Arizona Tartan

[Retro Red]

Now, I've seen the pictures of what you have, and it doesn't seem to match the picture of the tartan at the Scottish Tartan Authority. The black stripe in your kilt seems to be much wider than what is shown at STA.

Hmmm, can't say I've really studied the STA pic too closely, but tell ya what, if it would help, I've got a swatch of the Arizona tartan you could borrow for research purposes, as long as you promise to return it. Send me a PM if you're interested & we can work out arrangements for picking up of the swatch.

Not sure when I'll be in the Prescot area next, but you folks are coming down to the Valley for the Phoenix Highland Games at the end of February, aren't you?

.

[ChromeScholar]

Right now we're planning to come down for the Scottish games. We'll see what happens as the date gets closer. Actually, we've pretty much got it figured out. If you could do anything, could you count the number of threads wide the black on your swatch is, that would be a big help. The STA makes it appear to be eight wide, and yours looks like it's more.

[Retro Red]

I'd be happy to "count the number of threads wide" the black is on my swatch if I knew how you go about doing that.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

You know, if people email me at the museum (tartans@scottishtartans.org), I really don't mind giving the thread count for a tartan. (Just don't be like one recent emailer and request the thread counts for a list of about 80 different tartans at once!)

In this case, the Arizona tartan is:
LT6 G4 W4 R4 LT24 K4 FG24 R4 FG4 LB4 FG4 Y4

The thread counts given on line at the STA page are only helpful if you are already familiar with their recording system, as many of the codes are very specific to their software. The ones I listed above are more general (G = green, W = white, K = black, Y = yellow, R = red, etc.) Some of the more unusual colors can be figured out by comarison to a swatch. LT= light tan, LB = light blue, FG= faded green, etc.

You can also get thread counts for tartans in publishes resources, such as the three volume Tartans reference by Phil Smith and William Johnson, or Tartan: The Highland Textile, by James Scarlett. Of course, in this case, a handy reference would be the Compendium of District Tartans by myself and James Bullman.

If you plan to do a lot of tartan weaving, those types of references are invaluable.

Aye,
Matt

[ChromeScholar]

Thank you very much. That actually matches what we had figured out from the pic STA had posted.

[Retro Red]

Some of the more unusual colors can be figured out by comarison to a swatch.

...and speaking of a swatch, I laid the front apron of my Arizona tartan kilt on my scanner & took this pic... hope it, along with Matt's very useful info helps...

[ChromeScholar]

That is helpful, thanks.