Rising price of wool to drive up Kilt costs

**chrisupyonder** · 6th June 11, 02:07 PM

I have heard that most british wool goes into the carpet and knitware industries and is not suitable for weaving kilt cloth. Pity, because there are more sheep than people in Caithness and Sutherland.

Chris.

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 6th June 11, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by chrisupyonder

I have heard that most british wool goes into the carpet and knitware industries and is not suitable for weaving kilt cloth. Pity, because there are more sheep than people in Caithness and Sutherland.

Chris.

Chris, that is very true, with a few exceptions. I know that the Harris Tweed industry still uses Cheviot wool. And then there is Ardalanish on Mull that uses local native breeds.

But by and large, where tartan is concerned, the wool does not come from UK sheep.

**cruiser348** · 6th June 11, 03:44 PM

That sounds like about my luck. I had just started hiding away a few dollars a week towards the purchase of my first nice kilt (and sadly I do mean a few dollars). While doing my calculations as to how long it would take I thought I was being oh so smart and factored in a "price increase" fudge factor; sadly I only did 18% not 30%. Ahh well what's an extra few months of jonesing. Out of curiosity what is the primary country of origin for wool of high enough quality for tartan weavers?

**Paul Henry** · 6th June 11, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by cruiser348

That sounds like about my luck. I had just started hiding away a few dollars a week towards the purchase of my first nice kilt (and sadly I do mean a few dollars). While doing my calculations as to how long it would take I thought I was being oh so smart and factored in a "price increase" fudge factor; sadly I only did 18% not 30%. Ahh well what's an extra few months of jonesing. Out of curiosity what is the primary country of origin for wool of high enough quality for tartan weavers?

Here you go! from the STA

sources of yarn

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 6th June 11, 04:50 PM

As far as what typically goes into most quality Scottish woven tartan, it's wool from Australia and New Zealand.

**Joshua** · 6th June 11, 05:59 PM

Is it just me, or do the Chinese get blamed for every shortage on the whole planet?

The "Black Helicopter Tinfoil Helmet" in me believes it's bullcrap used to drive up commodity cost.

**Tobus** · 7th June 11, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by Joshua

Is it just me, or do the Chinese get blamed for every shortage on the whole planet?

The "Black Helicopter Tinfoil Helmet" in me believes it's bullcrap used to drive up commodity cost.

I don't know how much of the "Chinese demand" excuse is true or not, but it is an absolutely huge country with a staggering number of people in it. The more they modernize and start purchasing globally-produced goods, the more pressure it will put on everything. Most people grossly underestimate the potential impact that China has on the global economy. As more and more Chinese join the global marketplace, becoming westernized consumers, we will continue to see wild things happen.

Question for the experts out there... Why is Scottish wool not suitable for kiltmaking? Is it too coarse or something? Why was it good enough a couple of hundred years ago but not today?

**saxandpipes** · 7th June 11, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

...

Question for the experts out there... Why is Scottish wool not suitable for kiltmaking? Is it too coarse or something? Why was it good enough a couple of hundred years ago but not today?

Sorry, not an expert, but I would say it has to do with pure numbers. We have around 40 million sheep in New Zealand. (Ok, the stats I am quoting below don't say that exactly, but they are from wikipedia, and might be out of date). Anyway, I guess that the UK alone simply wouldn't have enough wool to supply all the tartan, let alone all the other wool products it would like to export. And Tweed is great, but I think that particular wool wouldn't really sell that well to people who want to wear the particular garment directly against the skin, yes, I think it would be scratchy.

(world sheep populations in millions)

China 136.4
Australia 79.0
India 65.0
Iran 53.8
Sudan 51.1
New Zealand 34.1
Nigeria 33.9
United Kingdom 33.1

Hmmm, anyone else notice something interesting here...

**saxandpipes** · 7th June 11, 10:56 AM

Oh, and I'm really not saying anything about the "quality" of the wool here. Of course Harris Tweed is one of the highest quality fabrics available. Just that that particular wool used is not as soft as many other wool types available... I have no idea if thats to do with the way it's processed...?

**Jock Scot** · 7th June 11, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

Question for the experts out there... Why is Scottish wool not suitable for kiltmaking? Is it too coarse or something? Why was it good enough a couple of hundred years ago but not today?

I am no weaver and I wondered the same thing. The only thing I could think of is that Antipodean wool will contain a proportion(large?) of Marino wool.This type of wool is softer than the Scottish wool I believe and at a pure guess, that is why we, apparently, don't have many kilts, these days, made from Scots wool. I should imagine that Scottish wool would be more suited to be woven into tweed.