"REAL SHETLAND"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 616, 22 August 1933, Page 7

"REAL SHETLAND"

AN ISLAND CRAFT i s L introduction of machines threatens hand knitting. LARGE SOURCE OF INGOME. ? The introduction of knitting machines into Shetland ha.s raised the ihe of the island womei), who see their unique hand industry thre'atened. As the machine-made garments can with truth. be styled as "Real Shetland made," the knitters are justified in their indignation, and are demanding that their organisations, the Shetland Woollen Industries' Association, should take steps to get protection and fair play for the genuine hand-knit articles. The Shetiand hosiery trade is one of the last of the old-time home handicrafts, apd every Shetland woman over the age of seven years is a skilled "maker of , hosiery." It is estimated that out;of a female population of some 12,000 more than 9000 are actively engaged in the woollen knitting industry . all the year round. Their work, in normal times, brings into Shetland homes more than £80,000 annually, while at the time of the "Fair Isle" boom well over double this figure was realised. Even in the present period of depression the annual income of the knitters exceeds £70,000, money from knitting or "makkin," reaching every household in the Northern isles. The women of Shetland have been the tenders of the sheep flocks for centuries, and their spinning and knitting of the wool from the backs of the hardly little island breed of • sheep have become world-famous. The Shetland Woollen Industries' Association has secured a registered trade mark to affix on all genuine hand-spun, hand-knit hosiery exported from Shetland, helping the industry (§. •»

immensely. The Shetland women are never "hand-idle;" they knit continuously, when driving the cattle, at the hi'll after the sheep, at the peat-working, going to the shop, visiting friends, everywhere, on all occasions, the Sabbath Day excepted. The story is told of the elderly woman who had been all day at the sheep-dipping in the far hill, and returning home "laid up" and "made" a spencer, or sleeved vest, between the hours of four &nd five-thirty. She then "cast on" more loops on her wires, hating the thought that perhaps someone would drop in along for a chat and find her sitting "hand-idle." However, the hill work had been hard, and she fell into a light slumber on the resting bench. But still the wires worked away, and spencer's loops adding up run by run! Lore of Spaniards and Mermaids. The warm, comfortable jumpefs, shawls, spencers, berets, scarves, gloves, socks, and beautiful lace shawls and baby wear, all so well fnade by the island women, are again in vogue, and numbers of knitting competitions have been run by national papers. In the various competitions several Shetland women have won the first prize. Recently a tourist vessel calling had a number of distinguished passengers on board, and they made expensive purchases. Among them was the ex-King of Spain, who -readily recognised many of the Fair Isle designs as bedng of Spanish origin, in particular the striking "pattern" of golden anchors on a sea-blue field. This design, with many others, was taught the Fair Isle knitters by the shipwrecked men of the Armada galleon E1 Gran Grifon, which was l'ost on the treacherous Fair Isle rocks in 1588. The Shetland hosiery designs are many — the Herringbone, the Fern, the Print, the Wave, the Spider's Web, Mareel, or "Sea-Fire," the Diairibnd, the Acre, the Corn-Puckle, the Mass-Wing, the Trow's S'mookie, the Turbot's Bone, the Boat s Sail, the Boat's Stern, and others. Some of I the designs are said to have. been taught the women by mermaids from the distant fishing-grounds whom young fishermen had brought ashore

and wedded! Th© mermaids would go each twilight to the eliffs and hold converse with their kinsfolk Of the >sea, who swam in from the distant ekerries. Here at 'the seashore the seafolk spun the waves into many beautiful patterns, which the mermaid fisherwives made into their exquisite woollen work. The spiders and "fey-kloclcs" also taught the knitters many rare . designs, while the Shetland fairies, or "trows," envolved a number of intricate patterns resembling plants and blossoms which flourished near the entrances to. their , underground hill dwellings. The fern 1 design is of "trowie" origin, as the j "little folk" of the hills always hid » their house doors from mortal eyes by covering them with luxuriant growths of "ferries-kairds," or fefns. J Manufacture. The Shetland wool is "roo'd" from i the backs of the sheep instead of being clipped with shears. This keeps the natural silky, soft texture of the wool. The wool is "roo'd" or pulled in the middle of June, when it is ready to fall off. After the wool has been "roo'd" by the women it is "teased," or cleaned, of heather and dirt, then it is "kairded" or combed out by two wooden boards set with hundreds of short steel pins. The wool is placed on one of the "kairds" of cards, and the other combs and tears over it until the cleaned wool is ready for spinning. It is then spun on the ancient Norway "spinnies," or wheels, after which it is spun off, or | "reeled," on "pirms," then "twined double," and run off into long hanks, each hank or "hesp" having about one hundred threads. Then the finished length of worsted yarn is wound up into round clews and ready for the short steel "wares" of the clever knitters. Shetland wool is usually of undyed, natural colours,, as dark brown, ! "moorit," or moor-red, white, grey, , fav/n, shaela. Shaela is a darkish grey colour, something like the colour of

the Shetland landscape after a slight thaw in winter has left parts of the earth bare while patches of dirty snow linger over the bleak moors. Moorit is a distinctive colour, being met with nowhere else than in Shetland. It is caused by the peculiar shade of reddish-brown colour which mantles the Shetland moors. The bright colours seen in the pretty Fair Isle designs are obtained by dyeing the native white wool in a secret preparation which is known to the Fair Isle folk alone. Tradition says the Armada sailors instructed the Fair Islanders how to extract and boil dyes from lichens and other plants which are so prolific around the rocks and hills of the romantic little isle.