New book tells the story of Sanday knitters

The remarkable story of a how a small group of skilled craftswomen in the Orkney island of Sanday built a knitwear business that went on to supply prestigious clothing outlets around the world, has been recounted in a new book out this week.

How to Knit a Bathroom, The Story of the Isle of Sanday Knitters, has been written by Sandra Towrie, who played a key role in the pioneering company that ran between 1970 and 1999.

When the business started, few opportunities for women to work outside of the home existed in Sanday, reflecting the situation across Orkney’s North Isles. But many Sanday women had a particular talent for knitting and, around 1970, their skills caught the attention of Mary Baker, wife of the newly appointed Sanday School headteacher, Ron. She saw there was an opportunity for local women to make a little money for themselves, making crochet squares for a fashion company which had advertised for outworkers in a sewing magazine.

Under Mary’s encouragement and leadership, the Sanday knitters ultimately moved on from crochet squares to jumpers, combining their talents to create a new cooperative enterprise, Isle of Sanday Knitters.

For three decades, the company grew and flourished, with the women designing and making traditional wool jumpers that quickly became much sought after throughout the UK, and further afield.

It was a venture that had a tremendous impact on the local community, changing the lives of many of the knitters. The book’s title reflects how income generated from knitting work brought a greater degree of financial independence to local women, paying for everything from clothes for their children and family holidays, to new television sets and even complete bathrooms.

The knitters’ efforts placed Sanday firmly on the international fashion map, with the company producing knitwear for exclusive boutiques and large, well-known stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman in New York, and Hackett and Harrods in London. They were also commissioned to knit Christmas jumpers for actors, Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey, for a festive episode of the Men Behaving Badly sit-com in 1997.

Although Isle of Sanday Knitters wound up in 1999, an extensive archive of documents and photographs relating to the company had been kept by Sandra Towrie, a Shetland born teacher who designed and knitted for the company during its heyday.

Sandra had passed the archive material to the island’s heritage centre for a 2016 exhibition on the business, but last year was approached by the North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme (NILPS) with a view to running some hand knitting classes in Sanday, as part of a project aimed at preserving traditional skills. That then led her to explore the idea of writing a book on the Isle of Sanday Knitters and sharing the unique story of the venture with a wider audience.

Funding for the book has come from NILPS, with proceeds from sales going to the Sanday Heritage Centre.

"It was a tremendous thing for the island,” said Sandra. “The abiding memory I have of that time is of the camaraderie. None of the women involved ever set out to run a business, but because they were managing houses and running farms, multitasking to a degree nobody would believe, they discovered they had all these transferable skills. They’d fit the knitting around whatever else they were doing.

“I just bumped into somebody recently who had lived in Sanday a long while ago and been one of the knitters,” continued Sandra. “She remembered how her kids had wanted designer jeans, but the family were scrimping and saving at the time and couldn’t afford to buy them. But with the knitting, she was able to pay for the jeans. And somebody really did pay for a bathroom!”

What’s perhaps most surprising about the Isle of Sanday knitters is the scale of the operation at its peak. It got so busy the company had to enlist the help of knitters all the way from Shetland to Wolverhampton.

“It was all big orders,” recalled Sandra. “The knitters were working for the mass market, with 200 pieces for places like Hackett. It was huge quantities and tight, tight timelines, and we had agents in London getting us those big customers. And there was me, a mum of three small children, who had been no further than Aberdeen or maybe Edinburgh, and suddenly I was having to go to trade fairs in Paris, Munich, New York and London!"

By the 1990s, many of the people who had worked hard to establish the company were no longer able to devote as much time and energy as they’d done in the past. And some of the business’ long-standing customers found they could source similar products much more cheaply from overseas. In 1999, the board of Isle of Sanday Knitters unanimously agreed to wind the company up.

Sandra added: “The aspect of the Isle of Sanday Knitters that’s hard to quantify is the feeling it created within the community. People had that little bit of extra money, and it was a positive thing for everyone, even if they weren’t directly involved with the company. There was a great deal of pride in Sanday for what was achieved and it’s a pleasure to be able to share the story of the company through the new book.”

Valerie Dawson, programme manager/project officer for NILPS, said: “We are delighted to fund the publication of Sandra’s book about the Isle of Sanday Knitters. NILPs aims to support and celebrate traditional local crafts and this excellent book documents how ingenuity and hard work by the Sanday community saw the craft of knitting develop into an important small industry for the Island for over 25 years.”

How to Knit a Bathroom, The Story of the Isle of Sanday Knitters, will be officially launched at the Craft Hub in Sanday on the evening of Tuesday 5 November, with Sandra signing copies at The Orcadian Bookshop in Kirkwall between 10.30 and 12.30 on Saturday 9 November. The book costs £9.50.

The North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme is a £4.5m programme funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, Orkney Islands Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and NatureScot.  It supports projects that promote the culture, heritage and landscape of the North Isles and will run until December 2024.