Shetland Wool Week 2023

It’s the first of July! Pinch and punch and all that. Can you believe we’re already talking about Shetland Wool Week? Well, bookings for this years event went live this week so of course we’re talking about it.

2022 saw my first ever visit to this iconic festival which I LOVED so I’m very proud and happy to have been invited back to teach this year. It’s inspiring that while Shetland Wool Week is renowned for celebrating the islands’ rich textile heritage the organisers are also looking to embrace tutors from outwith Shetland. This helps to ensure there’s an evolving schedule of classes, talks, demonstrations and meetups that will appeal to all types of crafters and artisans. 

This year I’m teaching two full day workshops at Islesburgh Community Centre, Lerwick-

Introduction to Beaded Colourwork on Wednesday 26th September.

And Sew Pretty: Introduction to Embroidery for Knit and Crochet on Thursday 27th September.

I’ll also be co-teaching  a very special workshop on Tuesday 25th September alongside my beautiful friend Felicity (Felix) Ford aka Knitsonik. The picture below shows why we were both asked to be model.

We’ve called it Colourwork Two Ways: An Adventure in Oddments and Beads as it brings together Felix’s love of stranded colourwork and my passion for beaded colourwork. This is a truly unique exploration of the different creative possibilities of working colourwork charts in yarn oddments or with beads. 

Bookings for all this year’s Shetland Wool Week events launched on June 27th, and tickets sell out fast. That means you need to visit the Shetland Wool Week Box Office quickly to avoid disappointment. 

If you’ve never travelled to up to the Shetland’s mainland, believe me, it’s one of the most stunningly beautiful places I’ve EVER visited. Lying 100 miles off the north east coast of Scotland, for me, its remoteness only added to the wonderful sense of peace I felt during my two week stay. I was lucky to be staying in Hoswick, home to the studio of my brilliant friend, knitwear designer Neila Nell Kalra who invited me to stay in her guest cottage (which I’ve since re-named Sloan Cottage).

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I know what you’re thinking, if Shetland Wool Week only lasts a week, what was I doing there so long? Well being the sort of designer who wanted to showcase her knitwear on ‘real’ people, Niela invited both me and Felix to model for her alongside other members of the Nielanell family and friends who lived locally. The shoot took just two days but during that time we packed in so many changes of outfit and this is thanks to the exceptional production skills of Astrid Johnston and Gail Turpin who made sure there was a constant flow of perfectly prepared models for photographer Austin Taylor to shoot.

As I promised to publish my Shetland pics I won’t ramble on here, I’ll just let you see what we got up to. (Note the picture of me fangirling with legendary Shetland knitter Hazel Tindall).

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I also help out Niela’s right hand woman, Katie Leask, when setting up the company display at the Saturday Maker’s Market. As it turns out, it was good practice as I’ll be showing there myself this year.

Don’t forget, if you want to grab a place on my, Felix’s or anyone else’s classes or talks at this year’s Wool Week you’d better be quick as some have already sold out.

Click here to book your events on the Shetland Wool Week site. Till next time, happy crafting,

J x

I’m teaching at Knit Stars 6!

How has April been for you? I hope you’re keeping safe well and adapting to the ‘new normal’ we’re all having to navigate. Thankfully the sun has been shining brightly here in Hove, although the chilly wind is a constant reminder that we’re not yet ready to swap woollen sweaters and leggings for a lighter weight summer wardrobe. April has been a super busy month for me, and May is set to be even busier because the big BIG news I have to share with you is that I’m teaching at Knit Stars.

For those who haven’t yet heard of it, Knit Stars is a virtual learning conference for the fibre arts. But it’s also much more than that.

Created by Shelley Brander, owner of US-based local yarn store Loops it’s a lavish, thoughtfully curated program of workshops taught by some of the best instructors in the fibre community. There are 12 online workshops to choose from covering a wide range of topics. Each lasts 1 – 2 hours and is the equivalent of what you’d get in a 3 – hour, in-person class. Plus, you get access to them forever, which means you can learn at your own pace.  

You also get to peek behind the scenes into the Stars’ own homes wherever they’re based worldwide, and this year we cover Australia, the UK and the USA. Plus, there’s the chance to purchase kits and patterns created by the designers collaborating with specially chosen yarn partners, exclusively for Knit Stars!

this year sees the 6th season and the theme is ‘Live Colorfully’, so expect lots of courses inviting you to explore colour through both traditional and innovative techniques. 

I’m not going to spoil the fun and tell you everything, but as a subscriber to my Newsletter, you definitely get to find out first. So as a little teaser, I can tell you that I’ll be teaching Beaded Colorwork and am partnering with Leila Bux of The Urban Purl I’ve been an admirer of Leila’s work for some time now, and we’re creating an exclusive kit that can be purchased as an optional extra, once you’re a Knit Stars owner. (We’ll be collaborating on some sneak peeks in the next few days so make sure you’re following both @jeanettesloan and @theurbanpurl on Instagram).

The production quality of Knit Stars is jaw-dropping thanks to Shelley’s many years working in TV production; in fact, you’ll feel like you’re travelling the world without having to leave the comfort of your home. So no baggage allowance nightmares, early morning taxi transfers or airport queues to deal with.

To buy Knit Stars Season 6 CLICK HERE  or simply click either of the Knit Stars images above. 

Please note; this is an affiliate link, which means if you sign up, I’ll get a commission. It’s a great way to support me as an indie designer, so thank you in advance!

J x

A bit late but remember Perth Festival of Yarn?

To my utter shame it’s almost 2 weeks since I travelled up to Scotland for this year’s much anticipated Perth Festival of Yarn. So much has happened over the 11 months since I was first contacted by festival organiser Eva Christie who invited me to be this year’s Keynote Speaker. And, to be honest, I had no idea how nervous I would be undertaking that role but – notes in hand – I travelled up the motorway to the Dewars Centre in Perth for a weekend that flew by far too quickly. Here’s a little taster, sorry for not providing a more detailed record. But, having spent so much time on social media recently,  it was really liberating to NOT constantly post updates about the festival on Instagram.

So here’s a little taster of everyone setting up. The venue had a lovely feeling of space which meant you could browse and shop quite happily without feeling restricted in any way. There was also plenty of accessible space between the stands.

It was great to meet Hutch and Barry of Dye Candy @dyecandy who came over from Belfast for the show. Of course being from Northern Ireland they had lots to chat over with Sam and were sweet enough to gift me a hanks of yarn – I’ll post a pic of that later.

Here’s a shot of some questionable interior decoration at The Lovat Hotel although this particular De La Soul single caught my eye.

Loved meeting @gailmadebyme and @mrsgooner5776 although to be honest they were very quiet when they said hello and despite following them both on IG I didn’t recognise them. Ladies I loved seeing you, thank you so much for coming to hear me speak. Be bolder next time!

This lady was kicking it in this amazing shade of red but I’m so sorry I’ve forgotten your name on IG!

Sara from @yarningham pitched up with a batch of her freshly baked chocolate and sesame cupcakes. Yes I know I ‘poo pooed’ them too but they were so delicious I ate most of what you see in this picture. And loved every mouthful.

Got to spend Saturday at the Gala Dinner talking all things BIPOC in Fiber whilst sitting next to these two incredible women – Felicity Ford @knitsonik and Alyson Chu @alysonhere the brains behind the BIPOC in Fiber website and who I only met the day before.

And having worked for the The Knitter for more years than I care to mention I finally got to meet Kirsty McLeod @kirstie.mcleod and Ali Johnson @iamalijohnson

On Sunday I taught my Dipped Stitches class (which I”ll be teaching at Vogue Knitting Live in Columbus & Austin next month) and here are some of my happy students

The rest of the week was spent catching up with friends from when we lived in Edinburgh and trying to get some rest because the pre Perth build up and the preparing the BIPOC in Fiber Crowdfunder has genuinely been so exhausting.

Now I’ve been back at home for a week I’m not exactly rested (in fact I’m actually coming down with a cold) but I’m even more excited about the upcoming projects and collaborations for the next year or so. There’s lots more teaching, the new website, more designing and so much more to come.

So expect another blog post before the week is out.

J x

 

Perth Festival of Yarn 7 & 8th September 2019

 

There’s been a lot of anticipation and excitement but finally the tickets for this year’s Perth Festival of Yarn are now on sale. I’ve known a lot about the classes, events and vendors on offer for some time but now all the secrets are finally out of the bag so you’d better be quick if you don’t want to miss out. 

I’ve never been to PFY before but I’m making up for that by taking on two very important roles. First and perhaps most nerve wrackingly I’ll be there as Keynote Speaker to talk about BIPOC representation in the knitting community; why it’s important and how the community needs to change to make it more truly diverse. The website describes this as a lecture but I hate the idea of ‘lecturing’ people although having been married to me for years my husband Sam would no doubt disagree. 

‘BIPOC and the need for representation in the Knitting Community’ at 1:15pm on 7 September at the Dewars Centre. For more details click here

 

I’ll also going be teaching a class where you can learn the technique of ‘dipped stitches’. This is a really interesting and unusual technique that explores working through the knitting to create dense, squishy fabric textures with exciting surface effects. As a designer I’m excited by any technique that makes me question how it might done so I’m really looking forward to teaching this class. In it you’ll learn the basics, learn how to read dipped stitch charts and start to create your own dipped stitches. 

You’ll nee to bring along a few basic materials such as 4.00 mm needles, a could of balls of DK weight yarn and small amounts of DK / fingering weight in contrasting colours as well as scissors, notebook and pen.

Dive Into Dipped Stitches  2:30pm – 5:30pm on 8 September in the Methven Room, The Station Hotel, 1 Leonard Street, PH2 8HE. For more details click here

I’m not going to list everything else that’s happening as you really should visit the website for all the details but I will just add that as well as me the other tutors are Francoise Danoy, Steve Malcolm, Beverley Dott, Karina Westermann, André de Castro, Julie Dubreux  and Lyndsey Roberts. There’s also a Gin Flight Night (I think tickets may have sold out for that, oops) plus a fantastic marketplace full of incredible vendors including the amazing Lady Dye Yarns from Boston, MA USA who I worked with earlier this year for one of their Craft Club Collaborations.

One of the major issues in the continuing conversations about lack of BIPOC representation, diversity and racism in the knitting community was the call for organisers of fibre festivals to step up and be much more intentionally inclusive when planning their events. Well having contacted me back in October last year Festival Director Eva Christie was already ahead of the curve when the discussion set social media alight at the beginning of January this year. Having had the pleasure of getting to know Eva over the last 5 months I know how carefully she’s curated this event and the lineup of tutors and vendors shows how diversity can be thoughtfully realised when it’s always at the heart of what you do and not simply a just knee jerk reaction. 

Roll on September!

J x