September 15, 2020
It’s good to be able to show you the Peerie Leaves Jumper, my contribution to this year’s Shetland Wool Week Annual! Earlier this year the organisers of Shetland Wool Week, an event that takes place in Shetland every autumn to celebrate the wool, sheep, textiles, traditions and people of Shetland, made the difficult but correct decision to cancel this year’s event. However they have managed to put together this year’s Annual, a publication full of patterns and essays that gives a taste of all things Shetland and this year’s looks to be one of the best ever.
Shetland has a long history of knitting, maybe often better known for it’s colourful Fair Isle patterns but there is also a strong tradition of lace knitting. At one time many women in Shetland would have possessed at least one lace garment that they wore often when they were dressing up on Sundays, on evenings out and going to weddings . Many different lace motifs were used in the designs; in the Peerie Leaves jumper I have used a very commonly used motif called the peerie leaf pattern as the name of the garment suggests (“peerie” is a Shetland dialect word meaning “small”).
I have given this garment a more modern spin by using a double knit yarn rather than using the traditional lace weight; the jumper is a boxy shape designed to be worn with 6-10 inches positive ease with sloping shoulders and plain knit fitted sleeves. The lace pattern is featured only on the front, with stocking stitch on the back. The jumper is knit in the round so the first half of the round is the lace pattern, and the second half is stocking stitch which gives your brain a little rest before starting the next round!
The jumper has been graded to 9 sizes, ranging from chest measurement of 39.75 inches to 67.5 inches):
Finished size: 101.00 (110.00, 119.0, 128, 136.50) [145.50, 154.50, 163.50, 172.00] cm / 39.75 (43.25, 46.75, 50.25, 53.75) [57.25, 60.75, 64.25, 67.75] inches
To fit chest size: 76 (85, 93, 102, 111) [120, 129, 138,147] cm / 29.75 (33.25, 36.75, 40.25, 43.75) [ 47.25, 50.75, 54.25, 57.75] inches
The grey sample is shown in Langsoond DK yarn, 220m / 238yds per 100g skein, shade stane; the number of skeins required is: 5 (5, 6, 6, 6) [7, 8 ,8, 9]. To make it easier to buy I have added yarn packs in all the natural shades of Langsoond to my website, just choose the colour and size you require before you checkout. You can find the packs here (you can see the colours by going to shop then yarn).
I also knitted the jumper in DK yarn from Jamieson’s of Shetland in colour Pine – this yarn has a longer yardage to Langsoond so gives a slightly more open and drapy fabric than the Langsoond version.
The yarn you will need for this version is:
Jamieson’s Shetland Double Knitting; 100% Real Shetland wool; 75m/25g ball; Shade Pine (234), 11 (12, 13, 14, 16) [17, 18, 20, 21] balls, it is available from their website here.
The Shetland Wool Week Annual is available to preorder from their website here, with shipping early October.
All Photos by What Susan Sees Photography
