A HARRIS YARN by Alice Starmore

Part 2

When the Carloway Mill Companies decided to pirate our Hebridean Yarn Concept, they announced the event to the world in the following words:

Hebridean Inspirations & Hebridean Castaway
Knitting Yarns - Pure Luxury from Nature.
Our ever-changing landscape is a constant source of new ideas for colour blending our latest collection of yarns. We want you to share in this Inspiration with our new ranges of knitting yarns available in a wide range of weights equivalent to Double Knit, Arran (sic) & Chunky. It is with great pleasure we announce our pattern support will be from leading independent Scottish Knitwear Designer Di Gilpin.

It is important to note that when they published this statement, the Carloway Mill Companies had never made any knitting yarn. In fact, they were so ignorant of knitting yarn that they thought Aran yarn referred to Arran in Scotland. However, ignorance does not stop the plagiarist and pirate, whose motto is always to reach out and grab.

Beneath the blurb were three pictures - two model shots and a still life - of garments knitted from yarns that were unknown to me. Presumably they were knitted in the new range, but since no new range had been made, how could they be? It really was a mystery. It was certainly no mystery to Eva and Tony Lambert of Waternish, Isle of Skye, who recognised some of these yarns as their own. They wrote a letter to the West Highland Free Press and all became clear. I quote from their letter:

Approximately six months ago we wrote to HTT about a page on their website which promoted their new range of knitting yarns with pictures of knitwear by another Scottish-based knitwear designer who was to be utilising these yarns. The designer concerned was one with whom we once had an informal relationship.

Our complaint was that we knew these pictures and that the actual garments featured on this webpage predated the new association, and that in fact the said designs had been knitted in yarns other than their own, including yarns produced by us, and that this was done without acknowledgement of their source, though we believed a reasonable inference of anyone looking at the page might have been that the designs had been knitted in the yarns they were intended to promote.

Anticipating an apology and offer to withdraw the offending graphics as soon as practicable, or at least some annotation which would help negate this inference, we were astounded to receive from Mr Stephen Mackay a very belligerent letter which appeared to wholly misrepresent the nature of our complaint and which threatened us with legal action if we dared publicly repeat any allegation of impropriety.

I do not know Eva and Tony Lambert but I thank them for solving the conundrum. The Carloway Mill Companies used pictures featuring yarn from another company, and it was entirely consistent with their developing behaviour pattern of grab-deny-threaten. But there were more fascinating developments to come. Cue fanfare of trumpets. Enter Rowan Yarns and Harris Shetland.

In mid 2004, a new page appeared on the website of the Carloway Mill Companies.

The page is still there as of 5th July 2005, but it may well disappear rather abruptly. The page declares:

Harris Yarns with Rowan
Harris Knitting Yarns - Pure Luxury from Nature
In collaboration with Rowan Yarns we have develop (sic) a range of pure wool Hand-knitting yarns ...
Available from November 2004 Worldwide distribution will be carried out by Rowan. The colours of the yarns providing the inspiration and blends reflecting moor, mountain, sea and shore.

That last sentence contains phrases that will be eerily familiar to those who have been reading the Virtual Yarns website since 2001. Moor and mountain; sea and shoreline. This is the very core of our Hebridean Yarn Concept and has been so right from the planning stage. We have pages and pages of material on our website explaining and developing the concept. That the knitting know-nothings of Carloway Mill should leap on our ideas was no surprise. They had already taken an entire section of our website. But Rowan! Why were they jumping in on the act? What was their game? Whatever the game was, it seemed decidedly fishy when you scrolled further down the page.

There below the logos and all the blurb, are three pictures of Gilpin designs. The top two of them are clearly and obviously knitted in Hunter of Brora Shetland stock. In fact, they are knitted in the very colours of which I received samples, and once again I know the exact shade numbers. I also saw the knitter's yarn remnants that were left after completing one of the designs pictured, and was able to check them against my old Hunter samples. I was incredulous, but the evidence was right there before my eyes. On the Carloway Mill webpage, the vaunted Rowan name and logo is clearly associated with Hunter of Brora redundant stock.

My incredulity continued when magazine and internet adverts began to appear. I quote:

Harris Wool
Developed specially for handknitting by the mill making the world famous Harris Tweed ... 36 beautiful shades of Shetland Wool.

Shetland yarn from the Harris Wool Shop
Our Shetland pure wool has been specially developed by a manufacturer of the famous Harris Tweed textiles ... Soft but strong Shetland wool developed from the yarn used in the famous Harris Tweeds.

Moor and mountain? Mountains of nonsense was more like it. Stock left over from Hunter's liquidation was specially developed? Shetland wool was developed from the yarn used in Harris Tweed? The author(s) of these statements is either displaying the acme of textile ignorance, or is deliberately trying to pull the wool over the eyes of knitters throughout the world. And there in the midst of it all is Rowan Yarns. I have no idea how or why they have blundered into this farrago of nonsense: perhaps they have fallen on hard times and are desperate. I will consider that topic in detail in Part 3. Meanwhile, I will conclude Part 2 with a couple of news updates.

According to the records of Companies House, various new shareholders joined the Carloway Mill Companies on 31st May 2005. Click the link for precise details, but the new shareholders include Diane Gilpin, Colm Lyons (barrister boyfriend, it turns out), and one Bain Investments of Wilmington, Delaware.

As you may surmise, Derek Reid and the Carloway Mill Companies are rather anxious to stifle this Harris Yarn. I received a paid attempt at bullying from their lawyers - a firm called Thorntons - on 25th May. It was heavy on threat, non-existent on fact, and gave me 48 hours to retract and refrain. I do not make statements unless I can prove them, which is why this Yarn is still here and getting longer. The howl of rage that subsequently issued from Carloway Mill is headed HARRIS TWEED TEXTILES. It was sent from their fax machine (44 (0)1851 643 400) at 7.16am on 22nd June 2005. It was sent to Donald Macleod, with the obviously clear intention that I would see it. The fax is unsigned and heavily hand-written in block capitals by someone of the foulest mindset possible. The content and language is obscene, abusive and threatening. The police were contacted and they visited Carloway Mill. A formal police warning was issued on the mill premises.

It is interesting to note that the forms sent to Companies House, declaring the names and addresses and details of the new shareholders, are also hand written - in exactly the same hand as that of the obscene fax. It is very hard to imagine a more ignominious way for anyone - let alone a barrister, a designer, and a "Scottish" American - to buy into a company. Was there a board meeting to decide on the obscenities in the fax? One wonders, but we will never know for sure.