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.

Wet & Windy

Today the weather is just horrid! The wind is blowing from the North at about force 8, but it was stronger in the night, and its been raining continually for over 24 hours now. Yesterday I struggled up to the shed and replaced the reed in the loom with the 2 ends per dent one and started to thread it up into a 12 x 12 herringbone. But it was so cold and dreary that, even with BBC i-player relaying my favourite radio programs from last week, I couldn't work up much enthusiasm. Must get out the long-johns and padded boiler-suit now that winter has arrived. Two days running we have had intrepid parties of visitors in the loom shed - cheerful and uncomplaining despite the climatic conditions. Well done them, I say.

Here's a photo of the new warp half-way finished on the warping mill. The yarn is some of the new consignment from NV Jos Vanneste SA in Belgium. It was expensive yes, but is a very high quality and qualifies me to use "Masters of Linen" labelling, which is always worthwhile. Wet spun, beautifully dyed and in my view well worth the hassle in arranging overseas payments etc. with the bank. I always thought that part of the benefit in belonging to the E.U. was that trading between member countries would be as easy as trading within the UK. Of course, that doesn't take into account the banks! Why can't we use online banking like we use Paypal? At the next European election I will pledge my support to the party which sorts this out!

After that wee rant, back to the warp. It's going to be 55 yards on the mill, 10lea and as already mentioned 12 x 12 herringbone. Back to 19 shots to the inch with a Hebridean 13c weft. I think it is going to look just amazing. I shall be trying to use up all my existing stocks of Hebridean yarn to make way for the Harris Hebridean which will hopefully shortly emerging from the Carloway Mill (www.harristweedtextiles.com) and can't be mixed as that will be used for Harris Tweed.

Now this photo above is of the linen I've just finished - remember the one a while ago that I couldn't decide what weft to use? Well, I finally settled on a sequence of 14 shots brown, 14 shots yellow, 14 shots turquoise and 14 shots yellow. And, it has worked out very well - so well that some of it is ordered already even before it goes to the mill for finishing! The turnaround warping worked out nicely and its good to see a larger pattern on my cloth for a change.

It's single width - about 30" and will be available for £20 a metre finished, so if anyone would like to pre-order, please drop me a mail scalpaylinen@hebrides.net.

The hens have started moulting and we're down to half a dozen eggs per day, but they've done very well over the summer so I guess they deserve a rest. End of term report on ducks and guinea fowl - could do better! Too much friskiness, not enough egg laying! No-name turkey is growing up fast and turning into a jolly little addition to the poultry house. We think its a female, so now we're looking for a young stag to keep it company next year.

Back from Orkney and picking up the threads again.

Well, it doesn't seem like nearly a week since my last blog! And what an amazingly good time we had on our Orkney trip. I had never met any of my travelling companions before - Flora from http://www.calanas.co.uk/; Sam from http://www.outerhebridessoapshack.com/; Corinna from http://www.sollasbooks.com/ and Annettefrom http://www.diggorybrown.co.uk/ but by the end of the trip we all felt we had known each other for years!

Our B & B - the Orca Guest House on the main street in Stromness was comfortable and our landlady was a keen bee-keeper - which was an added bonus. The breakfasts were delicious.

Between us, the group shared two little hire cars and I'm afraid that navigation-wise, those in our car had big problems. I always say that one of the reasons I live on a little island is that it is difficult to get lost - and I am glad to say that amongst our group, I am not alone in this.

Orkney is so different to the Outer Hebrides - green and cultivated, gently rolling hills and lots of cattle. Orkney produce seems to cover everything from Ice-cream (delicious) to raspberries (yum) to flour made from Bere which is apparently a very old breed of wheat. There is a winery near to the Italian Chapel on South Ronaldsay (below) where we got to taste delicious country wines (I bought a fabby one made from Westray raspberries).

Everywhere you can see things made of North Ronaldsay sheep wool - the sheep are an old breed which lives on the shoreline of one of the islands and eats seaweed. This gives the meat a good flavour. The sheep come in brown and grey - a bit like Hebridean - but the wool is soft and fluffy and, when made into felt, sheds a bit. I have brought home some rovings as I just couldn't resist it! Will spin it after I've finished with the grey Wensleydale.

We were in Orkney during the annual blues festival so there was plenty musical entertainment in the evenings. Weather was excellent on Saturday but wet and windy on Sunday when we visited Skara Brae - the neolithic village - and got absolutely soaked!

But what a great place - right on the shore and looking remarkably comfy. Love the dresser!

The craft trail on Orkney is excellent - loads of different crafts from these wonderful Orkney Chairs (below) to teddies made out of fair-isle jerseys to elegant jewellery. The Orkney Crafts Association have a shop in Bridge Street, Kirkwall which stocks a good selection of crafts made by various association members and there is a Craft Trail which will take you from one workshop or gallery to the next where you can meet the makers and see how the products are made. It's really fascinating.

I'd really like to go back for a holiday sometime. Looking through the photos I took it seems that I am not only really pathetic at finding my way around, I also lack the ability to take good photos to illustrate my blogs!

However, something rather jolly happened on the way home when one of our party was reading a free magazine called "Highland Life" and found an article which included a mention of Scalpay Linen in connection with Sallie Jayne Avis who makes wedding dresses in the north of Lewis. Always nice to see your name in print isn't it?

So, now its back to work - today I worked on the yellow, brown and turquoise linen. Have also got the warp from the new Belgium linen sorted out and will start doing that tomorrow.

Last Week

Last week we were visited by Mr & Mrs Gedgrave-Wensleydales from Suffolk. We had a great time talking about fleeces, dyeing, blue-tongue, sheep ticks and all sorts of stuff that sheep-obsessed people discuss when they meet others of a like mind! We are going to work on a project to produce some Wensleydale Linsey-Woolsey using naturally dyed Wensleydale wool. It's very exciting and I can't wait to get started. The weather was mainly good, which was helpful, and we rounded off with a meal at the Harris Inn, Tarbert where the food was, as always, most palatable and the atmosphere conducive to having a good time.

My order of linen yarn arrived from NV Jos Vanneste in Belgium and it's just fabby. Would have put in a piccie but my camera batteries are flat and I forgot to get new ones when I was in Stornoway shopping last week. The colours are great and its glossy and glamorous to touch. I've started winding up cones for the warping creel as our next web in will be a Hebridean Linsey-Woolsey. 12 x 12 herringbone, 19 shots and ends per inch with two colour stripe in the warp - the point of the herringbone to come mid-colour. Weft will be some of the last of my Natural Fibres Spun Hebridean. I'm trying to get it used up before the Carloway mill Harris Hebridean arrives, as its important to keep it totally separate as it will be eligible to be stamped with the Harris Tweed orb mark after weaving, whereas the NF Heb isn't.

Then, as if this wasn't excitement enough for the end of September, tomorrow I'm off to Orkney for a five day trip along with others from the Hebrides, Shetland and Highland region. We are going to be researching the Orkney Craft Trail and why it is so successful, and why its so difficult to get something like that going in other areas. I'm representing the SassyGaels and we are looking to perhaps produce a craft map and add other forms of marketing for our craft fair participants next year.
I have specially purchased a memory card for my camera (shame about the batteries!) so will be clicking away everyday at everything that moves. Having never been to Orkney my O/H has given me a short list of things to specially look out for (sheep!) and it will be an excellent opportunity to get my networking hat on and meet new contacts and hopefully refresh old ones.
Only fly in the ointment is a ferry trip to Westray on Friday which seems to last a very long time. Now, I'm not the worlds best sailor, so if the weather keeps up what its been doing so far this week, I suspect I'll see a lot of the inside of the ladies rest room on board!

Meantime, will probably be maintaining radio silence on the blog till next week.
Over and Out....!

More Pippin, and a new linen

Just because the blog has been a bit quiet just lately doesn't mean that I haven't been busy....
The new warp is tied in now - 18lea, 3 to a dent, 32 shots and with a 64 repeat pattern. I managed to cock up only one of the sections while warping when I was busy talking to visitors and forgot to turn the reed - however, with a bit of judicious re-arrangement and re-tying in, its good as new! Ah, the skill of the weaver...

Now we have to decide what colour to put in as the weft. The fuzzy photo above doesn't really do it justice as the bottom one, the yellow, looks really wishy-washy in the flesh, as does the fourth, the turquoise, yet they look quite jolly in the picture. The red is the best, but sadly my supplies are limited and its also a very fragile yarn and keeps breaking in the shuttle which means all sorts of trouble in the weaving. I really don't know which one to choose, so any suggestions would be welcome. I'm going to put in a ten shot three colours to see what that looks like.

And so to Pippin - here seen at play with Bramble and Heather. What a very good dog he is -friendly, well-behaved, good with the hens and overall getting a score of 10 out of 10 for dogginess.

Other projects in hand - a new variation on the sea anemone hat, lots of spinning with the Falkland wool, picking out a grey Wensleydale fleece for chunky spinning and now waiting for the long-awaited delivery of my consignment of Belgium linen yarn. Woohoo!

Baby Alpaca Video

For heart-melting cuteness, check out http://alpacasoflewis.blogspot.com for a video of little Rose, the two day old Alpaca galloping around the croft in the most delighttful little coat. Can't wait to get up to see her!

Welcome to the Outer Hebrides for a baby Alpaca.

Please visit http://alpacasoflewis.blogspot.com/ to see the latest pictures of their new arrival. She is so cute I want one of my own.....