Hebridean Tweed

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The beauty of Hebridean Tweed begins long before the weaver creates the cloth!

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It all begins with the yarn. 100% wool, dyed and then skilfully blended, creating the colour palette of the Outer Hebrides. The fleece is then spun in to yarn at the mill. A long process of blending the coloured fibres, carding, twisting and then...the final spin!

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The Weaver decides on the design, the colour, the draft and begins making the warp. For an independent, single width weaver, this will probably mean warping by hand on wooden stakes. Or if they are very lucky, a warping mill! This takes time, concentration and strength! Pulling the yarn from maybe twenty four bobbins on a creel and passing them around the wooden stakes, which can be over three metres apart is no mean feat. The warp could be anything from twenty to over sixty metres long!

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After the warp is made and removed from the warping stakes by forming it in to a chain of yarn, the warp is then ready to be wound under tension on to the back beam of the loom, from there it is tied to the previous warp ends.

 

One little job left to do...winding the pirns! Only then can weaving begin! ​