Some pics at Fraser & Kirkbright

[The Wizard of BC]

If you have never seen how Tartan is woven here are some pics I took inside the hallowed halls of Fraser & Kirkbright in Vancouver.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I forgot my camera and had to take these with my cell phone.

This rack is where the cones of yarn are placed in the order of the thread count and led to a tensioner and then wound on a large drum.



Here is a worker counting the threads and aligning them in proper order. If they are weaving say 50 yards of a Tartan he must wind 50 yards of yarn. Then repeat for each repeat till it is 59/60" wide.



Here you can see the large drum with the warp threads wound on it. This drum is then placed in the loom and the threads become the warp or longitudinal yarns of the fabric.


to be continued:::

[The Wizard of BC]

These are the drums of Warp yarns waiting to go onto the looms.



The yarns from the drum have now been placed in the loom and threaded thru the the heddles which are little wires which lift the yarns and create the Twill pattern.



Here is where the work is done. The white thing in middle is the controler that has a punched card with the weave instructions, and tell the heddles when to raise and what color the next thread is.



No computer chips here. This is technology from the 1500's.

[The Wizard of BC]

Here's Gordon Kirkbright supervising the operation.



Here is the shuttle carrier which takes the widthwise threads thru the warp and does the weaving.


Gordon's finger is showing how the selvedge is turned and cut.



That's all folks.

[Kid Cossack]

That's good stuff, Wiz.

[ChattanCat]

Very impressive. I have only seen hand weavers before. I can imagine how labor intensive it is to wind for only 50 yards or whatever.

[Graham]

Wow, how times have changed in weaving. What a huge operation, thanks for the photos, a real eye-opener.

[Kiltman]

Thanks for the pics. Can we visit there during Kilt Kamp?

[MacWage]

VERY interesting!!!!

I will soon have 4 or 5 kilts made off those same looms, depending on my use of the other half of my X Marks 16 oz.
Great to see where my material comes from.

Thanks for the pics Steve!!!!!!!

[pdcorlis]

Nothing is better than a good old fashioned field trip - thanks for the photos!

[Panache]

Thanks for taking us on the cool field trip Steve!

Cheers

Jamie