Large Robertson Sett Advice

[davidg]

I'm looking for some advice from the kiltmakers on here who might have had experience with the Robertson Modern Red sett (Lochcarron Strome)

The sett is slightly unusual in that there is a reversed repetition making a whopping 13" total sett size rather than the more normal 7". On the reverse sett the blues and greens reverse so we get BLUE red green red black red green red green red black GREEN red blue

My first though is to make some pleats marginally deeper to compensate so that BLUE goes to GREEN and vice versa in every full repeat. Has anyone else got any ideas that might be better?

[Barb T]

Hi David,

I assume you are pleating to the sett? If so, the only choice is the "cheat" the pleats. This means picking up the required elements at intervals of less than one sett. So, if you need a red block, pick up a closer red block than the one that is a full sett away. This is largely a matter of trial and error, and it can be a frustrating process to lay a kilt out in this tartan. At some point, you will undoubtedly have to have a pleat that is a full sett deep. It looks really bizarre from the back side of the pleats, but it will be fine on the front side and no one will notice the variability in depth.

Of course, the other choice is to pleat to the stripe and choose a stripe that occurs twice per sett (e.g., the double green in red or one of the solid color blocks).

[davidg]

Thanks Barb. I think the red stripe would work too but I will almost certainly have to pleat to the sett. I THINK you're saying the same thing as me as at the 6.5" point (half a sett) the ONLY thing that is different is the reversal of green and blue so my logic went as follows, red to red at mid point as the closest is exactly one half sett, green to blue at mid point on first sett (adds about an inch depth to the pleat), blue to green at mid point on second sett. I think that will maintain everything with only a minimal extra depth on some of the pleats. I'll work it out properly once I start but I may yet convince the client to have pleating to the stripe (I can only hope)

[piperdbh]

You might consider pleating to alternate stripes.

[auld argonian]

One of the reasons that I went to Robertson Hunting....that and red looks awful on me ...

Best

AA

[Barb T]

Yes, this will work. Takes a lot longer to lay out the kilt, and there's typically a lot of finagling and revising, but you should be able to do it with few (or, if you are lucky) no extre-deep pleats.

[figheadair]

I'm looking for some advice from the kiltmakers on here who might have had experience with the Robertson Modern Red sett (Lochcarron Strome)

The sett is slightly unusual in that there is a reversed repetition making a whopping 13" total sett size rather than the more normal 7". On the reverse sett the blues and greens reverse so we get BLUE red green red black red green red green red black GREEN red blue

Red Robertson with black in it? That's not right. Sounds like you've got a misweave which might explain the size of the sett.