What I learned about Harris Tweed at the last NY Guild of Handweavers meeting

Eco-designer Lusmila McColl of McColl & Clan spoke at the March meeting of the NY Guild of Handweavers. What a fascinating and inspiring woman! She relayed the story of Harris Tweed.

to learn more about the fiber drama of the 21st century, watch this 3-part Tweed BBC documentary on Vimeo
Part 1: Trouble Looms - http://vimeo.com/7505746
Part 2: Harassed Tweed - http://vimeo.com/15901604
Part 3: Hanging by a Thread - http://vimeo.com/7669212

Lusmila handed out a flyer: THE PROCESS OF MAKING HARRIS TWEED FABRICS (see below)

Shearing

The creation of Harris Tweed begins with fleeces of pure virgin wools which are sheared from Cheviot and Scottish Blackface sheep. Although most of the wool is grown principally on the Scottish and UK mainland, in the earl summer the island communities still join together to round up and sheer the local sheep to add to the mix. The tow types of wool are blended together to gain the advantages of their unique qualities and characteristics.

Washing & Dying

Once sheared the wool is scoured before being delivered in large bales to the mills of the main tweed producers where it is dyed in a wide variety of colors for blending.

Blending & Carding

The freshly dyed coloured and white wools are weighted in predetermined proportions and then thoroughly blended by hand to exact recipes to obtain the correct hue. It is then carded between mechanical, toothed rollers which tease and mix the fibers thoroughly before it is separated into a fragile, embryonic yarn.

Spinning

This soft yarn then has a twist imparted to it as it is spun to give it maximum strength for weaving. The spun yarn is wound onto bobbins to provide the ingredients of weft (left to right threads) and warp (vertical threads) supplied to the weavers.

Warping

This vitally important process sees thousands of warp threads gathered in large hanks into a specific order and wound onto large beams ready to be delivered, together with yarn for the weft, to the weavers.

Weaving

All Harris Tweed is hand woven on a treadle loom at each weaver's home usually a single width Hattersley loom or newer double-width Bonas-Griffith loom. The weaver will arrange hundreds of heddles to a specified pattern before the beam of warp yarn is tied to the loom by hand.

The weaver will then set up the weft threads, pulling bobbins of yarn through a series of guides to be woven into the warp threads by flashing "rapier" or shuttle. Once ready, the weaver begins to weave, always observing, correcting, mending and amending their creation until complete. All Harris Tweed is woven by hand, using a manually powered loom driven by a simple pedal mechanism.

Finishing

The tween then returns to the mill in its "greasy state" and here it passes through the hands of darners who correct any flaws.

Once ready, the cloth is finished. Dirt, oil and other impurities are removed by washing and beating in soda and soapy water before it is dried, steamed, pressed and cropped.

Stamping

The final process is the examination by the independent Harris Tweed Authority who visits the mills weekly, before application of their Orb Mark trademark which is ironed onthe fabric as a seal of authenticity.

Links

Harris Tweed Authority: http://www.harristweed.org

http://www.thecarlowaymill.com/index.html