Order Complete

Finally the 'Big Order' is finished so I'm afraid this is going to be a showing off post..well, I'll show what I've made and lovely readers can draw your own conclusions as to whether I'm showing off or not. I apologise for showing some of the stuff I had in the last post but I really enjoy having a huge pile of stuff made ready to send on.

So to recap..the Tweed Weaver on Harris asked me to supply her with 10 of everything I showed her.

So above there are three lots of 10.

Then there are 10 cuffs, the pictures are suffering from ..wait for it...too much sun! Yes! The back of the house was dark so I went to the room at the front and the sun was blindingly brilliant.

10 little purses cunningly constructed to hold an iphone 4 or 3gs.

Here's a detail I couldn't resist, showing the velvet/silk/Harris Tweed combination. This is what gives me the pleasure, and the drive to continue. Its the surprisingness ( is that a word?) of the results that delights me. 

A different combination of colours gives  a totally different feel.

Now, what do you think these are? I don't even know, but found that I had some large pins and had to make some either extra large if you dare shawl pins, or mini wallhangings.

Its good to sort them into groups of the same colour too.

I had such a good time doing these.

Thank you for the encouragement I had after my last moan. Every single comment is read with care and gratitude and I apologise if I didn't reply to those 'no reply-ers' among you.

I am excited again about future projects, but have a few more orders to fulfil before that and a possible Christmas Market.

A day out in beautiful Mid Wales,cheered me up no end yesterday. My husband went to Powis Castle for work and left me in Montgomery, a lovely little town. I  visited a lovely Crafts Gallery, a vintage and  crafts shop, and the best Hardware shop I've been to in a long time, Bunners.

A lovely drive via Dolgellau  and a walk on Barmouth Beach  walked off the lunchtime cake,

followed by a meal in Gales of Llangollen on the way home.

Its a great place but I have to confess to feeling a bit queasy when I remember the huge half a beef tomato and equally huge mushroom both of which I ate first to get them out of the way.

I hate warm tomatoes.

It makes me think of 8 portions of boiled fish swimming in liquid in a metal tray each with a warmed half tomato on it . Convent School Dinners circa 1965.

I think I'll ask for the salad next time.

Mediocre

 Has it really been 10 days since I posted?
Yes I suppose it must be.
News in brief: Blodwyn has gone home.
                       Car cylinder head gasket blew in the midst of an immense traffic jam.
                       I had my hair cut.
                       It was Ed and not David.
                       I didn't lose any weight.
                       I created my first Etsy treasury
                       The sun came out twice.

On one of the sunny occasions I was out walking,  along this path past the perfect tree.

 I'm sure someone will hack at it soon, being where I live. Probably they'll think it untidy hanging over the fence like that.

And of course...I've been sewing Harris Tweed for the big order.

Brooches with bound edges and a bit of handstitching with beads.

Round

and some rectangular not many of which have made it into the photographs, the weather has been so bad on the days when the sun didn't come out, too dull to take pictures.

Then onto the hearts which I really enjoy.

Its just a pity they take so long.

The  investment of time is not reflected in the financial returns.

And having seen pictures of the superb work in 'Origin', I really wonder why I bother.

Tweed Ecstasy

The tip of the tweed iceberg that has to be made fairly soon.

Well, you may know that I luuuurve Harris Tweed.

 I love the speckledy yarns and the beeee-oooo-teee-ful combinations of colours.

But best of all I love to choose  bits of velvet to go with those colours.

 I dyed some greys when I had my mammoth dyeing day and they are perfect to compliment these tweeds.

You can't go wrong with aqua and amber,

or amber and ochre and olive....ooohhhh loving all these colour names!

Then there's the blues ...

the royal in the middle is much richer-than-the-picher...er....Picture.

I bought this olive and royal tweed from the shed at Tarbert and as I was buying it I could just see it with olive velvet.

Yum yum yum yum yum yum..more grey and ochre....

.....some brights.....

...........some brighters........

and pinks, which don't photograph well at all and thats a shame because they are gorgeous.

65 Harris Tweed Brooches.

Only another eleventy gazillion to make!

And finally a gratuitous picture of Blodwyn who has gone home.

I have learnt from the previous post, putting a little dog on the blog gets me lots of comments.

 Thank you so much for them.

If she gets that many comments with a coat on, lets see how many she gets...

...naked.

Chocolate Limes and Sausage dogs.

Recently I was asked to make some brooches in lime on a chocolate background. Last Friday at the felt group and I begged a bit of brown wool and made the felt, and with my newly dyed  velvet, I made the two shapes I was asked for but being me, I had to go a bit further.

Then further still.

I never do things by halves. 

I used up all the chocolate brown felt.

Now, what do you do when you are up to your neck in work for three big orders and are having sleepless nights worrying about whether you'll finish in time and your house is a tip?

Hmm?

When you have a little visitor 

who has a little rain coat?

That needs a little mending?

You mend it .

Then you think...hmmmm....

not too difficult to copy in Harris Tweed.

Then you get the model...

who is, shall we say, underwhelmed.

For a little dog who is elderly, can hardly see and hardly hear, and doesn't move about much,

she is incredibly difficult to photograph.

She isn't impressed.

I am.

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