IRELAND :: DONEGAL TWEEDS (PART 2)

The drive began at 6AM from Dublin, with coordinates set to three different mills. Our first mill stop in the heart of Donegal sat behind a castle, aptly named the Donegal Castle from the 15th century. 

Upon entering the mill, we encountered a similar set up to what we may have seen at other mills in Scotland, or even here in the Pacific Northwest, USA.  Our biggest surprise was the  book used to maintain records of every tweed woven at the mill. “Can we buy this, we asked"? They quickly responded, “Absolutely not.”

Flipping through, the book went back to records in the early 1900’s.  It was incredible.  We then navigated to finished bolts of cloth, and started picking through inventory as though it was ours.  Many times Megan and I would quickly lock on what might be the next best thing, and as we moved to the next opportunity this agreement would be followed by a volatile argument, ‘Why the hell would you want that?’.  Since the beginning, it’s these backandforths that have led to just about every buying decision at SEAMUS.

The day ensued, and we visited with several intimately smaller weavers, some of which operated from their homes.  One specifically, was a father and son operation. Before long, we encountered yet another item we could not buy, a sample range developed for showing to their key accounts.  For each color in the below, the warp is replaced and the weaving is manually stopped.  To make head covers from this fabric could very well cost in excess of $1,000. Each.

Being so inspired by the meticulous attention that went into this incredible show piece, we began conceiving of ways to bring the same care and vibrancy to the tweeds we brought back stateside. We developed our Donegal Tweed Patchwork to bring so many of these tweeds we love together and to showcase the full spectrum of County Donegal's offerings. Each of these covers is thoughtfully hand-crafted by our in-house artisans to create the most dynamic, cohesive array of patterns in one carefully crafted cover.

Our tour through the countryside continued, I drove the whole way mitigating head on crashes by swerving into bushes. Such a beautiful car, treated so poorly, but finally got us to where we needed to be :: ROSAPENNA GOLF RESORT. To be continued in PART 3 blog post.