The Artisan Craft of Knitting Fine Lacy Shawls
Inspired by our rich heritage, our lacy knitted shawls at G.H.Hurt & Son are manufactured using traditional artisan techniques from start to finish providing you, as our customer, with a beautiful, hand-finished shawl. Each of our shawls travels through a journey at our Shawl Factory in Chilwell, Nottingham taking two days to produce and involving eight pairs of technically skilled hands…
So, how does this journey begin? The answer to this is with the finest, softest yarn derived from the famous Australian Merino sheep, as well as other quality British and Italian spun yarns. At G.H.Hurt & Son, we invest a lot of time into sourcing our yarn from world-class suppliers, to provide you with a quality product that will last a lifetime.
With the help of our highly skilled knitting technicians who have over 150 years of experience between them, the knitting of the shawls takes place in our ‘Knit Shop’ on our computer-aided design (CAD) operated knitting machines. Each of our shawls has to be carefully knitted due to the intricacy of the patterns and fineness of the yarn.
After years of research and innovation with our machinery, we have managed to achieve traditional patterns on our contemporary knitting machines, which once upon a time could only be produced on the vintage handframe knitting machine, invented in 1589 by the Rev. William Lee in Calverton, Nottingham!
Once the shawls have been knitted, they are taken from the ‘Knit Shop’, where all of our modern powered knitting machines from the 60s to the present day, are stored and used in our finishing department. Our highly skilled finishing team have 200 years of experience between them, which is why every single knitted shawl made by G.H.Hurt & Son is crafted to absolute perfection.
The next step along the journey for our lacy knitted shawls is for them to be hand-washed, using baby sensitive products. As one of our customers, you can be fully assured that whether you are purchasing one of our baby shawls or a beautiful lacy scarf for yourself, all of our products are clean, fresh and ready to wear.
The shawls are then partly dried until they are slightly damp to touch as this makes the knitted yarn easier to manipulate, enabling the shawls to be hand-finished. This process involves at least 2 pairs of artisan's hands, an expert trained eye and a lot of concentration to give our shawls their unique, scalloped edges.
The shawls are then completely dried overnight in a sustainable way. Early the next morning, the shawls are taken to the quality control department to be thoroughly checked over by our experienced team before being delicately hand-folded. The intricate patterns and complex finishes of our shawls require the finishing team to pay close attention to detail when folding, to ensure that the pattern and scalloped edges are perfectly aligned.
As the shawls approach the end of their journey, they are taken to be ‘tabbed’ which involves attaching our beautifully branded labels and swing tickets onto the shawls before they are hand-packed into bags or our minimalistic, embossed gift boxes ready to arrive at your doorstep…
At G.H.Hurt & Son, we take great pride in being the only knitwear manufacturer left in Nottingham that is able to combine modern design innovation with traditional artisan techniques, enabling us to provide our customers with a truly unique product.
Above - The Beautifully Gift Boxed Pure Wool Christening Shawl