I feel lucky to be doing something I love
Andrea Holden thrives on being a traditional weaver from an old croft house on the Isle of Skye, drawing inspiration from the dramatic landscape around her.
Sum up your job in 3 words:
1 creative
2 quirky
3 woolly
MY husband, Roger, and I create tweed, textiles and homeware using natural yarns. We source about 40% of our wool locally, meaning we work very closely with Skye farmers and crofters.
The rest of the wool comes from various British spinning mills, but some specialist yarns are bought from further afield.
In summer, I get to the shop at nine a.m. to make sure we’re ready to open at 10. I then make a plan so everyone knows what they’re doing, including me!
I spend the morning dealing with online orders, working on designs, placing orders for yarn, replying to e-mails, updating the website, posting on social media and paying invoices.
We have lunch at one and I get the online orders ready and take them to the post office, before doing some weaving or sewing.
People are often surprised that there’s a lot more to weaving than “just” pedalling the loom.
There are a whole range of processes.
We use Skye wool for many of our products and are fortunate enough to see the sheep being clipped and be with the farmers and crofters when we select and grade the wool.
Our selection is then sent to be spun into a special yarn that’s unique to us.
When we’ve worked out the design and have the y yarn back, we p prepare it for warping on our warping mill which we built from various bits and pieces, including parts of an old tractor grass rake!
The warp is the name of all the vertical threads in the cloth and it gets wound on to a big beam which we take through to the loom.
Once the yarns are prepared, we start weaving on our pedal looms.
The weaving mechanism is connected to the pedals and a chain, which turns the main shaft.
We check each textile is perfect before sending it to the finishers, a firm in the Scottish Borders who do all the washing, shrinking, brushing and fringing to turn our weaves into scarves, throws, tweed and more.
We sell our products directly to customers online and also in our shop.
It’s great to meet those who share our enthusiasm for weaving, wool and artisan production.
We love using traditional techniques to create everything from supersoft lambswool blankets to thick blankets and tweeds.
The lambswool we use comes from Merino sheep in New Zealand or
Australia.
Scotland has a proud history of textile making, but sadly much production has now moved overseas.
We’re passionate about keeping things local where we can and preserving the knowledge and skills.
Roger and I met while working on an organic farm on the isle of Mull before moving to Roger’s old family croft house to start our own business, and we now have a small team.
It’s hard work running a business but I feel lucky to be doing something I love.
Evening activities depend on how I’ve got on during the day. Sometimes, I’ll work a bit; otherwise I go for a walk, play badminton, read, listen to audio books or occasionally knit. ■
For more information visit www.skyeweavers.co.uk or call 01470 511201.
Advice I would give my twenty-year-old self:
Be more confident and worry less about doing all the things you feel you “should do”.
Enjoy the moment, appreciate the freedom of being creative and don’t worry too much about where it might lead . . . because, as it turns out, being creative led to my ideal life!