Angus District tartan

[MacMillans son]

"To my eye there is more space between the two red stripes on the black field in the Lochcarron photo than the second" (to quote Jeff).


I would assume that to be the result in the different weight fabrics. As I understand it, the fabric weight is a function of the thread diameter, hence heavier fabric is thicker than lighter fabric. If you use the same number of a wider thread it makes the spacing between points on the tartan larger. I believe that is why 16 oz tartan has a larger sett than the same tartan woven in lighter weight yarn. 10 large threads cover more space than 10 smaller ones.

Yes?

[davidlpope]

"To my eye there is more space between the two red stripes on the black field in the Lochcarron photo than the second" (to quote Jeff).


I would assume that to be the result in the different weight fabrics. As I understand it, the fabric weight is a function of the thread diameter, hence heavier fabric is thicker than lighter fabric. If you use the same number of a wider thread it makes the spacing between points on the tartan larger. I believe that is why 16 oz tartan has a larger sett than the same tartan woven in lighter weight yarn. 10 large threads cover more space than 10 smaller ones.

Yes?

Larger individual threads (16oz. fabric v. 10oz. fabric) do increase the size of the sett. The difference in thread weight, though, doesn't change the ratio of the threads to each other, as all threads are bigger in the heavier weight. The thread counts for the two images pictured are not the same, despite being given as such. Compare the width of the red stripes in the black to the overall width of the black, it's a different proportion between the two pictures.

In terms of which specific thread-count to use for this weave, you have two options:

1. Use the "official" one from the STA (because you value "correctness" over aesthetics).

or

2. Play around with a tartan generator program and determine which thread-count looks best to you (because you value aesthetics over "correctness").

I recently dealt with this on a custom-run of Hunting MacMillan tartan. I had swatches from three different mills, each with a different thread count, in addition to the STA threadcount which was different from them all. All were easily recognizable as Hunting MacMillan, but there were subtle differences in the proportions of the colors. In the end I used the STA threadcount as the base and made a few changes because I liked the look of my modified thread count better than any of the others.

In the end, no one other than yourself will know...


Best of luck,

David