in Fair Isle, Scotland.

I'm a crafter, and a knitter

I design fair isle garments and sell them online

Fair Isle is known in the world as a

knitting technique that involves

stranded color knitting so is basically

carrying two colors together in one row

sometimes three

It's called fair isle because it originated here in the island

the Shetland wool was known for being

one of the softest wools in the world

Fair Isle belongs to the Shetland Islands

the population of sheep is a lot

higher than the human population

the making of a fair isle jumper I think it can

be divided in two different processes

one is the husbandry of the animals and

then the other one is the making of the

garments. You have a flock of sheep

looking after them feeding them make

sure that they stay healthy so that you

produce a good fleece.

Shearing. I found

that the best way to do it is by

allowing the sheep to rest on your legs

they become very docile and kind of

happy animals the moment that becomes

like a factory thing

the relationship changes completely

fleece is spread out you clean any

debris any grass you roll it in one

little bundle

then it sent out to Jameson spinning in

mainland Shetland with the Good Shepherd

they're sorted then they're graded

according to the quality of the wool

then they get processed get washed it

gets sort of pulled apart dyed, spun

twisted and then we get the cones

the cones get sent normally with the aeroplane from Tingual

into Fair Isle. I receive my yarn

with the plane I go and collect it and bring

it to my studio and then the process of

making the garment begins. It comes the

design stage I start printing together

colors and patterns and I create swatches

once the design is approved then we go

into the detailing. the Knitting process

starts with producing the ribs taken

that weave transferring it into the

flatbed knitting machine. I place all my

wools and then I start knitting the garment.

The Machine reads the solid and color.

Front, back, right sleeve, left sleeve.

All these panels get put together

the sleeves get attached by a technical

grafting, it creates an invisible thing

The seam gets sown along the slip

I produce the neck and then the neck gets

grafted into the garment.

Once the garment is knitted is the finishing

process. Trimming all the insides

you have to weave in the end. This is the moment

where I can check if there's been any

mistake on the weavings

the garment gets washed in 30 degrees temperature

put it on the stretcher and the wooly horse to dry.

Once it's dry it gets

pressed and labeled. It's normally wrapped in

brown paper parcel kind of old style

with a little string of wool.

The knitting belongs to the island. People

stop doing it, they leave the island and

someone else comes and carries on so

feeling that I'm continuing a tradition

and preserving a heritage is full of

satisfaction