Heritage Twist – In the beginning
Long before we developed Heritage Twist, in the beginning, there was Bainin pure virgin wool woven into cloth on hand looms. Vegetable dyes were used to create vibrant, unexpected shades from lichen, berry and eventually periwinkle blue.
However, it was very difficult to create an even coloured cloth in a bucket of water, hands and feet!
The Irish thought lets dye the wool fibre and spin it into the yarn creating an irregular multi-coloured nepp effect which became Donegal Tweed.
The Scots thought let’s spin a fine ecru yarn and a fine coloured yarn and twist them together to create twist yarn, and so our story began. The Scots being an inventive lot challenged themselves, “why have two shades when you can have three or four” and so the marl and half-marl yarns were born. Reflecting the advances in spinning and the textile industry. These are complex yarns spun from blends of colour which are then spun into very fine rovings and twisted together before being twisted with another multi-coloured roving to create a kaleidoscope of colour as it sparkles and disappears in the same yarn.
Today we still like to play with our Heritage Twist qualities and take up the gauntlet where our forefathers left of “what if…” we created natural finishes, coating weights, tropical summer weights…and so the story continues.
