Unfolding Clan Tartan Tragedy?

[xman]

In preparation for my second kilt purchase (still waiting for the first to arrive) I am waiting for some swatches of my clan tartan (MacDonald of Clanranald) to arrive. In the interim few weeks I have noticed that one of my preferred cloths seems to be becoming unavailable. Marton Mills no longer lists the Modern colours for this tartan in their heavyweight wool and their medium weight isn't very dark, but also isn't very light so they don't list it as Modern, Ancient or Muted. I'm afeared that my options are diminishing before my eyes while I wait to view some samples.

X

[Zardoz]

Have you looked here?

http://www.scotweb.co.uk/sr_swhdr_ta...f%20Clanranald

[denmcdough]

Another option: check D.C. Dalgliesh, as they pride themselves in top notch wool (silk, too), but in small, special, rare runs.

[BoldHighlander]

And don't forget but both Lochcarron
and the House of Edgar weave this tartan as well:

Lochcarron Strome macdonald_of_clanranald

House of Edgar Nevis_Heavyweight

[The Wizard of BC]

Please remember that the terms "Ancient" and "Weathered", when referring to versions of Tartans, are used predominantly by the weaver Lochcarron.

Marton Mills uses the term "Muted" for some of their alternate versions.

Other weaving companies have other names for their versions of the exact same Tartan.

The colors used when weaving Tartan are not usually determined by the Thread Count. When designing Tartan we use letters for the color. "B" means Blue. "R" means Red.
We don't normally specify which color Blue or Red.

The whole idea of getting the exact colors you want is actually very new. It used to be all up to the weaver and what colors they liked or had in stock.

I have swatch books here in the shop from a wide variety of weavers and each one is very different. In fact I just looked and find at least seven different MacDonald of Clanranald Tartan versions.

So, when searching for a particular version of a Tartan the name is a dead give away which weaver the fabric was made by.

If I see a Tartan I don't recognize and ask the wearer what Tartan it is...and they reply...XXX weathered...Then I know that the fabric was probably woven by Lochcarron.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Unless you are just dead set on Marton Mills, MacDonald of Clanranald modern is not that hard to come by.

Lochcarron offers it in 10oz and 16oz.

Strathmore offers it in 11oz and 13oz.

House of Edgar offers it in 13oz and 16oz.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Please remember that the terms "Ancient" and "Weathered", when referring to versions of Tartans, are used predominantly by the weaver Lochcarron.

I have to disagree with this statement, Steve. The term "ancient" is used pretty much by every woolen mill I have ever ordered tartan from, with the exception of Strathmore who use the term "Old Colors" to describe the same thing.

"Weathered" is used by pretty much every mill except for D. C. Dalgleish, and that is because that mill actually originated this color scheme but called it "Reproduction." They trademarked the term, so other woolen mills producing the same color scheme had to call it something else -- hence "weathered."

Though it is true Lochcarron does seem to offer more of their tartans in weathered colors than most mills.

[The Wizard of BC]

Matt, you are the expert on this subject. I bow to your correction and retract all that I said after "Hello".

[xman]

Unless you are just dead set on Marton Mills, MacDonald of Clanranald modern is not that hard to come by.

I wouldn't say "dead set", but was really looking forward to seeing this one in person. Right now it runs a close second to Strathmore's Wilson of Bannockburn reproduction colours you offer Matt, but a custom weave of 8 yards would be prohibitive for me. I wonder what my chances would be of getting seven or eight others interested in a custom weave to make it somewhat cost effective.

The reason I'd grown to like the jpeg of this one so much is that the Modern colours all seem either to bright green (Strathmore perhaps) or too dark all over (Dalgleish looks this way) to be 'perfect' and the muted colours are often a bit too muted and/or the claret red isn't quite as appealing.

I know I still have many options available to me. I'm just lamenting that one of my preferred if not my most preferred weave might be history. Rocky still lists it at USA Kilts and who knows, it might just show up on my doorstep from the last bolt of cloth or something bizarre like that.

[Hothir Ethelnor]

I wonder what my chances would be of getting seven or eight others interested in a custom weave to make it somewhat cost effective.

Well I would be interested. I am a Keppoch but I really like the Clanranald colours (the white really nicely breaks up the busyness of the red stripes.)

If you have to go custom, let me know before-hand and perhaps we can find some others to weigh in on it.