Fun
Knit to This: Shetland Wool Week
Dear Kay,
This week’s FOMO for me has been watching folks on Instagram heading off to the North Atlantic. We are in the midst of the annual migration of knitters to the festival that celebrates colorful, traditional knitting.
It’s Shetland Wool Week!
(Go ahead and download this year’s free Wool Week pattern—it’s an annual tradition where a Wool Week Patron designs a hat. This year, Oliver Henry put sheep and ships all over his Roadside Beanie design. There’s a great photo of a roomful of them on Instagram.)
Searching for Shetlandish listening, I came upon a Fruity Knitting video podcast (see it up top), with a bunch of folks Andrew and Andrea tracked down during last year’s Shetland Wool Week. Settle in with your knitting for a good 90 minutes of fiddles and landscapes and vintage knits and wool and tons of knitters. We are reminded that many Shetland knitters knit to put food on the table, not as a hobby. We visit with the legendary Hazel Tindall. We see colorwork galore. It’s great.
Love,
Ann
Wearin’ my Shaila Mittens (they enjoyed a wee visit with their ancestral home at J&s) and loving every minute of Shetland Wool Week! Frequent spottings of Andrea and Andrew of Fruity Knitting allow me to assure that there will be episodes for this SWW in the future.
Thank you so much for leading me to this wonderful website of videos!!! I wasn’t able to go to Shetland this year, but it is on my bucket list for the very near future!!!! Thanks!
I am British and unfortunately I didn’t get to go either. The nearest I am going to get in the near future is episodes of Fruity Knitting and the SWW annual, which I am currently awaiting with bated breath (I believe that the Woolly Thistle is also due to receive copies also).
Wow! What a treasure. Thanks for the inspiration. I can’t wait to share fruityknitting with my friends.
Fruity Knitting is great! Lovely to watch and so informative. Please consider becoming one of their patrons (with a small monthly donation) so they can keep up their wonderful productions. I love watching Andrew knit!
Attending the SWW is on my list of festivals for next year, in addition to, the Woollinn festival in Dublin, Ireland. I love attending the yarn festivals in Europe because the yarn is very different for knitting. Fruity knitting’s coverage of European yarn festivals caught my interest in exploring beyond the States’ festivals.
The podcasts are great. I loved the interview of Meg Swanson. But why is it called Fruity Knitting? Any info on that?
I always wondered what the heck is meant by that! Australian slang? Meaning?
Check our the home decor behind A&A…….
Fruity knitting is a must watch. They are really focused on the entire process from fiber to garment. I’ve learned a great deal from the show and would recommend it to anyone!
I’m just back from a magical time at SWW. I met knitters from all over the world, saw the knitted lace on Unst, and even made it to Fair Isle. It took over s year of planning and saving but worth the trip. Today I unpack, 2 compression bags full of wool in my suitcase to play with, laundry can wait!
Thank you so much for sharing this video. I couldn’t sleep due to some horrid work thing I won’t bore you with, so I watched this while knitting on Starflake (the Stephen West MKAL) and cuddling my little dog.
Fruity Knitting is so delightful and I’m hoping I can get to sleep soon and dream of Shetland.