We have been enjoying a wonderful weekend of celebration here in Ullapool, all because of the magnificent tall ships passing through, en route to Shetland. There has been music and a market along the shore and the village has welcomed huge numbers of visitors. Most importantly, we have enjoyed the company of these lovely sailing ships and their crews.



There was a Tweedmatters stall at the market and Ralph , Ian and I enjoyed chatting to visitors about Harris Tweed and about our wonderful surroundings and the vagaries of the Highland weather - warm, continental sunshine one minute, rain and rainbows the next!

FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT

This year in Fairtrade Fortnight, groups all over the country have been encouraged to make bunting, as part of a world record attempt. Hopefully, when all of our contributions are joined together they will form the longest bunting ever made! Ullapool's contribution was huge, so I would think the world record is likely to be smashed easily if other groups have come up with similarly impressive contributions. Here's the little Tweedmatters contribution which was (rather hastily) thrown together using wonderfully colourful snippets of Harris Tweed kindly donated by West Coast Textiles, here on Loch Broom in Ross-shire. For more information on the world record attempt, go to
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/show_off_your_label/add_your_bunting/

Winter Dark Ness

26 January 2011








It's views like these which are the inspiration for the new Dark Ness greeting card from Tweedmatters. The Harris Tweed colours are lovely and the sky is starry. These magical winter scenes are as typical of the Scottish North Highlands as the heathery slopes and deserted white beaches of our long, summer days, so I thought it was about time to offer an evocative card depicting our lovely landscapes at this time of year. The winter might be long and dark, but the night skies are really beautiful.



The Dark Ness card is on sale at an amazing £3.99, including UK p&p

When I said "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.."

Happy New Year!

Yes, it's been snowing and snowing and snowing. The good news is that postal deliveries seem, finally, to have got back to something like normal. We got an unusual number of cards after Christmas this year which had been posted weeks before. I think all our dispatched collages and cards made it OK. Either that or Tweedmatters' customers are such nice people that they don't complain, even when things don't go according to plan. If things took longer than usual, I'm sorry, but I hope everybody had a nice Christmas in any case.

Postal charges are due to go up quite a bit in the spring. In the meantime, why not stock up on cards and gifts? The prices currently displayed at www.tweedmatters.com will be pegged until the postage increases are introduced.

Tweedmatters' newest stockist and by far the most southerly is the new Lazyhill Gallery in Chapel Lane, Abbotsbury, Dorset. The gallery only opened this month, so we wish them every success in this new venture.

Lazyhill Gallery is in a gorgeous part of the world and we're sure they will have lots of appreciative visitors over the coming months and years. Amongst all the lovely things they stock, you will find a selection of Tweedmatters framed collages and greetings cards.