Hello, its September which means Shetland Wool Week season is upon us, and the next few weeks will be very busy for those of us who work in the Shetland Wool industry!
I have a few things to share today, firstly my design in the 2025 Shetland Wool Week Annual, the Osla Cowl:
Last year we were lucky to have the Allover exhibition at the Shetland Museum and Archives, I loved to see the everyday wearing of knitwear here in Shetland. It was not performative, which the portrayal of Shetland can seem at times!
In the exhibition, they also had photo albums of extra pictures and in there were a few examples of one of my favourite types of patterning in Fair Isle: diamond shading!
This style is so classic to me, it makes the transitions between bands of motifs much more gentle. So when it came to working on my design I decided to take this style which can seem ‘dated’ (to some..not me!) and put it on a cowl which in the context of Shetland knitting is a more contemporary style:
So for the first colourway I used the classic Shetland colours (fawn, pinky fawn, dark fawn, moorit and shetland black) with oranges and blue. Then I made a second colourway that was totally different:
I took bright pinks and shaded them with blues and a pop of orange – some of my current favourite shades. I like to do more than one colourway or shape or something with my Annual designs. As usual I used J&S 2ply jumper weight, you can find the yarn information here. The Annual will come out this weekend at SWW, but you can preorder it here.
The next thing im sharing also features diamond shading, its a new version of my Breiwick Beret pattern:
This pattern originally featured in the Kate Davies Millarrochy Heids book, I designed it with Kate’s lovely Millarrochy Tweed yarn, but there are a couple of shades I used which are not available anymore, so I finally made another version in Jumper Weight:
I used Supreme Jumper Weight for the main shade, which is a natural undyed fawn (2006) then a selection of bright shades of Jumper Weight which are similar to the original but quite a bit brighter! (75, FC47, FC34, 52, 125 and FC11)
I’m really happy with how it came out, and wish I got organised sooner.. however it goes nicely with my Osla cowls so it was meant to be! On Ravelry and Payhip I am keeping both files available, so if you have previously purchased it you now also have the J&S version too.
I hope you like them, and I’ll be back soon ❤
ella gordon 
Thank you for the post. I enjoyed learning about the diamond shading, it’s also one of my favourites. I still have a picture from my first visit to Shetland Museum of a mitten with diamond shading that I would like to try and make myself a version of.
I made the beret with the Milarrochy Tweed a few years ago and enjoyed the pattern immensely. It looks far more complicated than it is. I think, though that J&S would provide more elasticity in the brim.
It definitely does Elaine, i do a twisted rib now too which is even better!
i actually ended up snipping just above the brim and decreasing about an inch worth of stitches before dropping down to a 2mm needle. It still stretches out after one or two wearings, but a quick dampening fixes that. I love KDD colors but much prefer J&S for better fit.