A visit to the Knockando historic woolen mill on the Speyside

[Alan H]

Welcome to Knockando!

The wool mill was founded in 1784 (or thereabouts) and more or less ran continually until the 1990's. When the decreasing textile business made it impossible for the long-time crofter to make ends meet and the mill had been closed for a while...and the roof was caving in, a group of local people decided to save it. What you'll see is Victorian Era machinery, basically "how it was done" making woolen items (mostly blankets) in the 1800's.

Knockando produces a nice range of tweeds, and also stocks three tartans. 1.) the new Knockando tartan 2.) the "Brides tartan", something discovered locally, dating from the late 1800's and specifically woven for a bride to be married in and 3.) "The 1775"... a tartan discovered from a fragment of cloth, probably hand-woven about this time.

As it dates from around 1775, it is quite unique. You can read about it here:

http://www.knockandowoolmill.co.uk/c...tan-collection

[Alan H]

Let's drop in on the mill. You can also visit the crofters cottage, but I'm going to skip that and move along to the part that you folks are probably most interested in.



Here's the first bit of machinery that you encounter in the mill building. It's a "blender" which takes different grades of wool and "blends" it to form a hybrid, appropriate for the cloth that is to be created.



Note that Scottish sheep wool doesn't much get used for kilts. It's too coarse. It mostly gets used for rugs and other materials that need to be extremely tough.

[Alan H]

This machine, called the "Scribbler" is actually a carding machine (I think!). It takes the blended wool and teases the fibers into long, linear strands.



Here you see the carded wool being processed into wide bands of linearly-aligned wool, called "Rovings"..



And here, the rovings are being separated into narrower "strips"...

[Alan H]

Which, when they're done, look like this:



These thick, long strands of wool are gathered onto long wooden rollers, and the moved to the spinning (twisting) and winding machine, which if you look VERY closely, you can see the date of manufacture on the machine: 1820.



Here's another view. Note the overhead drive shaft, the wheel and the belt drive.. NOT OSHA-APPROVED!

[Alan H]

Once the thread is wound onto those spindles, which BTW are very different from the spindles used in more modern looms, the thread may be dyed. We didn't actually see any of the dying process...pity.

But then the stuff goes on the looms. Here are two views of the Knockando looms (not currently running when we were there).

[Alan H]

Remember that Knockando mostly, originally, produced blankets. Well, blankets need to trap air to keep you warm. However, those looms produce a very tightly woven cloth. Therefore, they needed a way to "raise the nap" of the cloth...basically make it a little bit "fuzzier". Nowadays, they use this machine to create the "fuzz" on scarves. BTW, Joan really like this machine, as the rows and rows of little "roundy" things that you see are teazels. Yes, teazels, the barbed plant balls, found all over Scotland and also in the Eastern USA.

Here's the "teazel machine"!

[Alan H]

The mill machinery is powered, in large part by an honest to goodness water wheel. There's a kerosene engine for backup, but the water wheel really, truly does provide the majority of the power.



Knockando has a nice little gift shop....classy, not "pushy" with lots of information there about the mill. If you visit, I hope you'll support the mill by purchasing something, even if it's just a cup of coffee some shortbread!



Here's Joan, who was pretty interested in the whole thing, looking around the little gift shop.

[Alan H]

I have a lot of "stuff" in my house. I mean, my home study is a mess from all the "stuff" I've accumulated over the years, so I wasn't going to Scotland to go buy a bunch of souvenirs. However, I knew before I went that if I WAS going to buy something, it would likely be from Knockando. Well, I spotted the tweed, they call it "Strathspey Tweed" -- and.......



Here's the tweed I bought...a yard of it (55 pounds/yard) which will get turned into a waistcoat and *horrors*!!! --- a flatcap!



Hope you enjoyed the visit to Knockando Woolmill. I HEARTILY recommend this as a place to visit if you're on the Speyside. You can also find them on Facebook and "like" them.

[frank_a]

I only wish I was in a position to afford some of their beautiful material. Thanks for sharing!

Frank

[creagdhubh]

That tweed is gorgeous, Alan! Well done. Thanks for sharing your photos. What a lovely place.

Cheers,