X Marks Tartan run #3 weaving update

**The Wizard of BC** · 14th February 07, 11:49 AM

I got a call from Gordon Kirkbright this morning and we are officially on his weaving schedule.
The fabric should be ready within 6 weeks.
It will first come to my shop here in Victoria and I will begin the process of cutting lengths for each order, boxing, addressing, and mailing out.
I'll keep everyone posted here.

Do not reply to this post. I will use it to post updates and to keep everyone informed.

Congratulation to all who ordered. Our total was 86 meters.

**The Wizard of BC** · 18th March 07, 11:55 PM

This is no shameless bump, It's the real deal.

Hooray!!

Gordon Kirkbright took time out in his preperations for Celtic Fest to let me know that the X Marks Tartan is done and he will be shipping it to me on Tue.

Let the Jonesing swing into high gear.

**The Wizard of BC** · 19th March 07, 01:33 PM

To all those who are asking if there is any extra fabric from this run...

Yes, I did order extra at my own expense. 'Cause I knew from past experience that someone would want it.

However, Gordon ran out of yarn. I know we have enough fabric to fill the orders of everyone who has paid. I do not know it there is going to be any extra.

I need to wait till the fabric is actually in the shop, & I have some time to unroll and measure it.

If there is any left over I will post it here.

**The Wizard of BC** · 20th March 07, 01:22 PM

There is good news and bad news.

Gordon called this morning and it seems he was unrolling our X Marks Tartan fabric this morning in preparation for shipping it over to me and found a BIG BOO-BOO!!

After Gordon finishes weaving the fabric it is sent to another plant for finishing. It seems that somehow the fabric was tangled in the machinery and one of the selvedge edges is torn and mangled.

Here is a copy of the e-mail I got from Gordon this morning after our telephone conversation.

Hi Steve,

I can't apologise enough for letting you down, and will try to make it right.

as discussed by phone, I am attaching a scan of the torn selvedge (and the good selvedge).

although this tartan was in first class condition off the loom, the fabric got caught in the shearing machine at our finishers, in Ontario, resulting in cuts along the edge (where the fabric is thickest).

there are sections of yardage where there is no damage and the full double width is useable.

the majority of the yardage has one edge damaged, but if you could use 'single wide', the other half width is perfectly good....you just need twice the yardage to make the kilt.
F & K will, of course, discount this damaged yardage by 50%, in effect charging for half width cloth.

as you know, we don't have any more stock of the background blue yarn colour, otherwise we would immediately replace the whole order rather than have you (and other xmarkers) have to work around this fault.
I will put a rush on another batch of yarn but, realistically, it will be May before we can weave more cloth.

an alternative for your consideration.....we could switch the background colour to the more standard 'modern navy blue' (as we once discussed) and deliver it in 4 weeks.
the obvious drawback being that, should xmarkers get together, some would have the original weathered blue version and others the modern version.

Fraser & Kirkbright take full responsibility and we will do whatever is within our power to mitigate the circumstances.

Best Regards
Gordon Kirkbright
Fraser & Kirkbright Weaving Co. Ltd.

As you can see half of the fabric is unusable. So here is what I am going to do.

1. The fabric will arrive in my shop on Friday. I will unroll it and measure how much usable fabric is there.

2. I will cut fabric for members who have ordered it in the best pieces I can.
It's going to be a puzzle because I will be able to get some double width pieces and some will only be single wide but full length.
We will not have enough fabric to fill all the orders!

Would all members who ordered fabric please e-mail me with their preferance.
If you can use single width, full length fabric that is what I will send you.

example --- If you ordered 4 yards double width to make an 8 yard kilt and will accept a single width of 8 yards, please let me know.

As you can read in Gordon's letter he is out of the yarn for the background blue and will not have any more till May. This is the earliest he can re-weave the fabric and fill the rest of the orders.

There is an alternative - Gordon has some "Modern Navy Blue" yarn that we once discussed using for the background color. He will send my a sample and I will scan it and post a picture here.
We could have a re-weave of X Marks Modern in 4 weeks.