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| Stornoway |
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| Mixing the wool |
On a mission to answer my thesis question (What is the value of wool) I decided to take a wee trip to the Outer Hebrides to research the famous Harris Tweed.
Yesterday, after a bumpy ride up and down the hills and bays of Lewis, I was dropped off just outside the Harris Tweed Hebrides mill in Shawbost and was greeted with a much needed cup of tea and some home made sticky duff. The day was spent chatting to Ian Angus Mackenzie, and the workers in the mill. It was great to see how much they all really believe in the future of Harris Tweed and it would have been impossible for their enthusiasm not to have rubbed off on the most stern of people.
Every process is done with the utmost care and pride. There wasn't one old boy working there that wasn't glad to sit down with a coffee and tell me about their life working their crofts, the oil rigs, deep sea fishing and then weaving. Readily showing me Vivienne Westwood's "weird" past tweeds and the next tweed for Prince Charles. Feeling that I was hard done by, having to leave the mill early to catch the bus, I was offered a lift as I long as I stayed a bit longer!
