The Shetland Trader books by Gudrun Johnston are labors of love and her effort to preserve the knitting styles of a particular place and time. Specifically, the Shetland islands in the 1970 through a company her mother owned and ran, The Shetland Trader. Interestingly, Gudrun’s mom was not a knitter herself. She designed the motifs and chose colors, and the hired local expert knitters to create the sweaters themselves.

This project started when Gudrun was given some of those original sweaters and began to reverse-engineer the patterns, as there do not seem to be any original written or charted patterns. It was the 70s, so although the motifs are Fair Isle, the silhouettes are pure disco era. Big poufy balloon sleeves, high necklines, peasant-blouse looks, smocks… You get the idea.

As a knitting book, it is a good one. The patterns include sweaters, a couple dresses, a smock, a vest, a few hats, a kercheif, and a few shawls. So a broad range of possibilities from ambitious to more modest. The projects are shown in different colorways on different size bodies to give you a good idea what it looks like. The patterns are written out in good detail, the motifs are charted, and the font is nice and clear. The book does have some descriptions of special techniques, but not basic ones, so not a book for beginners.

It would only take a few easy alterations to un-disco the patterns, but I think they have a lot of charm as they are. I think the thing I like the most about this book is that it shows the flexibility of traditional crafts. You can take a traditional craft and adapt it in a lot of ways, but it’s still identifiable. These knitting projects are clearly Fair Isle, and also clearly from the 70s. You could take some of these motifs and knit them in a big boxy oversize sweater in chunky yarn in neons against black, and they would be 80s, but still Fair Isle. I don’t know that I would knit any patterns from this book – I was a child in the 70’s and still have a lot of flashbacks – but I am definitely keeping it on my shelf!