Canadian tartans

[ForresterModern]

Nice Maple Leaves gentlemen, thanks for posting.

And perhaps I don't understand what an asymmetric tartan is but, of the official tartans, only New Brunswick looks asymmetric to me?

You are most welcome.

An asymmetric tartan is one whose sett does not invert and repeat in reverse, i.e., its sett is not symmetric. This is important because often to make a single 8 yard kilt one buys 4 yards of double width tartan, split the tartan into two identical 4 yard sections then sewn together to make the 8 yard length to work from. You cannot do this with an asymmetric tartan as when you flip the second half piece it becomes a mirror image of the first instead of a continuation of it. So you either have to buy single width asymmetric tartan or buy 8 yards of asymmetric tartansplit it in half longitudinally and use half, and find someone else to take the other mirror image half off your hands. Then each of you will have continuous 8 tard segments.

So far in this thread I have seen 4 asymmetric tartans, Maple Leaf, Yukon, Ensign of Ontario, and Plaid de Quebec. There may be more, I don't know, but that is more asymmetric tartans than I have ever seen before, ever, let alone in one thread.

jeff


Edit: Sorry, din't notice that Grant and others had beat me to it. sorry for the repeat.

[CMcG]

<snip>
An asymmetric tartan is one whose sett does not invert and repeat in reverse, i.e., its sett is not symmetric. This is important because often to make a single 8 yard kilt one buys 4 yards of double width tartan, split the tartan into two identical 4 yard sections then sewn together to make the 8 yard length to work from. You cannot do this with an asymmetric tartan as when you flip the second half piece it becomes a mirror image of the first instead of a continuation of it. So you either have to buy single width asymmetric tartan or buy 8 yards of asymmetric tartansplit it in half longitudinally and use half, and find someone else to take the other mirror image half off your hands. Then each of you will have continuous 8 tard segments.

<snip>

Edit: Sorry, din't notice that Grant and others had beat me to it. sorry for the repeat.

The repetition was worthwhile for the nuances of how asymmetrical setts play into kilt construction, so thank you. Considering that the Maple Leaf appears to be the most common of the Canadian tartans, it being asymmetrical does not appear to have held it back!

[ccga3359]

For what it's worth, at least on my monitor, STA ref: 3140 is the closest to the Ensign of Ontario that Burnetts & Struth sell, the sett is 4".