Fibre: 100% Shetland wool
Yardage: 115m per 25g ball
Gauge: 32 stitches per 10 cm
Recommended needle size: 2.5-3.25 mm needles

From mittens and hats to yoked jumpers and pullovers, Jamieson and Smith 2ply Jumper weight is one of the quintessential yarns for fairisle knitting. This 2 stranded, woollen spun 4 ply weight yarn comes in convenient 25g balls in a vast array of shades from natural greys and earthy landscape tones to jewel brights so that it’s easy to compile the perfect palette for experimenting with swatches. Just a couple of balls is enough for a pair of fingerless mitts and two or three balls will give you a hat. Your options for combining stitch patterns and colours are limitless.

The Shetland fibre has long been celebrated for its fineness and warmth. The ‘sticky’ woollen spin makes it an obvious choice for stranded colourwork- a style of knitting with traditions we can trace back hundreds of years and right across the British Isles, Scandinavia, central Europe, the Baltic states and central Asia. Thanks to a new wave of stranded colourwork designers, this legend of the handknitting canon is continuing to thrive.

J&S is a family-run business on the mainland of Shetland that has been making yarn since the 1930s. They use only Shetland breed wool which they purchase from over 700 of Shetland’s crofters and farmers. The sheep graze on the islands’ hills and beaches eating wild heather and seaweed. This diet, along with the not-so-great weather, makes Shetland wool soft, strong and warm.