Production

Each tie is hand-knitted on wooden needles; hand-finished; pressed between cotton towelling and fine linen.  It takes two or three days to make a tie (admittedly not full-time, some of us have a day job too).

The design is very simple: minimal shaping to make the bit-under-the-collar narrower than the two ends.  The neck part is also knitted on a smaller needle size to make it a bit firmer, and backed by tape for the same reason - also to prevent stretching.

(The tape is also the unique, locally produced by Lakeland Embroidery, HerdwickyTie label, complete with a gentle reminder about dry-cleaning.  The label is designed to face OUTWARDS when you tie the Westmorland knot - show your origins with pride!)

We debated the finish of the ends of the tie for a while.  Some favoured the straight edge traditional in a knitted tie; others fancied fringeing (which did not work out in practice).  Eventually we settled on the classic pointed end, formed by seaming the straight edges together for a clean, simple finish unlikely to cause any distraction from the beauty of the knitted fabric.  (We did look at shaping the cast-on/cast-off edges, but that did not produce the clean lines we wanted.)  The simple seam also means that in an emergency (egg down the front...), the point can be turned inside out and the other side of HerdwickyTIE brought to the front.  Accidents can happen, and usually at important moments, so good to know!

And the length?  143cm (56 3/8 inches in old money), with a width at the widest of 6cm (2 3/8 inches).  But bear in mind this is a natural material, it is flexible and giving - if you swing on the end of your tie a lot, it might end up a bit longer.  (Which is one of the reasons why knitted ties are usually slightly shorter than the standard cloth tie length of 58 inches).

AMETHYST at the finishing stage: