Matt and Nick you have both made very good points on how weavers have "interpreted" a tartan in the past. There is, I think, a realisation needed from the weavers of today who, as quite correctly pointed out, are not tartan specialists and that tartans are almost an exact science and their customers expect a tartan to bare a distinct resemblance to what was ordered.

In the past, a modest(!!?) veering off course from a pattern and colour was almost expected and was explained away by the cry of; "well that is what you get from handmade cloth and don't forget the the wool takes on the dye in slightly(!?) differing ways". Both these observations are quite true, but, with Harris Tweed tartan, I feel that the weavers are going to have to be rather more disciplined with their "artistic interpretations" of the product. I fear that if they don't, there will be ultimately tears all round.