creating the warp and weaving a block check tweed

I buy the yarn, choosing the colours I want from a colour chart and designing the tweed I want Martha to create. Once we have decided on the order of the colours we can begin!
First she has to make the warp. Between 6 and 24 cones of yarn fit on our bobbin stand, the threads are drawn off and wrapped around the warping frame on the wall. Each series of wraps gives the total finished length of the tweed. We normally weave around 60 meters, sometimes might be as little as 18. It all depends what we're making! So depending on the number of threads used its anything between 29 to 116 wraps. For this check we used 6 cones of each colour so it was 116 wraps to get the required 696 threads!
Once all wrapped the warp is chained up to keep it tidy, then beamed onto the loom. This is where I hang onto the warp while Martha turns the handle on the drum. The warp runs over the ceiling bars to give it more tension and through the metal spiky thing which is called the raddle. The raddle spreads the threads out to the width of the drum so it winds on evenly, and untangled any twists so it weaves easily.
Once the new warp is beamed onto the drum the next step is tying 696 knots to join the old and the new warp together. We use a special weavers knot that can be tied quickly while holding the rest of the bundle of threads. The two tied warps can then be pulled through the heddles onto the loom ready to weave! The heddles are the metal wires held in frames on the top of the loom. Four heddle frames, one wire to each thread. The order the heddles are threaded dictates the finished 'draft' of the tweed e.g a twill, herringbone, honeycomb or basketweave. The check tweeds are more complicated as every other band of colour is a different 'draft', to create a more complex finished design.
We are often asked how long this all takes, it's at least a day but usually a day and a half, especially for a check.
The next step is the weaving part! First we use the pirn winder, which is the machine in the corner behind the loom, to wind the pirns. These go into the shuttles and carry the thread, the weft, through the loom to create the tweed.
Then she can weave, on her 95 year old hattersley 🥰 heres lots of close up shots so you can see all the different working parts in action!
When each peddle is depressed that turns the lower shaft. That turns the teardrop shape cams which causes the picker arms to fling inwards, driving the shuttle. The lower shaft has a cog afixed to it which turns a larger cog attached to a block of cams. These control the heddles (the metal reeds in wooden frames) causing them to be raised or lowered in a set order. This raises or lowers the warp threads in a set order to create the 'shed' the shuttle flies through. That is the gap in the warp created by the heddles lifting different threads up in turn. This creates the over/under/over/under weave of tweed. We can change the order of the threads to get different weaves e.g. herringbone, twill, honeycomb, basketweave etc. In this video every other colour block has been threaded in a different order so each block has a different weave! This is to mimic the textures of water in a rockpool 🥰
The lower shaft also turns the arm which controls the complex series of cogs on the righthand side of the loom that pull the fabric through the loom at exactly the right speed as it is woven. On each side of the loom are two large wheels, these turn the top wheels which turns the top shaft. That pushes the beater in and out every shot (press of a peddle) to beat the cloth to the correct tension. On the left hand side of the loom is a very complicated series of rods and cams that should control which way the shuttle box turns and how frequently. We have disabled ours however to put less stress on the loom after our lower shaft snapped twice!
I hope that makes much sense it is extremely complicated to explain 😅
Finally the woven cloth gets sent to a mill in Galashiels where it goes through a number of finishing processes. First it is washed, drawn through giant rollers that beat the cloth causing it to shrink (full) and bind the individual yarns together. This gives the cloth its strength and durability. Then it is stretched to its finished width and drawn flat through a drier to set the tweed. Then it is drawn through another machine with fine blades that crop the surface leaving it smooth and fluff free. Finally it is pressed and measured and sent back here!
I can now make my unique designs with it and sell some by the meter for you guys to enjoy sewing with!
For lots more information on our journey to get here, the weaving process and all my products visit my website
www.westernislesdesigns.co.uk

[@georgewindsor3110]

That machine is rock solid. Very beautiful cloth.

[@Livingmybestlife01]

Fascinating thank you