VIRTUAL SHETLAND WOOL WEEK KICKS OFF THIS SATURDAY
Shetland Wool Week is going virtual this year – with the annual nine-day event kicking off on Saturday and running through until Sunday 3 October.
SWW Patron,
Wilma Malcolmson
This is the second time that the physical event has had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, and in its place a virtual programme of activities, workshops, talks, tours and films has been developed.
Earlier in the year Shetland Wool Week organisers made the difficult decision to go online and sell tickets for a range of events as well as offer SWW Membership, giving members exclusive access to a series of specially commissioned SWW Films.
Shetland Wool Week organisers said: “We’ve had a fantastic response to membership – it’s very heartening to see the support for SWW continue despite the challenges we’ve all experienced with Covid. Last year, we hosted a small virtual event with lots of fantastic, free content created by the Shetland fibre community which we shared on social media. This time, we decided to develop this model and invest in a series of films which provide a more detailed glimpse of elements of SWW as well as encourage our regular Wool Week tutors to run classes online.”
The result is over 100 ticketed events with many contributors running a combination of live online classes, or recorded talks with live Q&As. The ‘SWW Film Series’ is available to members and includes films in weaving, spinning, crofting, Shetland lace, Fair Isle knitting, natural yarn dyeing, rooing and much more.
Shetland Wool Week organisers said: “We are so grateful to everyone who has contributed to the programme, and stepped up to the challenge of trying something new - and generously sharing their skills and knowledge with an enthusiastic international following. While virtual Wool Week is by no means a replacement for the physical event, we are delighted to be offering a broad programme which offers something to everyone.
“This is the second year as SWW patron for Wilma Malcolmson, too. She has been amazing throughout, and dutifully done every interview, film, photo shoot or social media commentary – and of course, she has also created some amazing patterns, including her two popular Wool Week hats, Katie’s Kep and Da Crofter’s Kep. It’s been a challenging couple of years and we’re so appreciative of all that she has done. She will be a tough act to follow!
“We’re really excited for the online event to begin and look forward to bringing Shetland Wool Week into people’s homes.”
To find out more, or to take out membership visit www.shetlandwoolweek.com
