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Thread: Just wondering

  1. #1
    Benning Boy is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    Just wondering

    Eternity tartan appears to be mostly charcoal gray. It's an illusion. The gray area is actually a micro tweed created by twisting together a bit of black yarn and light gray yarn, which when woven give the overall charcoal appearance. Everyone who has seen the Eternity fabric I'm working with loves it. Everybody says there's something about it they can't quite describe, that really appeals to them. I think it is the almost undetectable tweediness. The fabric almost looks alive at times depending on how light strikes the surface.


    This has made me wonder how many other colors could be created by twisting together yarns of two colors. Brown should work; a very dark brown twisted with an ecru, perhaps, should make a nice medium brown appearing tartan. The same could be done with blues and greens and so forth.

    Then I got to wondering what would happen if say the gray of Eternity were woven with the tweed strands twisted to the right for the warp, and to the left for the woof. The black-on-black tartans are woven using yarns twisted in opposite directions to create the tartan effect. Could a micro tweed be made to look even more alive if woven with yarns twisted in opposite directions?

    What would one have to do to test the idea -- commission an very expensive custom weave, or are there other ways to previsualize the possible effects.

    Do you know of any other tartans woven like Eternity with multicolored yarns creating the illusion of a third color?

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    The Balmoral, as origianllly designed was a made from an alternating three ply yarn which gave the same effect.

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    Benning Boy is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    What colors were used in the three-ply yarn, and what was the resulting overall color? The blue?

    Is there anyone weaving Balmoral today with the three-hued yarn? Could a sample be had somewhere?

    The mixing of colors in a single yarn really seems to add life to tartan. I'd like to see more of it done

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    It is done in knitting, untwisting two colours splitting the threads and then combining them to make a marl - that is what the two coloured yarn is called in knitting terms - and then using it as the third colour for hose making.

    Anne the Pleater :ootd:
    I presume to dictate to no man what he shall eat or drink or wherewithal he shall be clothed."
    -- The Hon. Stuart Ruaidri Erskine, The Kilt & How to Wear It, 1901.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Benning Boy View Post
    What colors were used in the three-ply yarn, and what was the resulting overall color? The blue?

    Is there anyone weaving Balmoral today with the three-hued yarn? Could a sample be had somewhere?

    The mixing of colors in a single yarn really seems to add life to tartan. I'd like to see more of it done
    It I recall correctly the original material had alternating threads of 2 whie: 1 black and 2 black:one white. Today I thin it's just woven with a solid grey yarn.

    I'm not a fan of a mixtured yarn, that to my mine it's one of the defining differences between tartan (solid yarn) and tweed (mixed yarn).

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