Tartan Question

[Paul Henry]

Thanx for the info,clears up a few things. But, how are you supposed to know which tartan is which with so many variations? counting threads seems a bit rude and nerotic.

I'm not quite sure what you mean, find an example or two, and we will work out the details to show you.
There are many weavers mistakes, which have come to be the 2normal" tartan these days, but most tartans that are readily available today are reasonably well documented, have a look at the tartan register which will give a good introduction, and they will also give you thread counts to compare

[piperdbh]

It's kind of like dogs. There are X number of breeds of dogs, but you can tell at a glance that the animal in question is a dog. With tartans, after you become familiar with them, or with just a single one, you can recognize it, even if there are some variations in color, sett size, or what-have-you.

Sometimes a single color in a tartan can make the difference between really liking a tartan and really not liking it. A couple of years ago I saw a man wearing a kilt in the MacPherson tartan,

in which the blue stripes were an electric blue, really bright and vivid, and I didn't really like it. I asked him about it but can't remember where he said he got it.

[AFS1970]

When I bought my kilt I decided not to by a plaid with it. This was despite the advice I got that even if I got it later from the same mill there might be a difference in dye lot. A few years later, I decided to get a plaid and I ordered it from a different kilt maker, who used a different mill. The colors are either the same or close enough that you really can't tell any difference, but the thread count is a bit different.

My tartan features thin purple stripes and on the kilt these are really thin and solid looking. On the plaid they are thicker but look like they are made up of a series of unconnected slash marks. You have to be very close to notice it, and to the best of my knowledge nobody ever has, or at least they were too polite to say anything. However I notice it myself every so often.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

You might find it interesting to read my article on tartan colors.
http://www.albanach.org/colors.html

And to answer briefly Ron's question, I make Craig's kilt and his Arizona tartan was indeed woven by Dalgliesh, in their heavy weight.

[fluter]

Thanx for the info,clears up a few things. But, how are you supposed to know which tartan is which with so many variations? counting threads seems a bit rude and nerotic.

Talk with your kiltmaker!

The tartan finders at USA Kilts and Scotweb are especially useful. Rocky went to a great deal of effort with the panoply of tartans at USAK.

[OC Richard]

All of this is why we kiltwearers want to see an actual swatch of the fabric from the specific mill.

The "same tartan" varies tremendously from mill to mill. Even the "same tartan" from the same mill might vary from medium weight to heavy weight.

A list off the top of my head of the ways the "same tartan" can vary

-sett size (sometimes a tartan, even rendered in the same colourings, will look rather different if done up it widely differing sett sizes)

-colour choices (even tartans with ostensibly similar colourings, say, the "modern colours" of the same tartan, will differ widely. All, some, or even just one of the colours might vary. It's surprising how much of an impact the change of a single colour in a tartan can make.)

-proportions (the same sett can be rendered with the various elements of the sett having differing relative proportions which can make the tartans look rather different)

-the sett itself (I can't remember off the top of my head now, but there's a tartan I was examining from four different mills, and there were actually two slightly different setts, with a number of fine lines missing from one version)

An example of how much the change in a single colour can impact a tartan's overall impact is the pair of light blue lines in The Spirit Of Scotland. I've seen two renderings of this tartan from two mills. In one, this pair of lines is rather muted and the tartan has a very subdued muted overall effect. In the other, this pair of lines is a lighter, purer, stronger blue and the entire tartan looks more lively and colourful.