world-renowned yarns, knitwear, tweeds, and blankets in a breathtaking palette of traditional and contemporary colors, keeping Shetland’s textile heritage alive while sharing it with knitters and makers across the globe. Their much-loved Spindrift is a fingering-weight yarn that comes in a spectacular range of shades , and it has become a mainstay for Fair Isle knitters the world over.

Jamieson & Smith, the island's wool broker, began in the 1930s when the Smith family of Scalloway began buying fleeces from their neighbors. Each year the brokers take in some eighty percent of the entire Shetland clip, bought from hundreds of crofters, and they remain one of the last firms to hand sort and grade every single fleece. For decades that job has belonged to their celebrated woolman, Oliver Henry, whose practiced eye can read a fleece at a glance. A director of the firm and one of the founders of Shetland Wool Week, he is an ambassador for the fiber whose passion and expertise are famously infectious.

In the 1960s the company moved to its current home on Lerwick’s harbour front, where wool sheds and a converted church-turned-yarn-store welcome visitors today. Since 2004, Jamieson & Smith has partnered with Curtis Wool Direct, but the business remains proudly Shetland-staffed and dedicated to supporting local crofters. 
 
Every J&S product carries the iconic 3 Sheep Logo, guaranteeing it is made from 100% Real Shetland Wool, born and bred on the islands. Their yarns run from the workhorse 2ply Jumper Weight, made for colorwork, to Shetland Heritage, a worsted-spun yarn that recreates the traditional look, and the fine Shetland Supreme Lace Weight we met in our travels through lace.

Two separate firms, then, with two distinct crafts, and both, happily, side by side on our shelves.

Uradale Yarns

Beyond the two Jamiesons, the islands are home to smaller makers whose yarns carry a character all their own. At Uradale Farm near Scalloway, Ronnie Eunson raises native Shetland sheep across two thousand acres of certified organic land, and his yarns hold the natural colors of the flock alongside shades dyed with plants from the croft. Out on Foula, one of Britain's most remote inhabited islands, a single family spins yarn from the fleece of their own Foula sheep and nothing else.

On Fair Isle itself, a crofter named Rachel keeps the island's only flock of pure Shetland sheep at Barkland Croft. Her Bee Croft wool comes entirely from her own hand-shorn fleeces, spun into undyed skeins named for the very sheep that grew them, and through her monthly video postcards to The Woolly Thistle she carries island life to knitters far from its shores. Each of these makers is a way of life spun into a ball of wool.

Meet the Designers

Yarn is only the beginning. It takes a designer's eye to turn a ball of Shetland wool into something to knit, and the islands are home to a remarkable roster of them. Here are a few whose names every Shetland knitter comes to know.

Hazel Tindall

Twice crowned the World's Fastest Knitter, in 2004 and 2008, Hazel grew up in a Shetland home where knitting paid the bills, and she has spent a lifetime at the craft. A leading authority on Fair Isle, she teaches, writes, and designs, and her Shwook Hat was the very first official Wool Week hat, back in 2014. She is the one to study for allover Fair Isle worked the old Shetland way, with a knitting belt and flying needles.

Wilma Malcolmson

The founder of Shetland Designer, established in 1982, Wilma is one of the islands' most influential Fair Isle designers, admired above all for her color sense, subtle and vivid at once. She served as Wool Week patron for 2020 and 2021, designing Katie's Kep and Da Crofter's Kep in honor of her crofter parents. You will find her Katie's Kep yarn set in the shop, ready to knit.

Gudrun Johnston

Born in Shetland and now based in the United States, Gudrun designs under the name the Shetland Trader. Her graceful sweaters, vests, and haps take old island stitch patterns in fresh directions, designed to be worn often and kept for years. She created the Bousta Beanie as 2017 Wool Week patron, and her brand-new book, Shetland Shades: Stories in Wool, sits on our shelves alongside her Riggies Vest, Hansel Hap, and Hairst Hap Hood.

Ella Gordon

Born, bred, and based in Shetland, Ella is a textile maker who works at Jamieson & Smith and draws deeply on the islands' history and colors. A devoted champion of vintage Shetland knitwear, she designed the Crofthoose Hat as 2016 Wool Week patron. Her own work leans into bold, characterful colorwork, from little hats to yoked sweaters.

Donna Smith

A Shetland native from the isle of Burra, Donna is a designer, a yarn producer, and the maker of the Baa-ble Hat that took the knitting world by storm in 2015. Her patterns draw on traditional Shetland colorwork and lace, and she spins her own Langsoond yarn from island fleece. Her Baa-ble Hat and many other sets are in the shop.

The Journey's End

And so our armchair adventure comes to its close. From here, the rest is up to you. Whichever thread of the journey called to you most, there is a way to take it home. For colorwork, reach for Jamieson's of Shetland Spindrift or Jamieson & Smith's 2ply Jumper Weight, with a Fair Isle Hat Kit to get you started. For the fine tradition, the Shetland Supreme Lace Weight is waiting. There are hat sets from the Wool Week patrons, our own Woolly Thistle designs by Corinne, the latest Shetland Wool Week Annual to pore over, and books to knit your way through the winter. You will find them all, and a great deal more, gathered in our Shetland collection.

Shop the Shetland Collection (opens in new tab)

Thank you for traveling north with us these past few days. Shetland’s traditions endure because they are still practiced. With the wool in your hands, you are not only looking back at that history, but participating in its continuation. Happy knitting, Thistlers!