Wooden pins for stretching shawls on the ground, and yellow blocks of sulphur. Pins approx 45 cm long. Sulphur blocks approx 5 x 3.5cm.

Shetland lace made with hand-spun wool was naturally cream in colour. Once a piece of knitting was completed the wool needed to be bleached white before it was washed and stretched. Before the days of chemical bleaches the process was messy and probably dangerous.

Knitted garments were suspended over blocks of smouldering sulphur inside a barrel, which was covered with a lid. The yellow blocks shown here are blocks of sulphur used in this process. After this the knitting was washed in a mild soap solution, then rinsed. It was then ready for stretching.

If wooden stretching frames were not available, the work would be pegged out on the grass with wooden pegs such as these. This stretching process is always necessary to obtain a perfect square, triangle or oblong for shawls and scarves.