Quote Originally Posted by NYClark View Post
Aren't there wide black stripes running horizontally that are missing in the vertical? I really should look at it closely to see if the black is just hidden. But if it is hidden in one direction isn't that asymmetrical? I suppose being an engineer I think of symmetry as being absolute and I should be able to rotate the material 90º and have the same pattern, which I don't with the Clark (not really with the Royal Stewart either due to the value of the colors). I may need to be less literal. I was merely curious to begin with and I remain perplexed. I shall stop thinking about it, if I can.
To recap, symmetry is not about how the tartan looks, it's about how it was woven. Symmetric weaves can look asymmetric. That I can accept.
You've got it; symmetric weaves can 'appear' asymmetric. In this case, yours is definitely symmetrical.

Katia was on the right track. The visual inconsistancy in a symmetrical pattern is down to one of two things; either the way the light hits the 2/2 twill which can give prominence to one direction; or, that the cloth is warp faced (slightly denser) which was common in older cloth and helped make it coarser.

An asymmetric sett is one where the pattern repeats in sequential colours and is not mirrored at repeating points. That should not be confused with having a different warp and weft arrangement with will often mean that there are areas of wholly mixed colours. So, whilst warp and weft might both be symmetrical, the effect is not.