United Kingdom · Textile craft; Knitting; Shetland heritage
Shetland Lace — Unst Cobweb Knitting
The Shetland lace knitting tradition of the Shetland Islands — specifically the cobweb-weight wedding shawl tradition of Unst (the northernmost island of Shetland) knitted from single-ply Shetland wool so fine that a full-size shawl can be passed through a wedding ring. The Shetland lace knitter reads the correct tension through a needle-resistance feel at each stitch — the single-ply cobweb-weight wool requires a specific needle-entry resistance feel that indicates correct tension, since at this fineness any visual tension assessment is impossible.
Risk level: Endangered · Not listed; Shetland lace tradition on the Scottish national heritage inventory
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