2018 News Archive
2018 saw the culmination of 4 years of intense work – costume and fashion design, website design and photography. The end result was the book Glamourie and the new Virtual Yarns website. With both we aimed to bring you the beauty and inspiration of our home island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, and also the beauty of Scotland in general. In addition to doing three epic photoshoots for Glamourie, Jade travelled the length and breadth of the Scottish mainland to do shoots in beautiful and dramatic locations. The result was a trove of new design and yarn imagery with which we filled the website. We then created a large Glamourie section to celebrate the book.
Of all the techniques from Glamourie the feathers in particular caught the imagination. Throughout March and April we expanded on these using instructions from the design section of the book, and created the Flights of Fancy section of the website.
On a photoshoot in the lovely fishing village of Crail in Fife, we showed off Persian Tiles from the book A Collector's Item in our lovely Sea Anemone and Corncrake Hebridean 2 Ply. In addition Jade wrote a piece on the design, showing how it is an ideal first stranded project.
In June we celebrated 30th Anniversary of Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting, published in 1988. I created a new patterncard design – the Peigi Cardgian – based on one of my design swatches featured in the book. It was soon joined in patterncard form by the Ripple Wrap, and we created a feature on the website to celebrate the book and the many patterncard designs it has inspired.
July began with the colourful patterncard kit Reef, and an online article exploring the detail and construction of our versitile baby blankets. We also began our Collaboration section with musician Laura Durrant and make-up artist Suzanne Christie, both of whom modelled for shoots, with Laura becoming our first pregnant model.
Jade and I took a trip to the most remote part of the Outer Hebrides, the islands of St Kilda, to begin research for a new project, with the aim of further expanding the ethos behind Glamourie into a new location.
In August Jade took still life imagery for our Design In Detail section, showing our final garments inside and out. These images were also placed throughout our design products to provide an in-depth look at many of our yarn packs and patterncard kits.
In a major new development we began making step-by-step technique videos and talks; they allow me to demonstrate techniques and specific instructions that are impossible to explain in written form.
The Felting Tutorials show how to make felted buttons and beads from the book Glamourie. They are a very important stepping stone to learning how to manipulate knitted fabric into felted costumes.
We photographed some of the felted necklace examples on the Lewis shoreline, and also in a very magical place in Fife called Dunino. The location was so interesting and lovely that we decided to write a piece about it which we added to the website.
In response to many requests we started the Autumn season with the Lapwing Collar patterncard kit. This "choose your own colour" design has remained a favourite since it came out. We celebrated it with a new photoshoot in Edinburgh with Ashleigh and Fay, where we also photographed some of our other patterncard kits.
As Autumn set in, we photographed Thomas wearing the Glenesk pullover in a Glasgow park, with the falling leaves and the city spread out behind him. This design was once again added to our patterncard kits.
We also started new sections showcasing our Hebridean yarn in both needlepoint and weaving.
With the days getting colder we added the Graceknot patterncard kit and a Celtic Knotwork video tutorial. This was soon followed with the comprehensive Stranded Knitting in the Round with Steeks tutorial, which takes the knitter through every part of the process of making a stranded design; it is an excellent resource to peruse in the winter months.
December featured a photoshoot with Doris, bringing back the Canyonville design as a patterncard kit and showing off some of our existing kits and yarn packs. We then ended the year with more feathers, this time in the form of the Raven yarn pack.
