For the benefit of my overseas readers, this is a tongue-in-cheek take on an up-market food supplier's advertising campaign for luxury food, but it does properly describe my latest limited edition Harris Tweed.
Weaving Black Harris Tweed
Last Saturday I arrived on the Isle of Lewis in the early afternoon. After spending some time with my mother (the main reason for my visit) I chose yarns from my yarn store and prepared a new warp. I knew that we needed black tweed for making scarves and wraps, but it didn't need to be pure plain black. Indeed, if I want plain black, I would be better off just going to one of the Harris Tweed mills and buying it. I like to be more adventurous, so while most of the yarn I selected to make the warp is black, I also picked out some dark charcoal, very dark navy, very dark plum, peat brown and dark bottle green yarn. When preparing a warp I use 24 cops of yarn. For this warp I used 16 cops of black, 4 charcoal and one each of the other colours. From a distance it reads as black,
On Monday I got the warp beamed and half tied in. An experienced weaver can get this part done in under an hour. I am still taking 4 hours and I have not yet managed to figure out a way of doing it without putting a strain on my back muscles. I obviously need to improve my technique!
Tuesday was taken up with other things, including attending an interesting presentation about fashion trends for spring and summer, 2015. Lots of things to consider there, but it did seem that subtlety was a common theme. So my new black tweed should fit in nicely.
On Wednesday I did various things with my mother - took her to the hairdresser's salon and then out to lunch and then finished the tying in.
About two years ago I bought some tweed with the intention of making myself a new winter coat, but somehow I always seemed to be busy making things for other people and had not set aside time to do anything for myself. However, before I left for my Lewis trip I cut out the coat pieces and did some embroidery on the front, back, cuffs, collar and pocket welt pieces. I took with me everything I needed, including some very posh hot-fused glass buttons made for me by my friend Gail of Half-A-Moon and in the evenings, when it is too cold and dark to head out to the loom shed, I sat at the sewing machine and made my new coat. When there was handsewing to be done I could do this while sitting talking with my mother.
Thursday and Friday were free for weaving. The loom has been working smoothly and I have managed to weave over 30 metres in the two days. I am weaving in lengths of 1.8 metres then advancing the loom to leave approximately 20cm unwoven between lengths. These will be used to make scarves or wraps which have fringed ends - it saves having to unravel the tweed to make the fringes - a great time saver and allows for longer fringes.
Some lengths have been woven with a black weft (the yarn which goes from side to side), some with charcoal and I have also woven a couple of lengths with a red weft and one with a white weft. For these colours, the random herringbone weave pattern is very striking. This photograph was taken while weaving with the red, but the white was still visible on the cloth beam, where you are seeing the back of the tweed rather than the face.
At the moment I am heading back to the mainland so the weaving will take a break until I next return to the island towards the end of March when I should be able to weave the remaining 25m and get it off to Carloway Mill for washing and stamping (to certify it as genuine Harris Tweed).
(The internet connection ran out at that point, so I couldn't do any more of this till I got home - to be met off the bus by my husband. He's not much for cooking, but he had visited the above mentioned store. We didn't just have beef, we had rich, succulent beef, wrapped in melt-in-the-mouth flaky pastry................. I'm sure you get the picture!).
I left the loom all ready for the next visit. The little black mark on the warp beam flange is where the warp came to when it was first beamed, so you can see how much I have used and how much I still have to do. I just need to decide what colours of weft yarn to use, and then start pedalling...... and pedalling.......!!!!
In April we will start making up the tweed into scarves and wraps, perhaps the odd Hebridean Hood with any small pieces being used for little wallhangings. Watch this space........!
I wore my new coat to church this morning and when we got home, Len photographed me wearing it. If you want a posh coat, let me know. I won't make you one exactly the same as this, but I am happy to work out designs and let you choose tweed - visit the website for more details.
