Vintage Knitting, Retro Dressmaking, Make do and Mend, Original and Vintage Inspired Knitting Patterns, Vintage Inspired books

Thursday, July 09, 2015

The Vintage Shetland Project Crowdfunder Campaign



I am very, very, very, very excited to announce the launch of my first ever crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the printing of the Vintage Shetland Project.

I have agonised long and hard about taking the crowdfunding route as its not something I have done before nor would I normally think about using this particular method of fund raising. However after taking part in Donna Druchunas’ blog tour for her forthcoming book, I realised how I could offer people interested in the project so much more by using a crowdfunding platform rather than offering straight forward pre-orders.

So first let me introduce you to the Vintage Shetland Project


The Vintage Shetland Project is the culmination of several years research I have carried out at the Shetland Museum archive and on Shetland with the help and support of Carol Christiansen, Curator at the Shetland Museum. 


Through this research I have chosen 25 items and have transcribed their construction, stitch by stitch, row by row, and have then recreated them for the Vintage Shetland Project. These have then been developed into comprehensive multi-sized knitting patterns, complete with instructions, technical advice and of course, beautiful photos all shot in Shetland. The story behind each hand knit is also told throughout the book along with a fascinating chapter about the four year project and the work involved. 


The project has become a huge part of my life and has involved numerous journeys to Shetland to work in the archive, the creation of our own custom-built software to 'translate' my transcriptions and even the manufacture of a yarn brand 'Fenella' to match exactly some of the vintage garment weights and colours. 

The book will be A4 in size with a hard cover to match A Stitch in Time volume 1 and will have approximately 250 pages. The book will retail at £25.00 (plus P&P).

So how do you get to be one of the first people to get hold of the book? 

The first thing to do is go to my pubslush campaign page


There is much more detail about the book here along with a short extract and most importantly around 20 different rewards to choose from - yarn rewards, to kits to make your own Vintage Shetland garments, experiences such as tea with me at Shetland Wool Week, a work shop on the farm or a chance to spend the afternoon going through my pattern archive and VIP invitations to the Vintage Shetland book launch and not forgetting of course, print books and ebooks. 

The campaign will run for 30 days and I hope to raise £12,000 to cover the printing costs for this very special book.

To celebrate and support the launch of the campaign I have put together a fabulous blog tour “To Shetland and Back” with a host of wonderful knitty friends revealing their favourite projects from the book with each post. The tour starts in Shetland, meanders around the world, stopping back at Shetland now and again, and finally ends in Shetland with Donna Smith, patron of Shetland Wool Week. Each participant will be sharing a project from the book so you will get to see more of what is in the book. There will also be other ad-hoc podcast appearances and other blog posts throughout the month and if you follow me on instagram I will be posting a Vintage Shetland Project image each day of the campaign. Do pop back to the blog at 12.30 today for a full list of the blog tour and an introduction to the first stop on the blog tour.

To support the campaign please go to 

"Fashion and history intertwine in the Vintage Shetland Project as Susan Crawford recreates and explores cherished pieces from Shetland's rich knitting heritage"

Thank you so much and I do hope you will be able to support the campaign.

for now,
Susan xx



2 comments :

Anonymous said...

I'm in - such a great project and pubslush - irresistible name!
Terdotty (terri)

White Purls said...

Im in awe! Nowadays, It seems so rare to find someone with such passion!