The Weaving Shed

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The Weaving Shed

About The Weaving Shed

Growing up we were home-educated for a couple of years, during which time our mother enabled us to try out all kinds of textile crafts including felting, dying, spinning and weaving. After visiting the Isle of Harris for the first time I fell in love with Harris Tweed and dreamed of creating my own cloth.  My mother bought me a table top harris loom for my birthday and I experimented with yarns, colours  and designs. During another visit to the islands a few years later I was able to participate in a spinning session which increased my interest in creating my own cloth. I bought myself a spinning wheel and practiced spinning, dying my own yarn, and weaving into colourful fabrics. My dream to weave harris tweed I never seriously considered as the idea of moving to the Islands seemed unobtainable. Years later, however, I was desperate to move out of the Wirral, where I had been living during university, and was pouring over property prices when I realised, we might just be able to do it. I told my mother and siblings that my husband and I were planning on moving to the Isle of Lewis, but far from dismay they said they were going to come too! This is when the little spark of excitement started that maybe becoming a weaver wasnt so unobtainable... Two years on and I had purchased a rundown property in Crossbost and my sister had bought an even more delapidated croft house in Ranish. We moved in autumn  2017, to a house with no heating, no insulation, bare concrete floors, broken windows and missing a staircase! My dream of becoming a weaver went on a back burner as with no funds and nowhere to weave that was going to have to wait. Ten months after moving however I was talking to a local weaver in the shop where I had been selling my clothing and jewellery and I mentioned my desire to become a weaver. Speaking with him ignited that excitement once again and I began to seriously look into making my dream a reality. When the same weaver rang me only a couple of weeks later to say he had found me a loom, I decided to just go for it! Being blessed with a builder for a husband we decided to build a weaving shed in the garden. Some generous donations of materials, a bank loan and some serious scrimping later I have the most stunning shed a girl could wish for! As a child I was incredibly fortunate to have a mother who, from the moment we were able to, encouraged us to sew, knit, paint, draw and write. On holiday we would keep diaries and sketchbooks, at home we would create barbies latest outfit, knit our own winter woolies and paint the stunning forest in which we lived. My first solo creation was a satin ballgown with pink rose buds for barbie of which I was inordiantly proud. From then on I was always getting out the sewing machine and experimenting. Some of those early works I look back on and cringe! Aged 19 I started work in a mens tailors where I worked as an alterationist. This gave me access to a world of fabric and designs, and built my experience in measuring, creating and tailoring garments as well as enabling me to sell bags, waistcoats, jewellery, accessories and paintings through my studio shop. My shop is going from strength to strength, we now have our own sheep and are weaving cloth made from our own sheep fleeces. We are experimenting with unusual and luxury yarns such as alpaca and merino to produce a more luxurious soft fabric. Visit our website if you want to find out more about us and our designs.  

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