Our production and weaving process starts with the selection of the best fibre, lamb’s wool, merino wool or cashmere. This is an area of expertise that has been passed down through generations of the family. We use only the best wool from Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Different climates result in different wool qualities; to ensure we are using the perfect wool for each product we ensure we purchase a variety of quality raw fleece by visiting sheep farms, auction houses and merchants all over the world. Bales are kept in our dedicated Wool Store until ready to go into Blending.

In carding, the newly blended fibres go through the process of disentanglement, cleaning and intimate mixing to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for further processing. The carding machines comprise a feed hopper with a weighing or metering device to ensure a regular and consistent fibre feed into the machines. The carding machines have two main sections - scribbler and carder. Each consist of a series of large rollers called swifts and each of these contain pairs of small rollers around their upper circumference called workers and strippers. Every roller is covered with fine card wire and by varying the speeds of the rollers we can control and align the fibres as they pass through the machine. At the end of the machine an even web of fibre is removed and passed through the final part of the machine called the condenser. Here a series of flexible narrow tapes separate the fibre web into narrow strips and carry these into the rubbing section. This then converts the parallel strips into rounded form called slubbings; which are then wound side by side onto condenser bobbins in preparation for the spinning process.

Warping is the arranging of yarn threads in long parallel lengths of equal tension, onto a beam in preparation for weaving. During the warping process cones of yarn are placed onto a rack called a creel. From this creel, yarn passes through tension and spacing devices and through a leasing reed which separates the yarn threads and keeps them in the correct order, before being wound onto a warping balloon. In the woollen industry warping is carried out on a sectional machine where each section of warp threads are wound onto the balloon alongside previous sections. When the correct amount of yarn has been added the warp is removed from the balloon and transferred onto a warping beam ready for the weaving process.

In dyeing we apply and fix the colours to a fabric with the intention of obtaining a uniform distribution of colour throughout the fabric. Hainsworth have a fully equipped dye house utilising both winch and jet dyeing machines as well as other unique processes. The dyestuffs are fed from a mixing kitchen directly into the dye vessels. Once the dyeing cycle is complete samples are taken from the pieces and checked against colour standards stored in our computer database. This ensures a consistency of shade from batch to batch.

Our finishing process is what makes Hainsworth cloth so unmistakable. A series of processes either chemical or physical are applied to the woven and set fabrics to impart a unique desired effect. This is where the coveted Hainsworth drape, handle face and sheen become apparent. Hainsworth have a specialist range of finishing equipment which can be used to impart bespoke finishes to a variety of fabrics. This equipment includes raising machines used to lift fibres to improve fabric handle, boiling and blowing machines used to set fabrics, padding machines used to apply chemical finishes and brushing machines used to improve fibre alignment. Our weaving process is second to none in the textiles industry. After all we have been weaving for more than 230 years!