Hemming and other minor damage

[The Wizard of BC]

Sir,

Looking at your first photos what I see in not a run. I am seeing one yarn that is thicker than the rest. This does sometimes happen in weaving.

Yes, it is a flaw in the fabric. but does not weaken the fabric and should not shorten the fabrics' lifespan. It is unsightly to our eyes though.

We seem to expect perfection with today's weaving but at the same time revere the older, hand woven fabrics where flaws like this, along with floats and slubs, were common.

This type of flaw is far less common today, than even 50 years ago. In days past it was the practice to mark such flaws in the fabric with a string of a contrasting color knotted into the selvedge edge of the fabric. This would alert the cutter to where the flaws were so he could plan his cuts around the flaws. When fine tailors went to buy fabric, to insure that what they were buying would not contain these little surprises, they would specify fabric "With no strings attached".

[Tobus]

Looking at your first photos what I see in not a run. I am seeing one yarn that is thicker than the rest. This does sometimes happen in weaving.

That's what I see too. A 'run' would look much different than that, and you would actually see some wrinkling/distortion where a particular yarn got hooked and pulled by something, causing the lay of the weave to distort near that point. But what I see here is, as Steve describes, just a flaw in the weave itself from an out-of-tolerance yarn. You say that it runs most of the way, but not all the way, through the length of fabric. Does it just blend in with the rest of the weave at some point? If so, I would think that this is where the out-of-spec length of yarn returned to its proper thickness.

There's a similar flaw in one of my kilts, albeit it's an acrylic one and not wool. It does not surprise me to see that on lower-grade cloth. I am definitely not an expert in weaving or modern mill quality procedures, but I was under the impression that most of the Scottish mills had people who did quality checks on every yard of wool that comes through the looms to identify these sorts of things. I don't know if that's something they typically reject or repair before selling the cloth, or if it's an acceptable flaw.

[AndrasMacKay]

Thanks Paulhenry, I will consider that!

Thank you for the info Steve, that definitely puts me at ease. I really don't mind a minor flaw.
Wow! I had no idea where that saying came from. Very cool.

Very interesting Tobus, and good to note.
The thing is, it's a Welsh tartan made in Wales, and I'm wondering if they're not as thorough as the Scottish, due to their just recent adoption of the kilt...