While examining original St Kilda tweed at the West Highland Museum and Highland Folk Museum in July, I noticed something intriguing.

The lighter warp yarns appeared relatively smooth, while the darker weft yarns were noticeably more fibrous and hairy.

Then, just recently, Cecilia Charlton sent me photographs of the Soay and Boreray wool she has been preparing for our project.

What immediately caught my attention was how closely the fibrous appearance of the carded Soay wool resembled the darker weft yarns in the original tweed.

Could this be another clue that the St Kildans deliberately used Boreray wool for the warp and Soay wool for the weft?

It also makes me wonder if they always kept the two wool types seperate rather than mixing them, as some historical accounts suggest.

Of course, appearances alone cannot prove this, but it is another fascinating piece of the puzzle.

The more I discover about St Kilda tweed, the more questions seem to emerge!