Real Shetland Wool Heritage Throws
Early Spring 2016 Adam Curtis Online, The Real Shetland Company and Jamieson & Smith proudly launched a range of stunning dyed throws made using the lovely Heritage Collection of Real Shetland Wool yarns.If you would like to see the full collection or even buy one of them, please click here to see them.
To explain in more detail about what went into making this special throw range, our very own Martin Curtis explains...
It all starts with the wool, grown exclusively in the Shetland Islands by crofters and sheep farmers. Every individual fleece is graded and sorted for quality by Jamieson and Smith a.k.a 'The Woolbrokers'. They buy the vast majority of wool that is grown in the Shetland Islands and pay the growers a proper price for it in record time. Fast pay makes friends fast in our world!The sorted wool goes to our scouring plant in Bradford, Haworth Scouring Ltd, which washes the wool and removes dirt, grease and other unmentionables from the fleeces. Haworth is the most environmentally friendly scour of its type in the world and has more certificates and badges than the Chief Scout!
Once scoured the wool goes to our combing department where it is carded and combed into a continuous sliver, called a top, which then goes to the spinner. This is called the worsted route - if you miss out the combing it is the woollen route - the difference is that by combing the wool all the fibres are made parallel and are smoother to the touch. The easiest example is if one compares a Harris Tweed cloth to a fine smooth suiting cloth, the Harris Tweed is woollen and the smooth suiting cloth is worsted. Both processes have their merits and much depends on what sort of a product you want to make as to which one is best. Up to now, our Real Shetland wool throws have been woollen spun but for this brand new bespoke designer range we decided to go the more expensive worsted route.
The spinner will take the combed top and rework it so it is suitable for their plant. The yarn for this range is a 2 ply which means two finer yarns are spun individually and then are twisted together to make a single thicker but strong yarn. The yarn then goes to the dyer and for this range it is dyed to 12 different shades. The thickness of the yarn and the shades it is being dyed to are subject to much discussion and thought and designers have a great deal of input here. We chose to work with the same shades as were developed for the Jamieson and Smith Heritage collection of hand knitting yarns - for 3 primary reasons - they coordinate, the shades look wonderful and it makes it more economical. We love them!So, at this stage we have yarn on cone in a dozen different shades and we need to get it woven into cloth. However, before we can start weaving we have to know what cloth designs we want and then get those designs translated into a form the weaver can work with. This is where we asked a team of highly talented designers for their help. They had the shades to work with and a blank canvas to create something rather special and befitting of the Heritage of Real Shetland wool! They work for some of the top designer labels in the world (I don't think I can mention their names here but think of the highest high end names and they have probably worked with them!) and we couldn't wait to see their designs. They drew the designs and coloured them in the chosen shades and showed us what they had come up with. I am going to frame the hand painted designs and hang them in my office.
[gallery ids="60,58,59" type="rectangular"]
We were not disappointed and the collection is unique and rather fantastic...but I would say that wouldn`t I? I have a couple of favourites but Adam has different ones and the team at Jamieson and Smith have theirs also. I believe we have a wonderful range of throws that will look good in the back of your car, draped over your bed or settee or favourite comfy chair, for taking to the ball game, the 5 star hotel or the log cabin. Our aim was to make a product that we could all be proud of and is also excellent value for money. I believe we have done that and I will let you know how the launch goes in due course. The cost of developing this range runs into many thousands of pounds and is a risk - but what better way to start 2016 than with something fresh and new and rather exciting for the Spring…PS: Please remember, if something calls itself Shetland wool it probably isn't genuine unless it has the registered trade mark, the 3 Sheep logo on it.
If you would like to follow Martin Curtis' blogs, you can find him over on the NFU Countryside website or go direct to his blog page, here.Please follow our blog page to see the second half of our Real Shetland Heritage Throw story.