The trade in the raw material of the knitting trade presents some
features of interest. Some women stated that they could not get
worsted from the merchants in exchange for their work-wool
and worsted being called by them 'money articles.' Further
inquiry showed that this was uniformly true only with regard to the
true Shetland yarn, which the shopkeepers can with great difficulty
get in sufficient quantity for their own purposes and for which,
even if they could keep it for sale, the people would give only the
price for which they can get it from their neighbours, <i.e.> the
same price at which the shopkeepers have bought it. Even when
sold for money, it is given as a favour, or, at least, the transaction
is out of the usual course. But even the Yorkshire or Scotch yarn
cannot always be got from the shops in exchange for knitted work.
Of course, both kinds are given out to knitters working on the
employment of the merchant. Shetland yarn and wool may be
bought occasionally in small quantities at the shops of grocers
and provision-dealers, who have got it from country people in
exchange for meal and goods.
[J. Irvine, 115; C. Williamson, 152; C. Petrie, 1423, 1430; B.
Johnston, 449; A. Laurenson, 2288; R. Sinclair, 2465; R.
Anderson, 3179; W. Johnston, 2897; J. Tulloch, 2781; R.
Linklater, 2752, 2765; A. Laurenson, 2304; Mrs Nicholson, 3530.]
The merchants, who give out both kinds of worsted to be
knitted for them, generally purchase only articles made of real
Shetland wool.
[C. Greig, 11,551.]