Mersey Collection
Our Mersey collection focuses on the quality and strength of natural fibre yarn, traditional design and community.
Ēhara tāku toa i te toa takatahi, engari he toa takitini.
Our strength is not made from us alone, but made from many.
It takes a community to produce these scarves ...
Beautiful, luxurious and classic...the Mersey collection.
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mersey collection
You can find our Mersey collection at:
CRAFTED: Waitaki Artisan Gallery in Oamaru
Olveston Historic Homestead in Dunedin
The Mersey warp yarn is a combination of 19 micron South Island grown Merino combined with Japanese Mulberry Silk, and was spun by Woolyarns NZ in Wellington. The weft yarn is 21 micron Waitaki grown and dyed Merino yarn, spun by Wild Earth Yarns in Christchurch.
Like all our collections, the Mersey collection is named after a street in Oamaru. Mersey Street was named by Surveyor Thompson for the River Mersey, a major river in North West England. Although its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", there are no boundaries around where you will be able to wear the beautiful Mersey collection.
Weaving the Mersey collection
This was a tricky and time consuming warp to make. Due to the style of our warping frame, we can only have a maximum of 150 bobbins for each section of the warp. At 36 ends per inch each four inches has 144 fine Merino ends.
This meant that all the black with little white stripes was wound onto the mill first. Then all those bobbins were taken off the frame and the white with little black stripes was put on. All by hand, patiently, in the correct order.
Looking at the inside of the warping mill you can see the individual sections as they are fastened on, wound on and fastened off.
The yarn we chose to weave our Mersey collection with is a natural NZ Merino and Japanese Mulberry Silk mix. It is a very fine though strong yarn and great to use as a warp.
The yarn is prepared, thread by thread, on our warping frame. There are 36 ends per inch, times 38 inches, plus selvedges, so that is a lot of individual threads to control.
Every thread is threaded and pulled through the reed on the beater, and now everything is ready to be carried over to the loom and installed. This can be a very tricky manover as there are a lot of components to get safely on the loom, and lots of things to go wrong.
Thr first few rows of weaving are the time to check that we threaded everything up correctly, and also for Rod to tune the loom to ensure even, tangle free weaving.
Once the fabric has been woven, it needs to be finished. The fulling process involves hot water, soap and a mangle, and a few hours of hands on work.
CARE INSTRUCTIONS
We recommend you wash your Mersey scarf by hand. Soak it in cold water with a mild, wool-specific detergent.
Rinse and squeeze out any excess water. Do not wring your scarf.
Lay the scarf flat to dry and re-shape accordingly. When dry, press with a cool iron.
DO NOT MACHINE WASH OR TUMBLE DRY.