I have done *some* searching for kilts and have come up with some basic knowlege. Kilts come in everything from four yards to nine yards. Good tartan wool is expensive, along with a good sporran. Women love kilts.

I found untilikilt a while ago, but I don't really want a solid color kilt yet, perhaps as a second kilt. I found sportkilt and stillwater kilts and while I like some of sportkilt's sporrans and stillwater's wool kilt, I simply don't have the money to buy a sporran and plastic clothing of any kind is out of the question as I plan on wearing the kilt around a forge.

I started looking around locally and found a kilt store about three or four miles away from my house. This is Kilt & Thistle Scottish Shoppe AKA kilts.com. I went in and found the people there very informative and friendy. While their kilts and sporrans are out of my price range, buying two yards of double width wool and sending it and a pattern (and some money for her time) to my grandma is very doable. My grandma has not agreed to make the kilt yet (she said she would need to see a pattern first) and has said that it will take some time (which I don't mine). My questions are: is there a four or five yard kilt pattern out there or are they just the same as an eight yard but with half deep pleats? And: do you adjust the number of pleats or the width of the apron when sizing (or is that detailed with the pattern)?

I also plan on making my own sporran. I have a white tail deer tail laying around somewhere and I can get leather easy enough. I spent some time making a cardboard and masking tape prototype to work off of and found one or two problems. My dimensions are 5-1/2" wide (at the middle) x 6" tall x 2-1/2"(?) deep tapering up, the mouth is 4" across x 1-1/2" deep but that includes the folded in cardboard (seam) and a bunch of masking tape. The width at the top makes it a little difficult to get my hand in to the bottom but I imagine that a leather one will be less static than cardboard. Do these dimensions sound about right? And how "static" should a leather sporran with a flap (not the fish mouth or whatever term is used) opening be?

In case you haven't noticed I make long posts. If you want I could cut out some of the rambling but if a little extra reading doesn't bother anyone I will continue my essay length posts.