Searching for California State tartan (Ancient)

**ljnev** · 10th July 12, 11:28 AM

Greetings all. I am having a devil of a time sourcing California State tartan in Ancient colors and am hoping someone out there knows where to purchase some or have some woven. I am located in NJ, USA. I need enough material for two kilts, so that limits the potential for placing a custom weaving order from the big mills, I know. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

**davidlpope** · 10th July 12, 01:26 PM

Marton Mills offers it as a stock tartan in the modern color scheme in 16oz. wool. Dalgleish will custom weave any tartan in any colors, 4yd SW minimum.

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 10th July 12, 02:33 PM

I just answered your email, which hopefully was helpful!
M

**Alan H** · 10th July 12, 04:46 PM

I was in the same boat, and wound up getting the modern colors, which I like a lot. I don't know of anyone who offers the ancient colors as a stock item, and the So Cal guys who got the ball rolling on the tartan are incredibly un-responsive.

If you want a "knockaround" kilt, nothing fancy, Sportkilt offers their product in the California, ancient.

**ljnev** · 15th July 12, 09:18 AM

Thanks for the replies folks! Much appreciated.

**Riverkilt** · 15th July 12, 10:05 AM

Any experienced kiltmaker can help you score whatever tartan you're looking for - IF you're gonna have them sew it up.

**OC Richard** · 15th July 12, 10:22 AM

Odd... I've seen dozens of kilts in California tartan (which goes to figure since I live here) and I've ONLY seen them in Ancient colours, as best I can recall.

One thing to be aware of is that weavers sometimes use the terms like "modern" loosely, for example House of Edgar has their "muted" range, but certain tartans in those very colours are nevertheless labelled "modern" and are part of the "modern" range. I ran into this with Drummond of Perth... the exact tartan, in Edgar's "muted" colour scheme, is listed as "muted" in one weight but "modern" in another weight, at least in one set of sample books I saw.

So, if a tartan was originally registered or woven with colours similar to ancient colours as the default colours, it might show up in a weaver's "Modern" range. (I'm pretty sure I've run across this... I'll have to do some searching through sample books to check.)

OK I just Googled "california tartan" under "images" and they're pretty much all in Ancient colours. Doesn't look like any of them have the extremely dark blue and green normally associated with "modern" colours.