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It’s hard to believe it’s ten years since we first set up our pedal powered loom on Skye. We may not be quite as fresh-faced as we were then, but looking through old photos we’re amazed at how much has happened over the past decade. There have been lots of infrastructure and weaving developments of course, but what’s been most important has been the people we’ve worked with and the connections we’ve made through our weaving. We feel so lucky to be doing what we do, and to be part of a supportive community of neighbours, colleagues, suppliers – and of course customers.

It’s impossible to summarise the past ten years in a blog, but we’ve dug out a few pictures from the archive to give a flavour.

Early days

We bought our loom in 2011 on the Isle of Lewis, where it had been used to weave Harris Tweed. At that point we were still living at Ardalanish Farm, on the Isle of Mull, but had already decided to move to Skye. Our colleagues at Isle of Mull Weavers were a fantastic support in getting us going and we wove our first three rolls of fabric in their scenic bothy on a hilltop above the farm.

Besides getting to grips with the loom, the most important thing we did in this first winter was to build our warping wheel. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support, knowledge and ingenuity of our friend and mentor Bob Ryan. Bob and Roger started with the metal wheels off an old tractor grass rake and added a miscellaneous collection of mostly repurposed components. Next to the loom, the warping wheel is the essential piece of equipment for a double-width weaver. We still love working with ours ten years on, not least because it reminds us of Bob.

Arrival in Skye

It was February 2012 when we moved from Mull to Skye, setting up a permanent base in Roger’s family croft house.

Our first task: build a shed, and install a loom.

We soon started weaving and it was very exciting to sell our first products in the craft fairs at Armadale Castle and Glendale Village Hall.

Meanwhile we were making improvements in the technical department. At first we would wind our cones using an adapted electric drill. Acquiring a proper cone winder in our first year was a great leap forward. It came from a mill that closed down in Halifax. It took a bit of brainpower to fit together.

Collaborations and connections

After starting with fairly straightforward checked blankets and scarves, our designs swiftly got more ambitious. We soon got involved in our first collaboration with local creatives, working with jeweller Heather McDermott and photographer Phil Gorton on our Periwinkle Shawls. You can read about the project in an early blog. Another early collaboration was the ‘Hunting for Lost Crafts’ exhibition at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery. We worked with natural dye company Shilasdair to create a tweed inspired by Scotland’s herring fishing tradition, which was then made into a jacket for the exhibition. We wrote a blog about that too.

As a small company we particularly appreciate being part of a wider community with shared enthusiasms. It was lovely to welcome the passionate and knowledgeable editors of Scandinavian weaving magazine VÄV to the workshop in 2015. The visit even resulted in our first front cover feature!

Team and technical upgrades

While staying small scale and artisan we are always trying to improve the technical side of our business. In 2015 we installed a new creel in the warping shed, assisted again by the ever-helpful Bob Ryan.

In 2017 we purchased a second loom, brand new this time. It was a major investment but has enabled us to give our creativity free rein by producing more ambitious weaving structures.

By now our team was expanding, though we choose to remain a very small business. Paul joined us in 2015 and continues to impress with his pedal power prowess and eagle eye for spotting trouble. Angie has contributed her zestful energy and sewing skills since 2017.  At different times we’ve also loved working with Alexander, Diana, Christine and Danielle. Our suppliers and business clients are an important part of the mix too. Visits to the loom manufacturers and our finishers Schofields have turned into interesting road trips.

Local tradition

It was 2016 when we took the first steps in our long-held ambition to weave with local wool. Working with local farmers we took part in our first clip (shearing) that summer and received the yarn back later that year. It was an exciting moment when we sent our very first Skye Wool Tweed off to the finishers. We are so proud that Skye Wool now makes up a significant part of our product range.

We have always been fascinated by Skye’s weaving heritage so in 2018 we were thrilled to take part in an exhibition about the island’s ‘lost’ weaving heritage. As part of the programme at Minginish Village Hall, Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh (Inverclyde Waulking Group) gave a demonstration of waulking (part of the finishing process) using some of our local tweed, accompanied by traditional Gaelic song. We later welcomed them to Glendale to see the finished cloth. You can read more about the ‘Lamb to Loom’ exhibition in our blog.

Continuing the exhibition theme, in 2019 we were pleased to take part in the ‘Textile Art from Skye’ exhibition in Portree. We enjoyed collaborating with others who are passionate about weaving and share our sense of connection to the landscape. You can read interviews with all those who took part in our blog.

Ten years on …

Who would have guessed that just a year later we were all in lockdown, Skye had closed to visitors and we were sewing scrubs for our local NHS. The past few years have been challenging for everyone and we are grateful to everyone who has helped see us through tough times.

Fast forward to 2022 and we are still warping, winding, pedalling, sewing and much more beside, with lots of new creative ideas in the pipeline. Looking forward to the next ten years!

Watch our 10 Years video on YouTube

Summer seems a long way away as we snuggle up for the winter under our Skye Wool blankets. We haven’t forgotten that back in August we promised to write a blog about the annual clip (shearing) and fleece sorting – the essential first step in creating all our local wool products. That wool has now been washed and will move on to be spun soon, so it’s nice to look back at where it all came from.

This year we sorted a record 2300 kilos of fleece. That’s a lot of tweed and throws. Much of our Skye wool comes from the Glendale Estate and nearby Uiginish Farm. We’re also very happy to work with local crofter Adrian, whose sheep graze the hills right outside our gate. You can’t get much more locally sourced than that – and it gives us great satisfaction to know exactly where our wool comes from. We love the fact that we can look out of the window and see our woolly suppliers growing next year’s raw material.

As well as our three main suppliers, we also buy fleeces from about a dozen small producers spread out all over the island.

If you’ve ever tried to clip (shear) a sheep you’ll know it’s a tough and highly skilled job. We’re privileged to be able to watch these guys in action (and it has always been guys, though there must be some female clippers out there), admiring their skill, care and endurance. Somebody once told us it’s like a dance with a sheep. Both sheep and shearer are in constant motion and every movement has been practised thousands of times.

The clip is always so busy it’s tricky to find time to take photos. We did manage a few this summer, though, and hope they capture some of the atmosphere of this important part of the farming – and weaving – year. We’ve made a little video at the end, too.

After the sheep are gathered off the hill they are moved into the fank (handling pen) or shed ready for the clip. The sheep in the pictures below belong to our Glendale neighbour Adrian.

The shearers usually come with a trailer that holds all the shearing equipment. They may have to drive for a couple of hours before their long shearing day begins. On a busy day they might shear 200 or more sheep, and economy of movement is crucial.

Sometimes shearing takes place inside a big shed. This is the Glendale Estate clip.

The shearers aren’t the only ones who have to work quickly. We sort through each fleece personally to select the best wool to be spun into yarn.

Once all the clipping’s done the sheep can enjoy their new fleece-free freedom.

We store the graded wool in the Glendale Estate’s shed before sending it off to be spun into yarn. We don’t have a local spinning mill, so our wool goes off to Yorkshire to be first washed (scoured) and then spun by long-established family firm Lightowlers Yarns. It’s always an exciting moment when our Skye wool arrives back with us on the island.

If you’d like to see what we make with this wonderful yarn take a look at the Skye Wool pages of our online shop. Products made from last year’s Skye Wool are nearly all gone now, but there will be more coming in the spring!

All our Skye Wool has a story behind it – and if you come to Glendale you’ll see much of next year’s fleece grazing in the glen. But this story is a bit special. It’s the tale of the amazing Maisie, who survived and thrived against the odds after she was fostered by our colleague Angie.

Maisie came into Angie’s life in March last year when she was just one day old. She’d been found by a walker on the edge of Loch Mhòr near Neist Point, and her mum was nowhere to be seen. The flock belongs to local farmer Sam, who didn’t think she would survive – one of her ears was flopping down, which is a sign that a lamb is very poorly. But Sam also knew that if anyone could bring this abandoned creature back from the brink it would be his neighbour Angie. For as well as being a talented artist and Skye Weavers needlewoman, Angie has a knack with ailing animals.

Angie took her in, creating a cosy home in the kitchen next to the heater in a re-purposed dog carrier. For the next four weeks she hand-reared Maisie, bottle-feeding her with lamb milk formula until she was strong enough to move out into the garden. “At the beginning it was touch and go whether she would survive,” says Angie. “Looking after a small lamb is pretty exhausting – they have such small stomachs they need feeding about every four hours. So it was a round the clock exercise at first.”

Once Maisie was ready to go outdoors she rapidly gained in strength. She soon became firm friends with the resident chickens as well as Rockie the dog and Alfie the cat. “Maisie loved coming on walks with me and Rockie,” says Angie. “She would happily trot along beside us on our daily rambles up the glen. She soon became part of the animal family and would bound up to greet me outside the door when I came in from work.”

But it was never the intention that Maisie would be a permanent pet, so eventually it was time to move in with the rest of Sam’s flock. A little over-friendliness ensued, however, as earlier this year it became evident that Maisie was going to have a lamb of her own. “Ewes don’t normally have their first lamb until two years old,” says Angie, “so I was very worried about this ‘teenage pregnancy’. However she was so big and healthy by this time that I’m pleased to say both mother and lamb did absolutely fine.” Maisie gave birth in April, and Angie and Sam are making sure that the new lamb is fully integrated into the flock. No names or bottle feeding for this girl!

But Maisie will always be a bit special. And when it came to clipping (shearing) time this summer, Maisie wasn’t going to be just one of the flock – Sam gave her a special taxi ride in his trailer. She repaid the favour by yielding us a cracking 2.2kg of fleece.

So if you buy one of our Skye Wool products next year there may well be a little bit of Maisie’s fleece in your throw, tweed or scarf. If you’d like to know when the new Skye Wool collection arrives, just sign up to our newsletter.

And if you’d like to see what else the talented animal rescuer Angie gets up to, pop down to the Glendale craft market (every Tuesday in the Community Hall) or have a look at her lovely online shop, Art at Eight.

Although our designs are usually inspired by Skye, we sometimes go a bit further afield. So for our latest range of scarves we’ve been travelling (metaphorically) over the sea to Orkney – and way back in time.

It all started with a trip to Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland a couple of years ago. Wandering around the Neolithic collections I was transfixed by a carved stone. It had incised patterns of zigzags and chevrons between sets of parallel lines. I immediately thought of weaving (it’s never far away from my mind!) and I visually filed it away for future reference.

This winter as I was playing around with some pointed twill on the sample loom, I realised that I had found the perfect weave structure for ‘my’ stone. Wanting to know more, I contacted the National Museum and their super-helpful Senior Curator, Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark, filled me in. It turns out that the ‘Brodgar Stone’, as it is known, was found in the Ness of Brodgar on Orkney in 1925. At the time it was believed to be part of a Bronze Age burial cist, but since then archaeologists have found out that it is much older.

The Ness of Brodgar is in fact a major Neolithic settlement. The first activities there have now been dated back to more than 5000 years ago. Excavations at the site began in 2003 and are ongoing. It’s one of Europe’s most exciting archaeological sites and the deeper the archaeologists dig, the more complex the site turns out to be. There is evidence of human activity here over a period of at least 1200 years, and over 30 structures have now been uncovered. The spot where the Brodgar Stone was found turns out to be not a burial cist but a large stone building (‘Structure 8’), constructed c. 3000 BC.

The Brodgar Stone’s incised patterns are typical of late Neolithic rock art in Orkney, with straight lines, chevrons, zigzags and crosses. Over 900 stones with similar decorations have been found at the Ness of Brodgar site. The meaning of the symbols – if any – is unclear, but it’s understood that stones were often decorated in several stages over a long period. This made me think of graffiti being added to a wall over time and somehow made me feel closer to our ancestors.

I was also interested to learn that the Neolithic period was full of colour. We tend to think of the ancient past in monochrome but there is evidence at the Ness of Brodgar of the use of colours such as ochre and haematite, an iron oxide.

Back on the sample loom, I set about trying to translate the stone’s patterns into weave. I had great fun experimenting with different pointed twill variations that would work well on our 8 shaft loom. Pointed twill is a structure that creates diagonal lines in the same way as regular twill, but as the twill threading is reversed after a number of warp threads the weaver can create chevrons and zigzags.

The final weave, which we are using to create scarves, has five parallel lines of different geometric patterns running along its length. For colours we decided to have one ‘stone coloured’ and three other more colourful variations. While not aiming to copy the Brodgar Stone exactly I hope the pattern might evoke something of this magical and mysterious place.

If you’re interested in the fascinating developments at the Ness of Brodgar site you can follow their blog and find our more on their website. There’s a good little video too. Sadly I’ve not seen the Ness of Brodgar excavations myself as I visited Orkney just before the discoveries. There were still plenty of other ancient sites to explore there though; I loved the way the ancient stones and monuments sit among the living landscape. I very much hope to return before too long.

Meanwhile, the scarves have turned out beautifully and you can now buy your own bit of Neolithic neckwear in our online shop.

We talk a lot about the inspiration for our weaves and the creative design process behind them. But we wouldn’t get anywhere without the cogs, chains, wheels and winders that make everything happen. So we thought it’s time to let some of our technical challenges – and fixes – take centre stage.

When we started out we built some of our own equipment which was certainly a good way to know it inside-out. We’re especially proud of our warping wheel, which we made from an old tractor rake and various other bits and pieces. It’s still going strong.

When our equipment’s not hand-made it’s often got an interesting back story. Our creel was salvaged from an old spinners in Yorkshire (replacing our original hand-made one). We bought our first loom second-hand on Lewis; and our button-holer is a 50-year-old classic. (A Reece 101 for any button-holer fanatics out there!)

We’re always thinking about how we can improve. It was a big day when we upgraded our cone-winding system from a hand-held drill to a proper winding machine. And we have Roger’s cousin Phil to thank for devising a bespoke motor to take some of the back strain out of warping.

But most of our upgrades are small scale and somewhat improvised. Roger likes to say our attitude is like that of the British cycling team – going for the incremental improvements or ‘marginal gains’ that can together make a big difference. Well, it certainly worked for them.

People often ask us how much time we spend maintaining our equipment. We keep the chains oiled but otherwise there is surprisingly little day to day maintenance. But what does take time (and brainpower) is fixing the things that go wrong.

If you’re a weaver you’ll know how temperamental looms can be – whether at hand loom level or industrial scale. In a big mill you’d have someone called a loom tuner whose job it is to look after the equipment and fix problems. But here, it’s down to us.

Paul and I are pretty good at spotting and diagnosing a problem, but it’s Roger who is our real Mr Fixit. So I’ll hand over to him for this bit:

Roger says: “Often problems are quite hard to diagnose – especially when the weaving is going full tilt. So I often film it and slow it down to work out what’s going on. Often, the part we need doesn’t actually exist, so I have to create it myself.

“I spend a lot of time fiddling around in the workshop. I think it’s something I must have inherited from my Dad, who spent countless hours in the shed here and would never give up. Sadly he’s not with us any more but I treasure his many ‘bodged’ items around the place.

“Pretty much every day there’s a something unexpected to get your head around. It might be threads not picking up, an alarm not going off or, like the other day, weird clunking noises emanating from the loom. But I do like a technical challenge and it certainly keeps things interesting.”

We also sometimes get asked about our biggest disasters. We’ve had pedals fall off before which isn’t great, but probably the worst thing is when the rapier comes flying out of the warp. We used to call it a ‘shark attack’. If you’ve seen how the rapier tears its way through the warp threads you’ll know why. Fortunately we’ve found a way to stop that happening now.

It has to be said though, we don’t make life easy for ourselves, or our equipment. Our two looms were designed for weaving simple widths of Harris tweed, but we like to push them further. We’ve modified them so they can do longer pick repeats and we’ve also added lots of extra lenos (the threads that secure the edges) so that we can weave several scarves across the loom.

We also love experimenting with new weave structures. We’d like to continue to increase the complexity of our weaves this year. We’ll need bit of improvisation and no doubt we’ll meet lots more technical challenges along the way – but it will be fun trying.

If you’d like to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes follow the Sheep to Tweed story on our website.