The Past Week

Goodness me! It's a week since my last blog and its not because there is nothing happening at Scalpay Linen. In fact its been quite an exciting period as regards planning and production and I've been a bit pre-occupied as a result. However, I have managed to grab the camera at various stages, with some jolly results.

The new warp is now on the beam (see below) and is just gorgeous. I'm busy tying in and am hoping to have a little bit of weft in by the end of the day if all goes well. The quality of the yarn is stunning - wet spun and very glossy. I can't wait to see the finished linsey woolsey.

We have had quite a bit of rain and wind this week - with an amazingly warm and sunny day on Thursday. There were a lot of rainbows too and I managed to capture this one for you to see...

We also managed to get a picture of the white naked neck chick - Meryl. Still not sure whether its a "he" or a "she" but its very glamorous.

One morning I got this photo of the full moon against a lovely pink sunrise. It was such an atmospheric effect!

. During the week we went to both the mills - the mill at Shawbost aka Harris Tweed Hebrides, where we picked up the green checked linen. Wow, its great. Very soft and drapey. Our finishing guru at the mill, Donald, said it was the best yet and I had to agree. Think my warping is improving in leaps and bounds (at last!). Haven't got a piccie of this linen yet, but I will get one and add it into the blog asap. We also dropped off the yellow, brown and turquoise linen to be finished.

We called in a the Carloway Mill, aka Harris Tweed Textiles, who have been struggling a bit with my Hebridean fleeces. They have a whole cupboard full of it cleaned and teased, but despite trying with both their carding machines, its not carding up at all well. So the only solution to this problem is to add some other fibre to bind it together. This was a bit of a depressing thought since my unique selling point for the new Harris Tweed that we are developing is that it is to be made from wool sourced locally - ideally Hebridean Sheep wool. However, the best laid plans etc. etc. so whilst retaining the concept, we have somewhat tweaked the details.....

In South Harris there is a flock of Cheviot sheep which are of exceptional fleece quality. If you follow Calana Crafts blog (see my link list), you may recall that Joan had some of this spun up as knitting wool a few years ago, and marketed it very successfully as locally grown. After a hurried phone call to Borve to check that Richard still had his clip on the premises, he has agreed to supply me with about 30kgs of greasy cheviot which the mill is going to dye brown and then blend with our Hebridean to produce a yarn which will still be locally produced, though not pure Hebridean. However, it will probably be softer for the addition of 10 - 15% of Cheviot. Interestingly, we had provisionally pencilled in an approach to Borve to see if we could use their fleece next year for spinning and dyeing to give us a wider shade palette (assuming that our cash flow holds up). All that remains for me to do is get an exemption from the British Wool Board to enable me to get the fleece direct from the owner rather than go through the Board, which is the usual procedure in the UK, and we will be hopefully then be ready to roll...

Now, I'm normally a pretty laid-back individual as a rule, but I must admit that this was not an easy problem to sort out. Lots of thanks to everyone who has helped us - Steve at Carloway, Richard at Borve, the Wool Board office, Lorna at the Harris Tweed Association who has been very supportive, all our Hebridean fleece suppliers on Lewis without whom we would not have got this far, and my O/H who is always the epitome of common sense!

Now its back to tying-in and winding bobbins.

Where to start?

Today is dull and windy - rain in the air, occasionally falling to the ground. Otherwise, not very Augusty. The wind is blowing directly in the door of the loomshed which means I have to keep it closed or else everything takes flight. However, enough of the griping, on with the show....

Remember the little blonde naked neck from the last but one hatch? Well, its a grey marbled effect now and very elegant in all respects. It has been re-christened Meryl so if it turns out to be a cockerel the name will still fit. Though still very small it is getting on nicely and is out and about during the day with its hatch mate and its mum.


Humbug was out briefly in the run yesterday when the sun was shining but today is firmly tucked beneath its mums wing in the warm.

The alpaca samples arrived yesterday and I couldn't resist spinning them up. Excellent - am really going to enjoy this project. Trying to borrow a little niddy-noddy so I can hank them up and wash them. Guess I really ought to buy one for myself.

Finished a hank of Daisy yesterday. Nice and chunky but really needs carding to get a more regular effect, so this morning I have the drum carder out and am busy carding up Daisy. Separating the not-so-good from the good sections so the not-so-goods can also be spun and dyed and the white left white if that's what is required.

Here's a batt that's gone through the carder once. Will probably put it through 2 or 3 times to get a good blend going.

Last evening when I took the dogs out for their final walk before bed there were a bunch of our Hebridean sheep on the side of the road sniggering at me - they know I'm on my own this week and are determined to show me up by breaking out of their field at every opportunity! I sent Bramble after them to put them down the croft away from the houses, and this morning I couldn't see them. It would be far too much to hope that they have gone back in the field by themselves - they are probably down at our neighbours pig enclosure doing leg-knitting with her electric fencing again!

New warp, new chick and spinning up Daisy

Here are two pictures of my new warp, which I finally sorted out - this one shows the spacing reed which is between the heck and the tensioning rollers and I've turned it 180 degrees so the blue is on the right and the brown is on the left. This section will then match up with the previous one where the blue was on the left and the brown was on the right. I'm hoping that it is going to work when I come to tie in..... watch this space!


And here is a shot of two sections side by side showing the effect of turning the reed.


Here is the first official picture of our new naked neck chick - the one that had the near-death experience on Sunday. It hasn't actually ventured outside yet, but this morning I caught it having breakfast in bed! What could be better than snuggling up inside a lovely soft warm bed being fed cornflakes by a very attentive mother? When Humbug emerges into the open I will get a better picture. Mum is very protective just now - I can hear her growling at the other hens and the dogs as they go past.


And finally, I've just started spinning up Daisy - the abandoned lamb from Bunavoneader who we acquired in early spring when her foster mum and dad moved to the mainland. We sheared Daisy a few weeks ago and now I hear that the fleece needs to be spun up ready by the end of the month when foster mum and dad will be coming for an inspection visit!

So I've decided to spin a slim single straight from the raw fleece without any preparation and Peruvian ply it up to a chunkier three ply which I hope will be a good aran weight with a bit of texture in it. Not sure whether it is needing to be dyed - hope so because my landscape dyes from the Netherlands will be arriving soon, and I can't wait to get dipping!

Overcast and dull today. Moderately midgie but by no means unbearable. Quiet roads so hope to get plenty warping and weaving done before the day is over.

An interesting weekend..

Well, its been quite a busy time over the past day or two. On Friday I got a call out of the blue from an alpaca owner in Lewis - only forty miles from where we live - who was looking for someone to spin up the fibre from her best alpaca. Well, I'm just a sucker for alpaca spinning, as anyone who reads this blog will know by now, and it turns out she also has a bunch of Hebridean sheep. So, in return for the fleeces, which will go into the bag with the others I collect up from crofts on Lewis and our own on Scalpay, I am spinning up her fibre. All her alpacas are expecting in September, so you can bet I will be up there ooohing and ahhhing and taking photos when they arrive! Catch up on the goings on at the Little Croft on the Prairie - www.alpacasoflewis.blogspot.com

She also has a pair of peacocks - wow! - so, knowing that Harvey from the Campsite in Lickisto, Bays of Harris (see links for web address) had been on the lookout for some, I felt I had been a useful soul that evening!

I've started a new warp - sort of.... here are the colours and I know roughly what I want, but its taking a bit of sorting out. I'm going to warp with 32 ends, but turn the reed between the heck and the mill 180 degrees on alternate sections to it gives a 64 end pattern. Should be straightforward but, is proving to be a bit of a brainteaser just now.



Yesterday I was at the airport waving of my O/H on his week long firefighting course at Invergordon, and when I got back to feed the chickens I found that two of the eggs under the black naked neck who was brooding in the byre had hatched earlier on in the day. She was jumping up and down at the byre door looking very distressed so I knew something was wrong. One chick had sadly fallen from the basket and died on the ground and the other was just alive on the edge of the basket but very cold.

I picked it up and put it in a basin with one of those gel hand-warmers and after half an hour in front of the stove it had picked up a bit and was cheeping. It is now re-united with its mum in a nest box with a run at the front to keep it safe. This morning mum was sitting tight but I could hear a fair amount of noise coming from beneath her feathers, so it looks like the chick is still with us. It's a cute little naked neck (yes, another!) with brown stripes on a fawn body - we're calling it "Humbug" because that's exactly what it looks like.
Photos will follow when it comes out to play......