Tapestries to die for.....

Every so often I find something textiley here that takes my breath away.  A couple of weeks ago I went over to Great Bernera on the West Side of Lewis to meet a weaver - Sallie Tyszko who has a studio "Driftwater Weaves".  http://www.sallie-tyszko.co.uk/ .  Sallie moved to Tobson from the Highlands a couple of years ago and brought her skills in tapestry weaving.

To start with, she has these amazing Angora goats - gorgeous and curly, they look right at home in the rocky landscape and their fibre is shiny and smooth, like short silk.  Sallie is also a hand-spinner but is busy making new tapestries so she asked me if I could do a bit of Angora for her.  In past years I've spun cashmere from goats, but this is something quite, quite different.  Will post up some piccies when I've really got going.

Above is one of Sallie's looms - this one an upright tapestry loom which is more comfortable to work with as the weaver doesn't have to bend down all the time.  There is a work in progress of some shilisdair (flags).  Sallie is a talented artist too, and makes sketches and paintings to base here tapestries on.  She dyes up all the colours she needs and is trying to use as much hand-spuns as is possible - which is great for me!

The tapestry above is a finished work based on a scene where she once lived on the Black Isle.  the driftwood framing is charming and so well-suited to the work.  You need to see the tapestries up close to appreciate the variety of textures and shades used.

The work below is simply stunning.  It's woven on transparent fishing line for warp and is sparkly and very dramatic.  The beads really do look like air bubbles.

I would advise adding Sallie to your itinerary if you are heading towards the Western Isles next year - her studio is a treasure trove of colour and texture, works in progress and finished pieces decorating the walls.

Meantime, we, like the rest of the UK are experiencing unseasonal snowy and very cold conditions.  Looks great but is proving a bit of a problem to get around.  For once I had stocked up early on road salt, de-icer and screenwash so have been congratulating myself since. 

If you are going out this weekend, please take care.

Spotted in Tokyo...

Well, after two weeks scouring the shopping malls of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka (yes, a tough job but someone has to do it!), when I got back to Scalpay on Friday I had seen only one item of Harris Tweed.  That was a natty pea-green jacket worn by a Japanese gentleman who was in the queue with us waiting to get into the annual exhibition at Nara. 

However, my spy in the east has sent me the photo below of a display in a shop called Beautiful and Young United Arrows.

Lots on the agenda now I'm back.  Some hand-looms to set up, some special spinning, some new linen..

Today we packed up the wool clip ready to be collected by lorry tomorrow, so its good to see the back of all that!

Winter is Here....

     This morning saw a light dusting of snow on top of the Clisham - the highest mountain in the Western Isles.  I would have taken a picture but my camera is packed away in my suitcase waiting for an early start tomorrow morning.  Scalpay Linen is going on tour again to the Land of the Rising Sun - this time hopefully to include some travel south and more visits to textile orientated venues.
     Apparently knitwear is a la mode this winter in Tokyo, so I have packed away some handspun and some needles (no, not in the hand luggage, though I am hoping to get away with a discreet crochet hook to while away the long haul).  Only fly in the ointment is that our friends from across the channel seem to be engaged in some sort of industrial action and the status of the airport in Paris is a bit iffy at the moment.
      So I am hoping there will be textiley photos in the blog over the next couple of weeks.  Blogging has taken a back seat just lately because things have been so hectic in the loomshed, but now its time to relax and do something different.......

New Rams on the Block!

Monday was one of the highlights of the crofting year - Ram Sales at the Auction Mart in Stornoway.  This year it was held in the afternoon/evening.  There was a crowd of rams waiting to be sold, and a crowd of crofters hoping for good prices.

Before the sale proper started there was the best ram in the auction competition - ably judged by John Murdo, the grazier of the Shiant Isles. 

I did the bidding, as usual, and we ended the evening with three lads who travelled home with us in the back of the pickup.  It had been a long auction and we were famished so we dropped off at the Bangla Spice takeaway and restaurant in Church Street, Stornoway for curries.  I had a Rogan Josh, and O/H had a Korma.  It is a very nice place with good food and a comfortable ambience.  Unfortunately, having spent hours in the fragrant company of a bunch of rams, and having ram-handled ours into the pickup I think we did not represent the people of Harris in the sort of way we might have done otherwise, and there must have been gasps of relief and shots of air freshener following our departure.  Anyway, the service was superspeedy!

On arrival back in Scalpay I couldn't resist taking a photo of the new Cheviot ram when we opened the van door to let him out.  Just with the light of the torch, we felt a bit like sheep rustlers in the pitch dark, except we were bringing them in, not taking them out.

Next morning everyone was happy to come for some crunch and all have now settled down on the croft - busy building up condition and limbering up for their duties which start on the first Saturday in November.

When downloading the camera I came upon this cloud picture which we must have taken in error.  It is such a peaceful one, and shows a glimpse of blue sky, so is worth recording for posterity on the blog.  Having said that, today has been really gorgeous - end to end sun though a bit blowy latterly.

National Mod in Thurso starts tomorrow I believe.  Choirs from local schools will be competing, so we wish them all every success and hope they all have a great time.

Oh what a beautiful morning.....

Well, the sun is shining, the sky is blue (over 50% of it anyway!) and I'm raring to go.  At least I would be if I had calculated the yardage of thick ends for my Hobbit Linen.  As it is, I've got 16 sections sitting on the warping mill and am sitting in the house furiously treadling away on the wheel twisting up enough for the final 18 sections.
Sorry no pictures today - pc in slo-mo mode so don't have time to wait for eternal uploading.
Second sewing class at Tweeds with Style in Drinnishader on Tuesday evening went interestingly.  Turns out my sewing machine was horribly clogged up with bits - understandably since I've never cleaned it.  And my needle was blunt.  Fortunately the problem was sorted out quickly and I now know the bits to unscrew and where to dust inside to keep it bright and shiny.  Also turns out that I can sew in a straight line - bit of a surprise there.  Homework this week is unpicking everything we did at class and sewing it in again.

Another bit of interesting news is that I heard Sallie Jayne Avis - the bridal wear designer and maker from Ness has used the white herringbone linen which I wove for her last year - it is now a lovely bridal coat incorporated with frilly drapy bits and beads.  It looks just gorgeous.  Join Sallies Facebook and see on page 3 of the photos "Scalpay Linen".  It is so amazing to see our cloth being used - it really brings it alive. 

Traditional Fare - something to do while its raining!

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to make a traditional dish - so please pay attention.

Ingredients you will need:  3lb self-raising flour; 1 1/2 cups (use a small mug) brown sugar; 1 1/2 cups currants; pinch of salt; 3 tablespoons margarine; 1 1/2 tablespoons black treacle; 2 teaspoonsful ground cinammon; 1 teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda; 2 eggs (free range) beaten; milk to mix. 

A square cloth of a firm weave - I use a pillow case that was originally unbleached cotton (gosh, remember those?) opened out flat; a bit of string to tie it up; a large stock pot of boiling water and three hours spare....

Here are the ingredients before we start.  Put everything into a large bowl (or very clean plastic bucket) and rub in the margarine.  Add milk to make a stiff dough - you know you've got it right when it alll sticks together - but beware of overdoing the milk, it should stick to itself, not to you! 

If it looks like the picture above then you've got it about right.

Take your cloth and put it into a bowl.  Cover with boiling water from the electric kettle and then wring it out - be very careful because after all, the water is boiling and scalds are not part of the recipe.

Lay the wet hot cloth out flat and put a handful of flour on it.  Smooth it out and then put the mixture onto the cloth.  Make sure the flour covers the mixture.

Gather the cloth up firmly around the mixture and tie very tightly with a piece of cord.  This is very important since you don't want water swilling in and out of the cloth whilst its cooking.

Lower it carefully into the pot of boiling water and simmer for three hours - turning it over half way through.

Don't forget to open the window while its cooking unless you want to take the wallpaper off the walls!

After three hours, carefully remove it from the water - again taking full cognizance of the fact that it will be very, very, very hot.  Remove the cloth and place it on a plate.  Allow to cool.

Slice and eat - on its own, with butter or jam, or fried with bacon.  If you don't like the rind then give it to the dog.

This dish is known as a Duff, a Dumpling or a Pudding depending on where you are.  It's very filling and lasts for some days before it goes dry. 

This recipe is by courtesy of Mrs Ferguson and I am sharing it with the world as its definitely too good to keep private.

Enjoy!!!!

Tomorrow I'm off to Grimsay on Uist for the Michaelmas Open Day event on Saturday.  I shall be taking my camera so hope to have some photos for a future post.

Lots of things to tell you....

Loads has been happening since my last blog.  We had big problems with our dial-up internet access in the house which meant I only had the broadband in the shed and since the shed has been packed out almost every day during opening hours, there just hasn't been the opportunity to update the blog.  However, now we have a dongle for mobile broadband (which isn't actually broadband since we don't get broadband mobile here, instead it works at the same speed as dial-up!), so we are communicado again from the house.  It does get very complicated living here sometimes....

Daisys lamb is growing up fast - here he is enjoying a bottle.  Sadly this morning we lost the first lamb we hand-reared, from Braxy.  It was such a cold night with gale force wind, low temperatures and driving rain that I guess it was inevitable that at least one lamb wouldn't make it.

On a more cheerful note - Harris Dog who emigrated to the US has been travelling again.  Here he is at Damariscotta Lake in Maine enjoying the company of another new friend - Marley the Corgi.  We look forward to getting further updates on his adventures from Sandy.

Lots of really interesting folks in the shed over the past couple of weeks - Lorna the corset maker from Edinburgh took some of my white herringbone linen which she said would look fabby and has promised to send me a photo when complete, which I will post on the blog.

Carin from Australia who is heavily into tweeds and tailoring visited for the second time bringing examples of her designs.  Carin has a company called "Taigh an Truish" which, translated from Gaelic means "House of Trousers".  Apparently there was a time in history when the Gaels were prohibited from wearing tartan, kilts etc but they ignored the rule when they were at home.  If they travelled away, they would leave their highland dress at "Taigh an Truish" and change into lowland dress.  Then on the way back they would change again!  Carin is hoping to move to Harris in the future and continue her business from the heart of the tweedlands.  We wish her all the best and look forward to welcoming her.

Jean, Treasurer of the mid-Essex Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Guild, visited armed with two gorgeous grey Shetland fleeces which she swopped for two Hebridean ones.  Jean does a great deal of hand-spinning and also is a great fan of Natural Fibres Ltd in Launceston.  She took some photos and we had a great time chatting about spinning, weaving, fibres, etc etc, and the time went too quickly.  She is hoping that her guild will be able to arrange a crafting tour to the Hebrides which sounds like a great idea.

If you're a vegetarian, best skip over this paragraph...  At the beginning of the month we had a delivery from BruHighlanders - http://www.bruehighlanders.co.uk/ .  They stay at Brue in west Lewis (we got our dog Bramble from Brue and also collect Hebridean fleeces from a croft in the same area) and produce prime highland beef which is really spectacular.  We've already had a joint and some mince from the pack and it is delicious.  I would recommend them to anyone who is in the market for locally produced meat from , beautifully cared-for animals.  Don't know why it's taken us so long to decide to try local beef - we already produce our own lamb/mutton, eggs and chicken.  Together with potatoes from the croft and sitting in front of a peat fire, what more do we need for the perfect life?

Actually, I can answer that - my last Hebridean Harris Tweed was turned back by the stamper at the Harris Tweed Authority.  Haven't asked why yet, but imagine its either a "Friday-afternoon" tweed (ie really badly woven!) or I've got the weights all wrong.  Anyway, its good to know that the HTA are dancing on their toes and keeping up standards.  Interestingly, on the same day I got an order from our customers in London who sell to the entertainment industry for costumes etc. for linen cloth to go to New Zealand for use in the new production of "The Hobbit".  That news bucked us up no end as its been a while since Scalpay Linen was out in public - last outing I think was Glyndebourne a couple of years ago, though I think there was a little something in the TV version of "Merlin".

Here is the left hand side of our new Harris Tweed which is on the loom just now.  Had a really bad time with the accent threads which were just not right at all, so I swapped them for some of the space-dyed Harris wool which featured in an earlier blog and they fit in very well.  Have had some very encouraging compliments about the look of the tweed.  Seems to have the right number of shots per inch and nice straight edges so hope this one will go through the stamper ok.

The new training for weavers in Harris is due to start in January 2011.  We were down at the workshop in Harris where the double width looms are set up and the project seems to be progressing well.  The Hattersley weavers will get training on their own premises - as there is less work for the Hattersley looms from the mills the intention is that these weavers will be setting up their own small businesses around the looms, in much the same way as Scalpay Linen operates.  Adverts inviting applications will be appearing in the local press very soon.