Fleece to Fashion

This is the last in a series of public events related to the national project, Fleece to Fashion: economies and cultures of knitting in modern Scotland, led by University of Glasgow. The evening will explore the development and impact of machine knitting in Shetland, and the juxtaposition of creativity and repetition in knitting in both Shetland and Ireland.

It coincides with a study session at UHI Shetland, Centre for Creative Industries, on the previous day,16 May.


Shetland Museum evening programme:

Prof Lynn Abrams, Dept. of Modern History, University of Glasgow

‘The “Menace” of the Machine: Knitting and Knitwear in Shetland and Scotland, 1930s to the present day’

This illustrated talk explores the impact of knitting machinery on knitwear design and production in Scotland. It considers both the initial antagonism towards the introduction and adoption of machinery – and its perceived threat to hand-knitting – as well as the versatility, opportunities and skills it eventually brought to the knitwear industry. It also places the combination of machine and hand knitting in Shetland within the wider context of the Scottish industry. A comparison of regional manufacture illustrates the varying attitudes towards machine use and its contribution to the volume and variety of garments that Scotland produced over the last century. The talk will feature research from the AHRC-funded ‘Fleece to Fashion’ project based at the University of Glasgow, which is exploring the cultures and economies of knitting in Scotland since the late eighteenth century.

Dr Siún Carden, Research Fellow, Centre for Rural Creativity, UHI

'Patterns and programs: replication and creativity in the place-based knitting of Shetland and Ireland'

The creative process which results in textile products like ‘Aran’ and ‘Fair Isle’ knitwear is widely recognised as a communal one and set within centuries-long (real and imagined) historical contexts.

This popular understanding includes a celebration of the improvisational fluency of expert hand knitters of the past. Their remembered ability to work and re-work inherited forms into innovative objects with minimal or no written instruction is an example of the ‘improvisational dynamics’ which make ‘copying and reproduction…part and parcel of the creative process’ (Svašek 2016: 2) in many mediums. This talk explores the relationship between creativity and repetition in contemporary Shetland ‘Fair Isle’ and Irish ‘Aran’ knitting. The argument is that repetition is not the opposite of creativity, but (along with the mutual influence of hand and machine practices) is key to creativity in place-based knitting.

Date: 17th May 2023
Time: 19:30 - 21:00pm
Location: Auditorium, Shetland Museum & Archives
Ticket Price: FREE, but booking essential