Harris Tweed Production

When I knew I was going to the Isle of Lewis I was desperate to get to this place..the Tweed shed at Tarbert on the Isle of Harris which adjoins Lewis. It contains rolls and rolls of beautiful Harris Tweed, piled up to the ceiling. 

It was a long drive but well worth it and I was in a state of high excitement collecting samples but restraining myself, being mindful or the bursting cupboards I still have at home.

After Tarbert  we followed 'The Tweed Route' and turned down 'The Golden Road' 

 

until we came to a sign for Plocropool, a tiny place by a little rocky inlet, home of the weaver who sent me my Harris Tweed. 

I think it was the delightful Catherine, not Katie Campbell who I spoke to. 

She remembered my work and asked to see some, and is interested in stocking it in her shop. I remain a little confused by the Katie/Catherine puzzle. I think they work together and are mother and daughter.

(But I may be wrong)

Anyway here she is in her shop. This lady is the one who wove the lovely bright stripey Tweeds I used at Christmas. She says she doesn't have a lot of time to weave now .The shop was full of tourists buying Tweed.

This is her father's loom which she uses...

I have now learned quite a lot about Harris Tweed production so I would like to record it here both for myself and for anyone else who is interested. Its long but I hope some may find it informative.

We had a tour of Carloway Mill on Lewis who 'produce' Harris Tweed. The main requirement of Harris Tweed is that it must be Handwoven in weavers' homes, so the mill doesn't actually weave the Tweed, and not all weavers work for the mill. The mill has its own designers who prepare the yarns and send them out to be woven into 'their' fabric. 

With that in mind here are the processes involved in the production of Harris Tweed.

First the washed wool arrives in the mill. (In the old days it was wool from sheep on the Islands but nowadays it comes from Yorkshire)

Next the wool is dyed in these big vats. Nowadays chemical dyes are used.

Here's some jet dyed.

Next several colours are weighed carefully and mixed to produce the desired shades.

Then its sucked into a big blending and carding machine and mixed together. (this is a different colour to the above)

The carding begins, that is, combing it all into the same direction, separating it into sections and a slight twist put in it prior to spinning.

It comes out blended ready for spinning.

Next its spun into yarn.(I don't have a picture of that bit)
The yarn is threaded onto a roller via a very complicated machine, in sections of colours according to the patterns required. This is the warp . 

The warp threads are wound in order onto a huge beam.

For the single width looms there is a complicated frame system for a narrower beam.

(I saw one of these when we visited a weaver's shed.)

The warps are packaged ready with some extra spools of threads to mend any breaks.

At this stage the beams are sent out to the weavers who sit at their handlooms in sheds and cottages all over the Islands. 

Some weavers make their own designs, and their own warping, and some weavers work for this and other mills producing the mills own designs. 

We spoke to a couple of weavers who said that nowadays they often have a 'day job' and weave as an extra. One had lived in 'The City' and had returned to his family home and weaving shed.

The handwoven cloth returns to the mill for finishing. The first stage is the checking and darning any ends in, repairing, examining over a light box.

The two ends of the long cloth are stitched together

and then its put into a machine with soap, and washed to felt it. 
The machines are old and mostly wooden and wonderfully 'Heath Robinson, resembling old boats. ( In the old days it was done by women who sang as they did it like this)

After washing it has to be put into another machine to be rinsed.

\

That big old worn roller goes round and round 

and then its spin-dried. (noisily!)

The drying is quite an art..it has to be stretched and tensioned so that it comes out exactly the right length and width to conform to the standard size of either double or
 single width.
This is a view of the complicated machine with a side view of the washer . I think it looks like Noahs Ark.

Finally the cloth is inspected and stamped with the Orb mark of the Harris Tweed Authority.

Well I hope you managed to stick with it. I found the tour fascinating...but then I'm obsessed
As you know.






For the official version click to go HERE

Giveaway winner.

This is just a quick post to announce the giveaway winner. 

The original winner hasn't been in touch and I have no idea who or where she is so I redrew it and the winner is comment no. 1.(Random number generator)

Isn't that funny? Its Karen. I'm pleased. Here's how I did it...

So Karen....

You can choose any one thing from the post called 'Vent' and if you want it to be made into a brooch let me know. 

I also have these ready made brooches if you would prefer one of these. They are quite bright.. a bit lighter than they appear here.

So sorry for those of you who didn't win.I wish I could afford to give one to every reader and follower. But for a very small cost one of these could be yours!

For more information check this page.

Postcard

Greetings from The Isle of Lewis.


Its a helluva long way from home.
It took two days to get here, made a little more bearable by the thought of a lovely break halfway in Fort William.
Then made traumatic by the Hotel we booked not having written down our booking and being full.

But that blow was softened by them  finding us an equally lovely room in a hunting lodge in the grounds of a much posher hotel, at a lower price.
(we felt like Hansel and Gretel as we made our way down a wooded drive to find the little house in the woods with a key)  and then standing us a free dinner and breakfast. I was very gracious and didn't order the most expensive thing on the menu but I can't tell you just how much I wanted that lobster!

The next morning we were having a stroll through Fort William (300 miles from home) when I heard someone say 'Hello'.
It was  two of my son's friends from our village.

Now we are comfortably settled in to our friend's lovely house. Only once before have I been on holiday in a house so well equipped.
I recommend it.
Now all we need is a bit of sun!

(Oh and I've spotted one or two tweed patterns I haven't got!)


****Don't forget the giveaway in the previous post-just leave a comment*****

Vent and a Giveaway

The Northern part of the UK is sick to death of grey skies, rain rain rain , full tog emergency in the duvet department and general dull.
( Fortunately my next door neighbours are having a new roof and if I look through the side windows through the branches of our tree, I can kid myself that the bright blue plastic sheet over it is a lovely summer sky.)
But the softie southerners are now complaining that its not rained enough. Oh...poor you....
(Only kidding ..I love you really)


So last week we thought we'd try to get a break from dull and look for a holiday in the South..in the sun..but guess what? Its full. Yes, Cornwall is full. Devon is full....so where do you think we are going?

The Outer Hebrides.
Yes. We deserve all the weather we get don't we?
I have no hope of sunshine but a change is as good as a rest. I am going to find the Motherlode, the source, the weavers of the tweed. So exciting

My car is fixed which is just as well as its a 300mile first lap to Fort William, the another hundred and odd to Ullapool and the Ferry to Lewis..which is next to Harris..yes, Harris.

We can't go in my husbands car  because there was a dog related accident of the over excited kind last week when our son came over and brought his little canine friend. We've done our best to erase the pong but with it being so wet and cold we can't give it a good clean out yet. She further disgraced herself by rolling in fox poo, and finally by attacking Mummycat.

We are staying in my friends lovely house at a discount which she has said she will offer at a similar discount to any blog friend of mine. Just let me know and I'll put you in touch. Here's the website.

Its an ideal time to go away while my son is living here so we don't have to worry about house/cats/etc.

I've been in a distracted frame of mind lately, the kind of state where even my sewing doesn't seem as if  its worth carrying on.
But I've found a bit of focus in these colours .















More sweet pea coloured shapes. I enjoyed doing these. (I've still got one white sweet pea and its been joined by one purple one)
Its strange how little differences and subtleties affect the feeling of pieces. You may not notice that there is a new element here, the little 'dot on a stick' is surrounded by an edge I haven't used before.

Can you see it? Its a sort of teardrop shape. It gives them a butterfly like feel don't you think?

Like you might get in a child's drawing.
 I had fun . Then I went onto flowers again. For brooches.

Finally a collection of small 'Paisleys'.

These could be brooches as well and I am also getting some prongy (not pongy) hairclips to decorate.
I have to think about getting ready for Galleries ad sales later in the year.
But I wish I could just do something a bit more meaningful and artistic instead of 'knick knacks.' Do you know what I mean?

Anyway....

While I'm away I think I'll leave a little Giveaway on here.

I'll be taking my little laptop with me so I'll be able to keep an eye on things.

 You can choose any one of the above. 

Just leave a comment. You know I love them.
I'll draw it when I get back.

Bye for now.


Update:  Thanks for all your lovely comments so far. I welcome them all but I hope you will forgive me for not always replying..I'm ironing and packing and shopping for the resident house sitter!
I meant to add that the giveaway could be another different brooch/tiny art piece  if nothing here tickles your fancy. I know somepeople prefer brighter colours.

Triumphant

This my dear blog friends this is a showing off post.

Yes, I have a great wonderful achievement to report.

After several years of trial and error, failure, disappointment .....I have grown .....

a sweet pea.

Now I know its only one.

But its MY one.

Isn't it beautiful?

I couldn't tell you anything about the smell because its too wet to stand in the garden sniffing.

I was out there long enough to be reminded where most of my problems lie.

Forgive the blurry photo..I was shuddering while trying to take this.

The hosta leaves are lacy but the flowers look great, especially against the vibrant yellow of the alchemilla...before the rain battered them flat of course.

Sweet peas, I suppose, are my absolute favourite flowers of all, but for the last few years, after several  attempts at growing them in large pots which resulted in vast amounts of greenery but no actual flowers, I seem to have, in a very modest way, succeeded. I had these in tubs in the garden at the side of the house, but the wind was inhibiting them, so one day I dumped the lot in the bare soil in the front sunnier garden and voila! 

One flower, many buds. Lets hope.....

I may get a vase full.

In the meantime I satisfy my urge for the pale mauves, pinks and blues with this sort of thing.

I really, really, love these colours.

This one is just as nice but unfortunately pink velvet doesn't photograph so well.

I met two fellow bloggers on Thursday and we had a great long chat and a bit of cake, at Salts Mill, Saltaire, near Bradford.

One was Sue from Mousenotebook, and the other was Helen formerly Cocoa and Blankets and now here.

What a lovely day we had.

Their company made up for a false start in my stupid car, when I had to turn back after 15 miles and swap to my husbands car. His has done 178,000 miles and has a big box of broken glass in it on its way to the tip, but it drives like the wind.

Mind drives as if its GOT wind.

Learning Curves

The long gap between blog posts is due to two events.

The first is a small break away in the Lake district with old friends and one new.
This one in particular won my heart.

The delightful Dylan. I wish he was mine.

However, being The English Lake District......

.......we had rain.
In fact overnight when we were there the level of Windermere rose by four and a half feet. That's a lot of water..millions ...no billions of gallons apparently..according to the Guard on the Haverthwaite Steam Railway who seemed to be an expert on these matters.
Bear in mind there is a hosepipe ban at the moment.

But we had fun and enjoyed some wonderful cheeses which we bought in Cartmel and ate on the 'beach' at Flookburgh, while avoiding the marsh underfoot.

The other event..quite momentous in my life, was the acquisition of a new laptop. Not just any old laptop...a Macbook.
Yes, we have a bare patch on the sitting room carpet and spending all that money on a little gadget is making me feel guilty but I think I'll put the little silver beauty over the hole when we have visitors and they may not notice..what do you think?

Of course I am not familiar with the Mac system so its taken me a full week to dare to transfer my photos (can you believe I had 13,000?)  and to work out how to resize them and edit them and blah de blah de blah.....my son (who is a mac-o phile, or should that be macanista?) has just given me a quick lesson in iphoto. He came from downstairs where my husband is working on his reports and needs lessons in iphoto too.

My son outlined the differences in our needs..'You see Mum, I tell Dad and he's a complete novice, and listens, and then I come to you and tell you....but you're clicking all over the place like a giddy child '

He shows me something and then I forget and he says'I just showed you that'.So I have to explain the difference in our brains..his is like a sponge and soaks up and retains everything he wants it to, while mine is a pumice stone where a bit of new stuff sinks into the holes on the top, but mostly drips off the sides.

So..here I am on the wonderful in so many ways Macbook.There are two three and four finger scrolls on the track pad...ooooohhh!!!  I love it too much and I worry about that.

Last monday was my 59th Birthday.  I had a nice day...I went to the Grand opening of the 'improvements' in the village.
I have to hold my hand up and admit that I was wrong about the Parish Council and the path through the woods which has upset me so much is nothing to do with them.
 Its complicated. Suffice it to say there are two projects on the go in these parts, one I love and one I hate.

You may, if you read my other blog, have seen the new gateposts.
They have been much altered and are beautifully carved with the stages of metamorphosis of a butterfly so again I jumped to the wrong conclusion and prejudged them. They do still have the 'Jurassic Park look in silhouette, but its generally not that bad. Here is the culpritt  artist doing another one along the route around the 'Lodge' .

Finally...I didn't want to do a blog post until I had a bit of actual textile content to show. 

Well another first...a frame purse.

What a fiddle.

I don't know if there will be any more of these. I didn't even get the flower in the middle.

My plans are in tatters.

 Two pieces of my work have been accepted into the West Lancs Open in Ormskirk, which starts next week.

These are the ones:

'Evolving'

and these:

'Unfurling'

Now I've made my first Macpost. 

Woolly Love

Forgive me for this self indulgent post.

Perhaps if you are not a felt maker or wool lover you won't enjoy it.

I've been making felt for future shapes and brooches.

I have to think of colours and combinations that I wouldn't normally use so I put a few things together and got this.

Thinking outside of my colour comfort zone where I usually end up with duck egg and greys I stuck a few dark colours in. A navy and a maroon and hey presto! 

The 1950s appeared.

So I went on and made another because I didn't want to cut the first one up..but it was different again.

I love the unexpectedness of felt.
The way you put two colours on top of each other and get deliciousness.

even where you weren't expecting it.

 This could be the centre of a brooch.

There's a bit of silk in here, the blue thats brighter than the rest. Its almost iridescent.

It scares me a bit...I can't predict it and I want to control it...frustration ensues.

 I could stare at it for hours ....which is how long it will take it to dry in this weather.