Urgha Loom Shed tweed samples
Day 9. Monday, May 16, 2022: Our exploration of Harris Tweed® begins. Harris Tweed® is the only cloth protected by an act of parliament. For it to be Harris Tweed®, it must be handwoven in the home of the weaver in the Outer Hebrides and finished there, using pure virgin wool spun and dyed in the Outer Hebrides. All Harris Tweed® weavers are self-employed, although some weave primarily for the mills, receiving pre-wound warp beams and predetermined patterns, and other independent weavers buy the yarn and design their own patterns and then pay the mill to finish and inspect the cloth. There are three mills, with Harris Tweed Hebrides (aka the Shawbost mill) and Kenneth MacKenzie doing the lion’s share of the business, and Carloway Mill a very distant third. Real Harris Tweed® will have a beeswax orb stamp (generally once per every 10 meters) and will come with an allotment of woven certification labels. Part of the beauty of the tweed is that it’s dyed in the wool and then the yarn is spun combining different dyed colors. The final yarn is thus very rich in color and very complex.
We start the day with a visit to Joanne of Urgha Loom Shed. Joanne is an independent Harris Tweed® weaver, and she also weaves other types of cloth. The walk down to her weaving shed is already inspirational with amazing views. She weaves on a single-width Hattersley Mark 2 loom. These old metal looms are noisy as all get out due to the fly shuttles. The weave structure is controlled by cams underneath the loom; the treadling powers the loom but does not select shafts. Metal cards near the fly box control the shuttle color sequence.
We head back to Tarbert and visit the Isle of Harris distillery, where the delicious local gin is made. Just across the car park is the Isle of Harris shop, a delightful place full of bolts of Harris Tweed and handsome, helpful young men ready to help you select that perfect fabric. It was their first day re-opening after closure during the pandemic, and we feel certain they blew their sales target out of the water after our group had its way in the shop.
More stunning beach views on our way to see Rebecca Hutton of taobh tuath tweeds. Rebecca is another independent Harris Tweed® weaver, though she’s got some Icelandic wool on her loom at the moment. So interesting to talk with her. Check out this video to hear her lovely accent and learn more about her weaving.
Our final visit of the day is with fourth generation Harris Tweed® weaver Iain Martin of Seaforth Harris Tweed. Iain has many stories, and explains about the natural dyeing that was originally done along with how warps are wound, beamed and tied on. He demonstrates the pirn-winding machine, and we learn that most children on the island spent 5 hours per day (2 hours before school and 3 after) winding pirns!
After a long day, we head off to our hotel in Stornoway. There just might have been some whisky tasting in the hotel bar a little later.
