• Arisaid, is it worth it? (as in, is it the done thing?)
• Any advice regarding design, etc., please?

Yes, trying hard not to overthink, but the stakes are high… as in, my wife’s feelings, don't want them hurt.

Wife, who’s the US-born genetic Scot having just been able to successfully deepen in exploring her maiden-name origins as of 3 years ago (inspired by our first New Hampshire Highland Games, now our not-to-miss yearly event), is getting us both to go to the homeland this August (first time!) as part of the NHScot contingent, plus a couple weeks for Clan Donnachaidh events and ancestors’ locations especially around Elgin. For my part, I’m just the multi-cultural loud enthusiast that I am, with a well established track record in three-and-a-half continents of doing things my own way. She’s the stable and saner one.

For me, weaving a Duncan tartan from scratch, starting with building the corresponding weaving loom “is the natural thing.” Because, see, “I do my own things my way.” Then, I do like to drag my wife along. Manly thing innit? Sometimes she’ll even let me. Not always with happy results: We got all dressed up (costumed?) for a Texas Czech event in what my father had lovingly recreated for her as ethnic attire from his own parents’ town area, to be confronted there by a nasty Moravian Kilt Kop equivalent (family leans mountains Hussite. Bad blood 500 years old... sigh). Obviously we never again attended any Czech event. I wouldn’t want a repeat of that experience in Scotland.

BUT. At our local Highland Games I see ladies wearing men’s kilts, and it feels a bit odd to consider a kilt for my beloved. Shouldn’t it be an arisaid? Then, as I try to learn more about "classic" Highlander women’s dress (I was writing “ladies’,” but reflected that the arisaid was commoner’s clothing, no “lady” would be caught wearing it back then, “formal” would have been a full length dress, which some women do wear at the Games, but then that makes me feel we’re risking a slide into RenFair look-and-feel…). Yes, overthinking, guilty as charged.

I’ve done as much basic research as I could.
VERY slim pickings. Tomes and whole libraries and even a museum about kilts. Almost zero on arisaids. If anyone has any influence with the National Museums Scotland, could you ask them to at least post some pictures? They do have many, many arisaid items in their storage warehouses, but... https://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/se...eyword=arisaid Their one-pager is very nice, https://www.nms.ac.uk/discover-catal...e-18th-century , the Wikipedia article decent, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arisaid yet of course it’s the Peter E MacDonald article still the best source IMHO, http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Mus...male_dress.pdf “this overview will spur the reader to further study of this oft neglected subject.” Indeed…

Bottom line. I “want” to make my girl an arisaid.

The “recipe” appears to be simple. Dominant off-white background (Tartan Register uses “Wilson White,” RGB=F8F8F8, which is actually greyish, I would go for “natural” wool, a bit cream or ivory)). Then a sett pattern, hmmm, Duncan, 2x Green, 1x Dark Blue, a dash of Red on the blue, White, Black on green. No biggie. In the grand scheme of things, the Tartan Register’s business model is precisely to have people create patterns (and pay to register them…), thus the whole inventing of a pattern is an encouraged and welcome thing… (I wonder what will happen to the Dalgliesh-registered patterns, but that’s not my problem)

However. Oh well, if anything goes, I guess that I’m on my own regarding the sanity of the experiment.

Alas, my dearest is so stable in her mind and attitude (and a life saver for me, not just diagnosed ADD but actually often couldn’t care less about being outlandishly creative and not noticing the consequences), that she has trouble envisioning possibilities. Thus, asking *her* opinion, which should be an “obvious” way to deal with my question on whether to even consider this additional project (after our loom, then weaving tartan for my kilt, then making the kilt… yay!), but I do like to plan ahead, even if it doesn’t look like I do, and I do like to hear people’s advice, and sometimes even will follow it… I’ve read all 10 pages of one of the several threads on X-marks regarding American tourists wearing kilts in Scotland, hmm, concerns of meeting that Moravian gentleman again.

One good thing about arisaids, it appears there is a lot of precedent on being used for other purposes than wearing it. A nice light wool blanket would end up useful, if wearing it is a fail.

So, please, let’s you opinionate and have a say… Arisaid, worth it? Design ideas (or precedent!!!!!) for a Duncan/ Donnachaidh (even Robertson) arisaid?