Too many years ago to recall I came across a couple of early C19th tartan blankets, not plaids, that were woven in what is known as bird's eye or goose-eye weave. Inspired I had a crack and still have one piece - below.



This technique is normally found on plain cloth i.e single colour or with differing warp and weft colours so that the weave makes the actual design. It is/was used in the Strathconon tweed but is not traditionally found in tartan partly because it is technically difficult and partly because the colour changes in tartan make the pattern and so a decorative structure is sort of superfluous.

The other important factor about this technique is that it is structurally not so dense and a traditional 2/2 twill is best for tartan and indeed any hardwearing cloth - check out your jeans. That said, it makes an interesting talking point and works well for blankets, shawls, shoulder plaids and the like. It's very unlikely that you will find anything tartan woven like this as there are 72 peddle changes (including reversing sections), as opposed to 4 for a 2/2 twill, before the weaver is back at the start of the pattern sequence. Imagine counting that and trying to keep the tartan threadcount going too.