Strome Questions for the Pro's

**Slowburn** · 10th May 11, 08:35 AM

How do I know if my kilt is strome quaility?
How much of the pokey bits (can't recall Technical term) should I be feeling?
When I selected my fabric I seem to remember it being a fair bit soother than the finised product.
Was I sold a cheaper wool fabric?

**Paul Henry** · 10th May 11, 08:41 AM

Strome is the name Locharron gives to it's 16oz tartan range of about 500 ish tartans.
As far as I know no one else uses that name, so if you have got a kilt in Stome fabric it can only be from Lochcarron. Not sure what you mean by pokey bits, perhaps the sample was a well used sample and felt a little smoother. Who made your kilt? I'm always happy to tell the customer exactly who wove the fabric,to me it's a mark of quality.

**Slowburn** · 10th May 11, 08:48 AM

When I ordered my kilt it was specificly Lochcarron that I ordered in 16oz, so I assumed it to be strome. Was I wrong with that assumtion? My kilt maker has stepped out of the country for a month so it will be a while before I can question her on it. She included a her own tag sewn to the kilt reporting it to be Scottish wool but no manufature's tag otherwise, I have seen them sewn to other kilt makers products. So I just don't know.

**creagdhubh** · 10th May 11, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by paulhenry

Strome is the name Locharron gives to it's 16oz tartan range of about 500 ish tartans.
As far as I know no one else uses that name, so if you have got a kilt in Stome fabric it can only be from Lochcarron. Not sure what you mean by pokey bits, perhaps the sample was a well used sample and felt a little smoother. Who made your kilt? I'm always happy to tell the customer exactly who wove the fabric,to me it's a mark of quality.

Precisely. If your kilt is indeed the 16 ounce worsted wool weight from Lochcarron, then it is indeed the Strome variant. Lochcarron has three different weights (Reiver, Braeriach, and Strome), with Strome being the heaviest. I currently own 4 kilts made of the heavyweight Strome worsted wool in different Macpherson tartans. My kilt-maker had sewn a wee tag from Lochcarron at the lining of the kilt, saying that the tartan is indeed authentic Lochcarron Strome tartan. I'd double check with your kilt-maker when he returns from holiday just to be sure. Not sure what you mean by 'pokey-bits', but the overall texture of the tartan should be fairly smooth and a good weight. You could also compare the general tone and colouring of the tartan in your kilt to the Strome list of tartans at Lochcarron's website (the computer screen may distort the colours a wee bit, but Lochcarron's website is quite good as far as colour matching), which may give you a better clue if your kilt is in fact made of the Strome material.

www.lochcarron.com

Cheers,

**Slowburn** · 10th May 11, 09:13 AM

Here is a link to the photo I up loaded to Xmarks. This shows how difficult comparing photos is, just doesn't work without the fabric for the side by side. http://www.xmarksthescot.com/photoplog/index.php?n=891

**The Wizard of BC** · 10th May 11, 09:20 AM

As PaulHenry said Strome refers to a weight not to a level of quality.

The 'sticky out parts' are the wool 'hairs'. Kilt wool is Worsted or pulled and straightened before spinning to minimize the numberso of hairs sticking out.

And by the way the itchiness of wool is the result of these hairs sticking out. Worsted wool itches less. But we are still not talking about a level of quaility that you can specify when you order your fabric. All the mills I know of use worsted wool for their kilt fabrics.

Each mill produces a fabric which has a different 'hand' or how it feels but there are also variations within each mill. Again, not something you can specify.

So what it comes down to is that you are dealing with a natural product. The length of the wool hairs, the curliness or kinkiness and the thickness of the wool is different by species of sheep and many other factors such as first shearing or late season shearing. Even what the sheep grazed on can effect the wool.
Then there is the cleaning, worsting, felling, spinning, dyeing, and finally weaving of the fabric. Each of these can, and often do, effect the final product.

The production of kilt fabric is not as automated and exact as we today are used to thinking. It is actually old technology. Much the same as it was before the industrial revolution. In fact many of the machines used in the production are the same. We just power them with electricity today instead of the human power or water wheels or steam engines that powered them in the past.

Take a look at the video of D. C. Dalgliesh. The pedals that were pumped by the weaver are still there on the machines.

This is one of the things that make kilts so fasinating to us in the business. No two kilts are ever identical.

I can make a kilt today and another one next year. Both could be from the same mill in the same Tartan and weight of fabric. But the two could look and feel completly different.

**RockyR** · 10th May 11, 09:29 AM

Based on your picture, I will venture a guess that it is MOST LIKELY strome. Here are my reasons:

1. The twill is running /// NOT \\\ (which is consistent with the 'face' of Lochcarron's Strome)
2. The tuck selvedge on the bottom (not kilting selvedge)
3. The slight waviness and apparent 'softness' of the cloth in the picture... a Stome 'trademark' (the way their cloth drapes and feels a bit softer compared to other mills)
4. The light green and light blue appear to be consistent with their color pallet of blue and green (as opposed to other mills who use a darker light green and a darker 'light blue' for their ancients)
5. You ORDERED Lochcarron Strome, so your kilt maker should honor that request and use the mill you specified.

Just my $.02

**creagdhubh** · 10th May 11, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by RockyR

Based on your picture, I will venture a guess that it is MOST LIKELY strome. Here are my reasons:

1. The twill is running /// NOT \\\ (which is consistent with the 'face' of Lochcarron's Strome)
2. The tuck selvedge on the bottom (not kilting selvedge)
3. The slight waviness and apparent 'softness' of the cloth in the picture... a Stome 'trademark' (the way their cloth drapes and feels a bit softer compared to other mills)
4. The light green and light blue appear to be consistent with their color pallet of blue and green (as opposed to other mills who use a darker light green and a darker 'light blue' for their ancients)
5. You ORDERED Lochcarron Strome, so your kilt maker should honor that request and use the mill you specified.

Just my $.02

I agree completely with Rocky - his assessment is absolutely spot on! I concur and believe you have a genuine kilt made of Lochcarron Strome. Now enjoy the deep knife pleats and superb swing!!!

Cordially,

**Macman** · 10th May 11, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by The Wizard of BC

I can make a kilt today and another one next year. Both could be from the same mill in the same Tartan and weight of fabric. But the two could look and feel completly different.

I've found this as well. I have three kilts from one company in the same fabric and weight and they all feel just a bit different.

**Tobus** · 10th May 11, 02:39 PM

The twill is running /// NOT \\\ (which is consistent with the 'face' of Lochcarron's Strome)

Wow, I hope I'm not the only one who was confused by that!

This is a picture of a portion of my Strome kilt (exact same tartan as Slowburn's), and the twill seems to be running opposite from what you stated... unless I misunderstood what you said.

(The tuck selvedge is easily recognizable in this pic.)