Purchase
Born in Hamnavoe, on Burra Isle (current population approximately 800) in the Shetland Island chain Rosabell Halcrow has knit since the age of 12. We're not sharing her age but it's been many years since and her expertise at this ancient handcraft is astonishing, glorious and precise. Not surprising given that her aunt once knit Sir Winston Churchill a Fair Isle sweater when he was Prime Minister of Great Britain.
The original Katie's Pattern can be found in the Shetland Textile Museum. Like the original, Rosabell knits Thistle & Broom's Katie's Pattern with the same clearly defined geometric patterns for which Fair Isle knitting is so well known. Building the sweater with two coloured yarns in each row using the traditional colours of madder red, indigo blue, natural white, creamy yellow, a soft brown and Shetland black more than 100 hours go into the knitting of each sweater.
I am ever mindful of being told a story whilst visiting an artist on Unst. As a newly wed twenty-five years ago, standing in the veritable London luxury goods purveyor 'sight-seeing' the young groom came upon the Made in UK gallery and subsequently found a sweater knit by his local knitting cooperative on Unst, priced at £175.00! Once back on Unst he tracked down his knitting neighbour only to discover that she had been paid a mere £15.00 and from that she still had to purchase the yarn. About a decade ago, the government, trying to do the right thing, put in place a mandate that the knitters had to be paid minimum wage. In turn the yarn mills that employed them to knit couldn't afford to pay so labour intensive are the hand knit sweaters so they ceased to be offered with the net result of Shetland's knitters without this much needed source of income.
Knitting has long been a critical part of the economy in the Shetland Islands, the other being fishing, what's different now is that instead of hundreds of women knitting only a few remain. The underlying principle behind Thistle & Broom offering hand knit Fair Isle sweaters is to ensure that by offering market prices (based upon the Fair Trade model) we might stir the interest of the next generation to continue this unique handcraft by allowing people like Rosabell to pass on their extraordinary skills to interested individuals.
Purchase benefits the Thistle & Broom Scholarship.
