CLOSE-KNIT: EXPLORING HOW KNITTING HAS SHAPED THE HISTORICAL AND ENDURING RELATIONSHIPS OF THE SHETLAND ARCHIPELAGO

Abstract

By considering the archipelago as a dynamic form, this study examines
historical and contemporary examples of island-to-island ways of being, knowing and
doing. Shetland hand knitting offers a contextual backdrop to explore the shaping of
historical and enduring relationships between the Shetland Islands. In positioning
the Shetland Islands as mutually constituted and interrelated, the study offers an
examination of the Shetland archipelago in its own right, rather than as told in
relation to the metropolitan centres of Great Britain. Such a perspective affords a
more nuanced understanding of some of the smaller islands that constitute the
British Isles.