Obituary - Patricia Johnston, knitwear designer

Died: January 22, 2017

PATRICIA Johnston, who has died aged 77, was a designer who ran the successful knitwear design company, The Shetland Trader, and whose work in the 1970s not only inspired her daughter but other Shetland knitters and designers of the time.

As Patricia Royce, she first came to Shetland from London in the autumn of 1965. She was then a travel courier in France and Yugoslavia, but when the Anderson High was short of a French teacher that winter she stepped in readily to fill the gap without any previous training.

In 1966 she married Laughton Johnston and settled in Shetland for 11 years between 1968 and 1979 where her four children were born. In the early 1970s, though not a knitter herself, she requested a neighbour in Bigton to knit Fair Isle garments of her own design and colour-way for her children. When others saw her garments and haps they asked Patricia if she could do the same for them. From this beginning grew her business, the Shetland Trader.

As Kate Davies said of her work in Shetland knitwear in The Book of Haps (2016): “other businesses found a niche in the 1970s hap market by selling directly to customers through mail order. This was the case with Patricia Johnston, who, with a distinctive aesthetic untrammelled by tradition, fearlessly took Shetland knitting in intriguing new directions.

“Under her brand, the Shetland Trader, Johnston’s designs defied received categories of Shetland knitting, combining openwork with Fair Isle, favouring small patterns over large motifs, and experimenting with contemporary shapes and shaping, such as smocks and maxi dresses. Coupled with one of Johnston’s original bell-sleeved and striped designs, a Shetland hap might look strikingly contemporary.”

For a year or two, Ms Johnston ran the Shetland Trader from a shop in Burns Lane, Lerwick along with knitwear of fellow designer Victoria Gibson. However, in 1979 Ms Johnston left Shetland and the Shetland Trader ceased operating. The family then moved to Brighton for a year where she managed Mary Graeme, a boutique shoe shop. In 1984, with most of the family on the island nature reserve of Rum, she set up home in Edinburgh and for eight years or so became a very well known figure as manager of Real Foods in Broughton Street.

In 1992, following a career move of her husband’s she moved to Perthshire where her love of good design led to finding employment in the antiques trade for several years. Very often she would return home on Fridays with objets d’art in lieu of wages.

Ms Johnston returned to Shetland in 2004. In 2007 her daughter and knitwear designer, Gudrun Johnston, inspired by her mother, revived the firm. She now runs the Shetland Trader as a very successful online knitwear designing business recognised throughout the world, basing much of her work on traditional Shetland knitwear.

Throughout her life, even when overtaken by Alzheimer’s in her early 60s, Ms Johnston retained an elegance, presence and empathy for others that all admired and envied. The last eight years of her life were spent in Wastview, a Shetland care home where she could not have been better looked after.

Patricia Johnston’s contribution to Shetland knitwear will long be remembered. She passed on her love of language, travel and design to her children who all travelled far.

She is survived by her husband Laughton, four children Sorley, Beth, Gudrun and Jamie, and eight grandchildren.