Gearing up for a custom weave... help a brother out!

[Tobus]

I've been wanting a kilt in weathered/muted colours for quite some time now, but it just hasn't been in the cards up to this point. Finally, though, I'm putting my foot down and declaring that I will move on this project within the next month or so.

Here's the deal. My clan tartan is Colquhoun. There are only two standard tartan colour schemes: modern and ancient. They are pretty much what you'd expect. Modern is darker and richer in colour, while ancient is lighter. So, as a starting point, here are the standard tartan choices:

Colquhoun Modern:


Colquhoun Ancient:



Now, I already have a kilt in Colquhoun Ancient. I love the colours, and they are very traditional. But what I want is to do my own custom weave that tones down the tartan to a more 'weathered' or 'muted' scheme (same exact sett size and pattern, just different colours). Think "earth tones". One of the mills used to offer a Colquhoun Weathered tartan, but it is not one that they keep in stock, and would cost me a pretty penny to have it woven. And I'm not sure it's what I'm really looking for anyway.

If I'm going to do a custom mill run, I'll probably get enough yardage to do a full 8-yard kilt, a tartan waistcoat, a day plaid, and perhaps 6-8 extra yards for future purposes (maybe a shawl or a dress for the wife?).

I know that DC Dalgliesh does custom mill runs in 16-ounce wool. So I'm assuming it will come from them. But I have some questions for those who might know:

1. Does anyone know if they will do custom runs in 18-ounce?

2. What is their minimum length? I seem to recall 8 yards being required, which should be OK. Just want to make sure.

3. Any idea on the cost per yard/meter, or the wait time?

4. Can I deal with them directly, or is it better to have my kilt-maker order the cloth directly?

5. What's the best way to ensure the colours I get are the colours I want? Does DC Dalgliesh send out yarn samples so I can compare true colours, and if so, does it usually give you a good representation of the final product?



Anyway, here are some colour schemes I've been playing with, using Scotweb's tartan generator. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, as it's difficult to extrapolate an image like this into a full kilt, waistcoat, etc. But they are all variations on the same theme, by tweaking the green to tan, blue to grey, red to red/brown, and white to tan.

Colquhoun Muted no. 1:


Colquhoun Muted no. 2:


Colquhoun Muted no. 3:


Colquhoun Hunting no. 1:


Colquhoun Hunting no. 2:



Does any one of these strike you as being better suited to a kilt/waistcoat/plaid? If so, why?

[AKScott]

I can't see your images from behind my office firewall, but I was just on the DCDalg website yesterday.

1. minimum order posted on the website is four yards.

2. They have thread samples online. http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/yarns.html

I think I read recently not all of the DCDalg colors are available on the scotweb generator.

Hope this helps.

S

[madmacs]

Just a thought (and something i've been meaning to try for a while), but have you tried printing the modern colours and seeing how UV (or sunlight) changes them on paper?

[Spartan Tartan]

4. I believe they only deal with merchants or makers now. I thought there was a change a few months ago and they don't deal directly with the end customer. You might want to double check that.

I suspect it is better to go through the person you plan to make your kilt.

As to time of wait for custom weave, I just had a custom weave from them and it took about 3 months just to get the weave.

[creagdhubh]

Tobus,

I am in the process of commissioning DC Dalgliesh to do something similiar for me, with the exception of weaving a new shade of tartan. Since I am obviously a Macpherson, DC Dalgliesh does in fact offer a rather attractive Macpherson tartan in reproduction colours, which are all earth tones. I am planning to order enough material for the same items in which you desctibed: an 8-yard kilt, day plaid (blanket plaid) with purled fringe(the same fringe as a piper's or drummer's plaid), and a waistcoat for evening attire.

Naturally, my process will be much easier than yours, since DC Dalgliesh already weaves the Macpherson Reproduction, however, I wish you the best of luck with your endeavour. I have always desired a kilt in the weathered/muted/reproduction colours, and I am quite fortunate (as a Macpherson) to have DC Dalgliesh, Lochcarron, and House of Edgar to readily choose my tartan from. I too adore the ancient colours in my Macpherson Red Ancient, however, the more subdued, earthy, weathered tonality is what my heart really longs for. I believe these coloured setts really 'strike a mood' with oneself and remind me of the heath and bracken of Badenoch, my 'home away from home.' I also tend to think that these types of colours go so fantastically well with any colour tweed hill-jacket and waistcoat, and also with any style of black barathea to black cotton velveteen doublet.

Good luck...

Beannach'd libh,

[ShaunMaxwell]

Toby:

I've recently placed an order for a custom weave from D.C. Dalgliesh, through Matt Newsome. As others have stated, I fairly certain that you'll have to work through a kiltmaker to place the order, and that the minimum run is four yards. When I asked, Matt told me that the typical turnaround time was 8-12 weeks. No idea exactly what the cost per yard is or whether they'll be able to weave it in 18 oz.

Do check the thread colors on the D.C. Dalgliesh site, as they seem to vary a bit from the colors posted on the Scotweb site. There was some discussion about this in thread back in August. Here was part of the exchange with Nick Fiddes of Scotweb:

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShaunMaxwell
Nick, this is very helpful!

I did a quick comparison of the colors on the D.C. Dalgliesh website (under "Our Stock Wool Shades"), and noticed that there seem to be more shades available on the DCD site than are available in the Weaver's colors in the Design Your Own Tartan section of the Scotweb site.

Is there any way to know which color on the Tartan Designer page (which are named) corresponds to the yarn colors on the DCD site (which are numbered)?

If not, perhaps that's something to consider for a future iteration of your wonderful Tartan Designer software.

SM

You are absolutely correct. Full marks for observation. :-) The reason is that our Tartan Designer fabrics are not normally produced by Dalgliesh, but by another mill on computerised looms (and so without a kilting selvedge).

It is indeed our intention to offer Dalgliesh weaves as an option from the Tartan Designer too. But regretably our technical workload at the moment is such that it is unlikely to be done within the next month or two at least.

On the other hand, we do also have plans in development for the Dalgliesh site itself (or for ordering Dalgliesh fabrics from Scotweb) that will both introduce and extend some of the same functionality, which I hope everyone will find pretty exciting once we're done. As I say, watch this space...

I, too, used the Scotweb Tartan Designer to test color combinations (I'm having Maxwell Hunting woven, a reversal of the red and green in the Maxwell sett, but wanted to tone down the colors a bit). Once I was happy with the way the colors looked in the Tartan Designer, I copy/pasted the image into Photoshop, then went to the D.C. Dalgliesh website and looked at the colors of thread available and found those that most closely matched. I copy/pasted those samples into Photoshop to compare, and that was the basis for my decision. I emailed the image to Matt, which he forwarded on to D.C. Dalgliesh.

While I know my methodology is far from foolproof given the vagaries of screen color, etc., short of requesting thread samples for Dalgliesh, it was the best I could come up with. Here's the result:



By the way, I really like your Colquhoun Muted no. 1 (which would look smashing with your new jacket/waistcoat) and Colquhoun Hunting no. 2. All are nice, but I think aforementioned might look the best when produced because they have a bit more contrast.

Looking forward to seeing the end result! I find that these long-term projects are lots of fun.

SM

[zazenkilter]

Why have you not contacted DC Delglish already with your questions? They will tell you just what you need and how to get their product. I have talked to then on the phone as well as in an e-mail and have gotten all the information I needed then. Best to get the information direct from them if your going to work with them later. You can also Google them on their big web site as well. I hope this will help.

[Paul Henry]

I've just had a 16 yard double width run delivered from them, and all went well but I think they want only to deal with trade customers now, so you will most likely have to go through a kiltmaker.

My design on one of the weaving programmes , I think it was " Croft"
They sent me sample threads as per that computer picture

and the finished cloth


All in all a fairly straight forward process , but took from August to last week to get the tartan, as some of the colours had to be specially dyed, but i think the colour balance is very good
I'd happily do it again,the important thingis just to be patient! but it's worth it to see the finshed kilt!

[xman]

IMHO
Have your kiltmaker order;
Blue from Colquhoun Muted no. 1
Green from Colquhoun Hunting no. 1
Red from Colquhoun Muted no. 2
Black and White at your discretion.

[Downunder Kilt]

Tobus, you may want to contact Artificer, he just went thru the whole process with the Cthulu Tartan. At some time, he did receive sample threads from Dalgliesh to check colours.