Colour is all around us, and it’s easy to take for granted. But when it comes to weaving, there’s a lot more to colour than you might think. Our new Skye Wool Bell & Ling Tweed is a great example of how colours, and the way they are created, can shape the entire look and feel of a fabric.
Creating colours
We often get our Skye Wool colours custom dyed to achieve the exact effect we want. We work closely with specialist yarn dyers in the Scottish Borders and Yorkshire, who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to their craft. They dye for some of the world’s biggest fashion houses but fortunately they’re also happy to work with small artisan producers like us.
When it comes to dyeing wool there are essentially two methods: in the fleece, before spinning; or on the cone, after the yarn has been spun. We use both types depending on the effect we’re looking for.
The new Bell & Ling Tweed is a great example as it combines both methods. For this design we set out to re-create a typical Skye summer hill scene: two species of heather, Bell and Ling, intermingled amidst deep green leaves.
Cone dyeing
We had the purple Bell and Ling heather colours specially dyed for us using the cone dyeing method. To begin with I took lots of photos of the two types of heather. I then sampled the different colours on the computer and sent them to the dyers to reproduce the two chosen shades on yarn.
Getting the yarn colour right isn’t easy as different base materials (e.g. paper or wool) have a big impact on the final appearance. Light conditions have an effect as well. It takes a lot of skill to weigh up everything and achieve the best possible result. We usually need a couple of samples – a small amount of spun and dyed yarn – before we’re there. Once we’re agreed then the dyers make up a dye vat and immerse the required quantity of yarn in it on special cones. When it’s dyed the yarn is rinsed and wound onto regular yarn cones. And importantly, the dyers will keep our unique colour ‘recipe’ for any future orders.
For our Bell & Ling Tweed we added another layer of colour complexity by twisting together the bright and pale purple yarns. Bell and Ling heathers often grow closely together, and we wanted to re-create that ‘intermingled’ effect by combining the colours before weaving.
‘In the fleece’ dyeing
The green yarn in our Bell & Ling Tweed, representing the leaves of the heather, was dyed for us ‘in the fleece’. For this method the fleeces are first scoured, which teases them apart into smaller tufts of wool. These are then dyed.
The tufts of wool can all be dyed one colour, but more often several colours are used and then the fibres are blended to create the overall desired effect, as we did here.
To start off with I sent the spinners a mood board to show the effect I was trying to achieve. They mixed up colours in different proportions to give me a range of samples showing the colour blends.
After a bit of back and forth we took the necessary leap of faith and settled on a recipe made up of five different colours. The exact combination is secret (even to us!) but as an illustration, 300kg of green yarn might comprise 100kg dark green, 100kg blue green, 50kg light green, 25kg pale red and 25kg tan.
Blending these fibres essentially involves blowing them around in a big chamber to mix them up. This mixture is then fed into the carding machine where the colours get properly blended and equalised. While the final blending creates a more uniform look, the different colour components are still visible in close-up. This gives the final fabric more depth and a three-dimensional feel.
We were thrilled with how these yarns turned out and think the finished tweed perfectly captures the heathery scene. The wool for this tweed is all from local Skye sheep and we liked to think of them wandering the heather covered hill while we were weaving it. It is perfect for garments, curtains, soft furnishings, and upholstery – or anywhere you’d like a hint of Skye’s summer hills in bloom.
We liked this yarn so much we also made it into a ‘plain’ green tweed (though it’s far from plain), called Heathland Tweed.
A word on natural dyes
We’re sometimes asked whether we use natural dyes. The answer is yes, we do! We’ve worked with Skye-based natural dye company Shilasdair and have really enjoyed using their colours for specific projects. We’re planning to do more of this in the future.
However, for the scale we typically work at – dyeing yarn for whole bolts of fabric – natural dyeing isn’t currently feasible. For those larger volumes we work with larger British dyers, who follow the strictest environmental standards. This commitment to environmental responsibility is essential in all dyeing processes, whether natural or synthetic.
Colour is just one of the elements of our tweed design and production journey. You can find out all about all the various processes in our Sheep to Tweed story. To get a closer look at all our tweeds and order samples visit our online shop.