The good news is that Harris Tweed is still being woven on the Islands and the independent weavers are flourishing after a bit of a set back. I went to visit Sheila Roderick on the island of Scalpay. both Sheila and her partner John are weavers and although they weave traditional Harris Tweed, Sheila also weaves with linen mohair and other fibres. She is also a hand spinner making beautiful art yarns for sale and for use in her weaving. She does most of her spinning in the winter months and uses a lot of Sparkle to make up for the dark days! At the moment Sheila has a linen warp on her traditional Hattersley loom which she is weaving into cloth that has been commissioned for costumes for the feature film, "The Hobbit". Sheila receives regualr commissions for films, theatre etc and also runs workshops in spinning and weaving on the islands. The couple also run a traditional droft with sheep, chickens and John catches fish fo sale! It's a hard life as the land is poor, but they love it there. I would have loved it more had the sun shone, but it rained so we didn't see it at it's best!
I did manage to find out that there is a group of spinners who meet at the Kildonan centre on the island of South Uist, but was not able to meet up with them. There seems to be a lot of interest in spinning and weaving in the islands, much more so than on the Scottish mainland and long may it continue!
So for my next project, I will be using some yarn that I bought on Harris to weave my own version of Harris Tweed. Sadly, I can't add the trade mark orb symbol to my cloth, unless I manage to take my loom etc to Harris and weave it there. Now there's an idea!!!
