Preserving and protecting Shetland’s living knitting heritage
SOK: Shetland’s Organisation for Knitters is dedicated to supporting local knitters, recording our living knitting heritage, and sharing accurate information grounded in local knowledge.
Fair Isle, Shetland Lace, and domestic machine knitting are more than hobbies in Shetland. They have helped shaped Shetland’s cultural identity for generations.
Fair Isle Knitting
Shetland Lace (Openwark)
Domestic Machine Knitting
Learn more about SOK’s mission and join the mailing list for updates about our progress.
Learn about Fair Isle knitting, Shetland Lace (Openwark), domestic machine knitting, and the wider story of Shetland’s living knitting heritage.
We believe public understanding of Fair Isle, Shetland lace, and the area’s domestic machine knitting skills should be grounded in the experience of the knitters who continue to practice these skills.
We care for Shetland’s knitting heritage by supporting the people, knowledge, and traditions that keep it alive.
SOK creates spaces where our heritage knitting skills can be shared traditionally, as well as through community learning and public outreach.
SOK supports routes into paid work so more local people can learn, practise, and carry these skills forward.
We help people understand where Shetland’s knitting traditions come from, how they have developed, and why context matters.
Information for Shetland-based knitters and those with a meaningful and ongoing connection to Shetland who want to take part in SOK’s local work, training, recordings, gatherings and other future opportunities.
Find information about upcoming talks, workshops, online events and other public learning opportunities.
In April 2026, SOK: Shetland’s Organisation for Knitters welcomed more than 80 attendees to ‘Mrs Hunter’s Shawl: A Return to Shetland’, a public event celebrating the life of Agnes Hunter and the lasting importance of Shetland lace knitting.
Our mission requires on-going support.
We are delighted to announce a pair of events hosted by SOK: Shetland’s Organisation for Knitters to honor the knitter Agnes Hunter and her iconic shawl.
The purposes of this Inventory align with SOK’s mission: to preserve and protect living heritage. In SOK’s case, that means the preservation and protection of Shetland Lace, Fair Isle knitting, and domestic machine knitting.
Follow SOK on Instagram for current updates, event news, behind-the-scenes work, and glimpses of Shetland’s living knitting heritage in practice.
Help support SOK and our mission, through donations, buying from our shop or other appreciated forms of support.