Harris Tweed Poem

HARRIS TWEED®
JOURNAL
Finding Inspiration
13TH AUGUST
It is good to know we are not the only ones who dream about our very own Harris Tweed® cloth design! Beth Spallanzani from Bristol – one of our Facebook followers – was inspired by our posts to write a poem imagining a tweed named after herself.

What’s in a name? Designing the Spallanzani Tweed

The turquoise sea and the blue of the sky
And the sand as white as the clouds in the sky
Are bringing last summer back into the room
Whilst creating the warp on the loom.

Inspired by a Harris Tweed® picture online,
Could I find a new weave that’s exclusively mine?
Should the weft be bright yellow, or camel or grey,
Like sunshine, or pebbles or puddles of clay?

Now my surname’s from Italy – not much wool there,
Thought they’re famous for flair and design,
But could it be closer to Harris than Rome
If the parts of my name are untwined?

“Spal” is the shuttle which flies to and fro,
And the start of my name, that you know,
“Lana” in Gaelic – maybe ‘pride’ or ‘replete’?
In Italian, strangely, it means wool!

The last part is harder – the Gaelic for “Zani”
Or “San” is a challenge – ’tis a fact,
But with summer bright colours criss-crossing my tweed,
“Zani” / zany – my design will be just that!