Tweed Day

What the day is

Tweed Day is observed on April 3, marking a rough woolen cloth whose name appears to be the result of a clerical error.

Origin and background

The cloth was originally called tweel, the Scots form of twill, which describes its weave: the diagonal ribbed structure produced by carrying the weft thread over one warp thread and under two or more. The account generally given is that a London merchant early in the nineteenth century misread the word in a letter from a Scottish supplier, took it instead for a reference to the River Tweed in the border country where the cloth was made, and the error stuck because it sounded entirely plausible. It has been tweed ever since.

The fabric's properties are a direct answer to weather. Wool absorbs a great deal of moisture before it feels wet at all, continues to insulate while damp, and a tightly woven twill turns wind and shrugs off rain, which is why the cloth belongs to Scottish hillsides rather than to warm climates.

The characteristic flecked look comes from dyeing the wool before it is spun and blending several colors into a single yarn, so the cloth reads as one shade from across a room and as a mixture of half a dozen from arm's length.

Harris Tweed is the strict case. It is protected by an act of Parliament passed in 1993, and to carry the name it must be made from pure virgin wool, dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides, and handwoven by islanders at their own homes. It is one of very few textiles anywhere with statutory protection of its name, and the mark is actively enforced.

The cloth also carries a set of associations, academic and rural and distinctly British, that have nothing whatever to do with how it performs.

How to take part

• Look for the orb mark if you are buying something sold as Harris Tweed.
• Hold a tweed close and count the number of colors in the yarn.
• Buy secondhand. The cloth comfortably outlasts several owners.
• Brush rather than wash it, and let mud dry before removing it.