Subscriber Exclusive
Shetland Lace Knitting in New Zealand
How a knitting tradition rooted in a cluster of tiny islands in the North Sea came to be transplanted to an island country in the southern Pacific Ocean.
Margaret Stove shares the origins of her lace journey and lets us join her with the pattern for her Rata Scarf. Current PieceWork magazine subscribers can log in and instantly access this bonus subscriber-exclusive PDF download below.
Shetland Islands: Hard Life, Soft Lace
Since at least the sixteenth century, the cottage industry of handknitting in the Shetland Islands has supplemented the meager island economy based on fishing and farming the small farms or “crofts.” Sheep were introduced to the islands as early as the Stone Age, and these small, hardy animals produced the finest wool of all the British breeds. The high quality of Shetland knitting clearly was recognized by 1790, when knitted stockings from the town of Unst sold in Edinburgh, Scotland, for higher than average prices.
Although they are isolated by an inhospitable ocean, their extensive trade in fish probably afforded the Shetland Islanders a look at knitted lace from Europe as early as the fourteenth century. Yet, there is no evidence that the islanders produced their own knitted lace earlier than 1830.
The names of the patterns reflect the island environment, where sea and farm are prominent features. Names such as Ears o’ Grain, Acre-Plough, Crest of the Wave, Old Shale, Razor Shell, Fern Lace, and Cat’s Paw describe lace of incredible beauty that belies the often arduous life of the knitters. From the beginning, little of the finished lace stayed in the islands. Of little use to people who must work hard every day in harsh conditions, its value lay in the income badly needed to buy goods not produced on the crofts.
Knitting Lace a Hemisphere Away
For as long as I can remember, the desire to knit has been a part of my life. When I was four years old, my maternal grandmother gave me my first knitting lessons. Her Danish mother had taught her the continental method of knitting which she passed on to me.
I was plagued with all the usual problems of a beginning knitter
and experienced all the pleasures of each new stage of accomplishment. Eventually, my grandmother decided that I deserved to learn my first “fancy pattern.” That pattern was Feather and Fan, as she called it, or Old Shale, in the Shetland tradition. A chance reply my grandmother made to friends who commented that “she knitted back to front” led to my interest in Shetland lace. She defended herself by saying that her method was very fast, like that used by the Shetland Islanders, who, furthermore, could spin fine yarns and knit shawls that could be pulled through a wedding ring. The image set my imagination working.
Margaret Stove shares the origins of her lace journey and lets us join her with the pattern for her Rata Scarf. Current PieceWork magazine subscribers can log in and instantly access this bonus subscriber-exclusive PDF download below.
Shetland Islands: Hard Life, Soft Lace
Since at least the sixteenth century, the cottage industry of handknitting in the Shetland Islands has supplemented the meager island economy based on fishing and farming the small farms or “crofts.” Sheep were introduced to the islands as early as the Stone Age, and these small, hardy animals produced the finest wool of all the British breeds. The high quality of Shetland knitting clearly was recognized by 1790, when knitted stockings from the town of Unst sold in Edinburgh, Scotland, for higher than average prices.
Although they are isolated by an inhospitable ocean, their extensive trade in fish probably afforded the Shetland Islanders a look at knitted lace from Europe as early as the fourteenth century. Yet, there is no evidence that the islanders produced their own knitted lace earlier than 1830.
The names of the patterns reflect the island environment, where sea and farm are prominent features. Names such as Ears o’ Grain, Acre-Plough, Crest of the Wave, Old Shale, Razor Shell, Fern Lace, and Cat’s Paw describe lace of incredible beauty that belies the often arduous life of the knitters. From the beginning, little of the finished lace stayed in the islands. Of little use to people who must work hard every day in harsh conditions, its value lay in the income badly needed to buy goods not produced on the crofts.
Knitting Lace a Hemisphere Away
For as long as I can remember, the desire to knit has been a part of my life. When I was four years old, my maternal grandmother gave me my first knitting lessons. Her Danish mother had taught her the continental method of knitting which she passed on to me.
I was plagued with all the usual problems of a beginning knitter
and experienced all the pleasures of each new stage of accomplishment. Eventually, my grandmother decided that I deserved to learn my first “fancy pattern.” That pattern was Feather and Fan, as she called it, or Old Shale, in the Shetland tradition. A chance reply my grandmother made to friends who commented that “she knitted back to front” led to my interest in Shetland lace. She defended herself by saying that her method was very fast, like that used by the Shetland Islanders, who, furthermore, could spin fine yarns and knit shawls that could be pulled through a wedding ring. The image set my imagination working.
[PAYWALL]
Years later, I remembered what my grandmother had said, and decided that just such a fine shawl would be my ultimate project. I knitted my first ring shawl with a two-ply Merino yarn in a pattern from a book of Patons and Baldwins reprints. Knitting the shawl and talking about it with family members revealed a new connection: my husband’s family had originally come from North Mavine in the Shetland Islands. I began to research the techniques and patterns used for the traditional Shetland shawls. My investigations were helped considerably by correspondence with Mrs. Mary Jane Petersen and Mrs. Gilda Johnson, both of Unst, on the northernmost island, where the lace-knitting tradition was strongest. In 1986, when I represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in Edinburgh, which was held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games, I visited them. They showed me how the traditional patterns reflected the Shetland Islands environment.
Had I discovered any Stove family patterns, I would have loved passing them along to my children, who have Shetland blood in their veins. Because I did not, I turned to designing patterns that reflect my own New Zealand heritage.
My first design was adapted from the English Rose Leaf pattern. I isolated the stitches that form the leaf and replaced these with stitches that formed a native New Zealand rata flower from multiple yarn overs made into a cluster. After I made a shawl using the blossom pattern, I devised a rata pattern with leaves, which I used in a shawl commissioned by the family from whom I had received my first Merino fleece.
Margaret’s Rata Scarf
The highlight of my early designing career was a commission in 1982 from the Sheep Breeders of the High Country of the South Island of New Zealand to design, spin, and knit a presentation shawl for the Prince and Princess of Wales to celebrate the birth of His Royal Highness Prince William. The commission led to my designing a series of motifs depicting the native flora of New Zealand. Those motifs led in turn to adaptations in lace of the traditional abstract designs of the Maori people indigenous to the country. I like to feel that these designs reflect the same spirit of observation and invention practiced by my predecessors, the knitters of Shetland, and
that the work and traditions of those early island knitters will continue to be preserved and extended.
“Rata Scarf” PDF Download
Enjoy this subscriber exclusive pattern courtesy of PieceWork magazine.
Click here to get the PDF download of “Rata Scarf.”
Margaret Stove is a leading expert on handknitted superfine lace.
Her works include Wrapped in Lace: Knitted Heirloom
Designs from Around the World (Interweave, 2010), as well as a video
called Spinning for Lace (Interweave, 2011).
