Harris tweed - 2

     With the exception of the picture top left (which was part of an exhibition at An Lanntair arts centre, Stornoway), all these were taken at Carloway Mill on Lewis where we had a tour and an introduction to the various processes involved in the making of Harris tweed. You'll see there the raw wool (washed), the dyeing key for matching, colours gathered together according to the recipe for a given shade, part of the complex spinning procedure, another piece of machinery (and much of it was of quite an age) whose use I have forgotten, and then some bolts of the finished cloth. Just a quick note on finishing, we saw a length of tweed being prepared for despatch, and before folding it was brushed with a switch of some plant material.

  Naturally, I felt a small purchase was in order, so I bought a couple of pieces, the colours those of the clouds reflected in the waters of the loch; (I think they are destined to be cushions in the more prosaic setting of my study).

Comments

[Mr Cornflower]

The first factory I've ever visited where the background radio music was Gaelic folk song and the workers switched between Gaelic and English as they spoke to each other.

[Darlene]

I wonder what the brushing of the material with a switch was about? Very intriguing!

Oh my goodness, those sheep from your post last year are so soft and adorable looking. How long would the process take from fleece to the bolt if you added up the time each task of spinning, dyeing, weaving takes? Not sure if I worded that very well.

[Desperate Reader]

Lovely tweed, I hanker after a tweed covered sofa, I have the sofa, but the rest is sadly out of reach at the moment. Harris looks wonderful.

[Becky]

Was the plant material used for brushing a teasel (a big, dried, thistle-blossom sort of thing)? For some reason that term popped into my head when I read those words. . . What lovely pictures!

[Cornflower]

I wasn't very close to it, Becky, but it didn't appear to be a teasel, more like a bunch of long smooth twigs.