Strictly speaking, tweed is a fabric with a diagonal weave,
whose irregular appearance derived from the weaving of two or
three weft* threads instead of just one. The word “tweed” is a
bastardization of “tweel,” the Scottish form of “twill.” Also of
note: The River Tweed, which separates Scotland from England,
was a major textile centers of the 19th Century. *(The weft is
the horizontal threads that are woven through the loom on the
shuttle. The vertical threads through which they are woven are
called the warp.) The Major Houses of Tweed Harris tweed is a
special variety made famous by the Dowager Countess of Dunmore,
who in the late 1840s took a loosely-knit group of cottage-
industry weavers (spread out among the islands of Harris, Lewis,
Uist, and Barr, in the Outer Hebrides) and sought to improve the
quality and regularity of production, resulting in a wider
market for their wares in London. The label Harris Tweed
guaranteed that the cloth was made from pure virgin wool,
carded, woven, spun, and hand-dyed