The London Lounge

While anticipating the arrival of my first purchase as a subscriber to The Cloth Club, I got to wondering about the process a little bit. I know that, to get made, a subscription needs committed buyers for at least 60 meters of cloth. Then I realized that I know very little about how cloth like, say, the Agnelli Tweed gets made.

I assume the pattern is expressed in one or more punched cards or plates that control shuttles that contain the weft threads and the picking sticks (or whatever they are called) that move the warp threads up and down. But what I was really wondering was how long does it take to set up a loom to produce a pattern and then, once the pattern is set, how long does it take for a loom to weave 60 meters of cloth?

Is there a good resource somewhere with more details about the process?

While I've never wondered about questions such as these, I must say they incite my curiosity, and I look forward to our textile savvy members chiming in.

I asked Dad about this once. At the mills he was more in charge of other operations of the weaving process than the weaving itself, but he said that setting up a loom would take about couple of hours, after which more time would be required to check the first few metres of production and make corrections. The weaving of one piece of cloth, 70 metres long, would take around 10-12 hours. He mentioned that more recent machines are about twice as fast.

I am always amused by stories of life at the mills, where I spent the first two-and-a-half years of my life. The company, more than one century old, provided outstanding accommodation for the directors of the different departments and their families, in addition to a kindergarten. Loads of green, and canals as the mills were powered by their own hydroelectricity. A nearly utopian social ideal.

Gentlemen,

this is not about the Agnelli tweed, but most entertaining:
https://youtu.be/nEsyzplT5vo

Here is something from Breanish Tweed:
https://youtu.be/XfD839FAQ_8

And finally what you really wanted to see: Lovat Mill, makers of LL tweeds
https://youtu.be/svOCbNBH6fc

Cheers, David

Fantastic! Thank you.

From the tribute to Donegal:
“Purple stolen from the heather. Gold from wheat and sheaves.
Green from Irish grass and meadows. Rust from autumn leaves”

Excellent, David, thank you.

Thanks David,

What a fantastic trio of films.

I love this