
Back in March, when the program for this year's Shetland Wool Week was released, I ordered a kit for a Fair Isle Knotted Basket, which arrived, along with a copy of Shetland Fine Lace Knitting: Recreating Patterns from the Past by Carol Christiensen. The kit was waiting for a rainy day. After finishing the 2024 Shetland Wool Week hat last night, I decided it was time for a complete break from knitting, but while on a Shetland theme, out came the kit.
Fair Isle currently has a population of about 60. It is the home of a particular Strawback Chair, made from wood that washed up from shipwrecks (there are no trees on Fair Isle) and straw grown on the island, and knotted in a unique way. Through the work of Eve Eunson, Stewart Thomson and the Fair Isle Chairs Project, the chair is now classed as a Critically Endangered craft.



It’s also not something to do when wearing black wool, as I realised when I put it aside to go to bed! When I resumed the next morning I donned a cover-all apron.
The morning task was to bind the top ring (provided as a separate piece, with ends taped together) with the remainder of the strings used to bind the sides. It’s done with a needle, no knots involved! It is, however, hard on the fingers.


As I was finishing this today, it occurred to me that it is work my father and other seafaring relatives would have been skilled at. As a child my skipping ropes, much the same as provided in this kit, had beautifully knotted handles, my father’s handiwork. I also remember taking my Uncle Phil to the Maritime Museum at Port Adelaide where he lingered over a display cabinet of knotted ropes, explaining them in detail. Most Fair Isle farmers would also, of course, have been sailors.
