Harris Tweed Cushion Cover Closure type: Button-down pillow style Size: 40cm x 40cm Front: Tartan – main colours black and fuschia Back: Plain, fuschia ; with button-down openings Buttons: hand-made buttons with tweed to match front As Autumn sunshine gives way to wind, rain and the winter ferry timetable, I’m starting work on replenishing stock for next year.  Today: Harris Tweed cushions. Well, strictly, it’s cushion covers I make, as I buy in the quality cushion pads from John Lewis, and customers have the choice of buying with or without cushion pads.   I make cushion covers in a wide variety … Continue reading →

Denise: Really interesting programme on BBC Alba last night, all about the gansey traditional to the Isle of Eriskay – Eilean Eirisgeidh.  Filmed recently – largely in Eriskay, it features many people from the Eriskay and South Uist. It’s a social documentary, local history, and cultural documentary all rolled into one.  In Uist Gaelic, with English subtitles. 1hr. Watch on BBC iPlayer until 20 October. Highly recommended!

Denise: Ladies Bedstraw is plentiful this year, especially so along the road that passes between the garden and the shore, and very easy to find, pick and gather up sufficient of the flowering tips for a dyeing session.  The colour achieved (left two skeins) is the same delightful lemon-sherbert of the flowers. Fennel is always plentiful, as it is the abundant fine foliage that is used rather than the flowers. I dyed two lots from the same dye-pot: the first took the full strength of the colour – which is a warm yellow (third skein from left); the second lot … Continue reading →

Denise: Mum’s in respite care for 4wks, and Jonathan’s taken over many of my duties: I’m recuperating from an operation. However, I’m now fit to drive again, and I feel in need of a wee excursion, albeit one with a purpose.  Today I’m going with J on his routine trip to Harris, and I’ll leave him on site and nip up to Tarbert for a bit of shopping.  Now Tarbert is not exactly a major shopping destination, but there’s the Harris Tweed shop, and I need to stock up on fabric for making cushions and other stuff for the #HebrideanWoolshed.  … Continue reading →

Jonathan: By the time I’d got everything ready and the appointed hour for this afternoon’s shearing had come, the rain had eased off and though it was still overcast and still spitting – there was a drying wind and there was hope enough that the shearing could get done before the weather closed in again. The only thing is that there weren’t enough hands – or paws – for the task: Seonaidh was still not back from Daliburgh with his new bull. An hour passed and I passed it with a few fencing tasks, but clearly something was amiss and … Continue reading →

Denise:  Hebridean Haulage turned up today with 9 large cardboard boxes which are now stacked up in the hall – already piled high with stuff due to building work – and making navigation of our house even more tortuous.  Our sheep’s wool back from spinning!  Mostly from our own Hebridean sheep, but also a lot we bought from other shepherds. The mill-spinning cost just over £2000; but that’s turned into a much larger value of sales during next summer, even if we sell it only as balls of yarn; and some of it will be knitted or felted up into … Continue reading →