Laura's Loom
Photo:www.laurasloom.co.uk

WITH local, traditionally made products and crafts becoming ever more popular one Yorkshire Dales based hand-weaver has launched a new range of woolen products sourced from the Howgills around Sedbergh.

Laura Rosenzweig has been working in partnership with the weaver at Farfield Mill in Sedbergh, where she has her own hand-weaving business - Laura's Loom. The wool was spun in Wales and the throws were finished in Scotland but the rest of the processing was kept in the Yorkshire Dales with the wool coming from Bluefaced Leicester fleece sourced from the Howgills.

Laura has been weaving for more than a dozen years and had always concentrated on creating scarves from silk and fine merino wools imported from abroad. Moving to Sedbergh six years ago prompted her to think about what she could do with local wool. Sedbergh has a rich textile heritage and Laura works in an old weaving mill that still operates Dobcross looms built in the 1930s.

My goal in weaving has always been to create work of the highest quality using the best materials.

Laura Rosenzweig - Laura's Loom

Said Laura: “My goal in weaving has always been to create work of the highest quality using the best materials. On my local fells the sheep that looked most promising was Bluefaced Leicester but there's not a lot of them about so the quantity of throws I can produce remains small but exclusive.

“ I will be looking into the possibilities of weaving with a variety of local fleece in the future. In the meantime I hope my project (supported by the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Fund) will prompt others into looking afresh at new ways of boosting local economies using sustainable and renewable resources such as wool. We should be proud of the wool we produce and we should make it work for us.”

More information about the Howgill Throw and Laura’s hand-woven work can be found at www.laurasloom.co.uk