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

[Mickey]

Can't help with any of the questions because I'm too dumb in this area.

But for the opinion part, I really like the muted no. 1 and the hunting 2. Muted 1 is very striking, yet subtle... quite beautiful. Hunting 2 just has a very nice "fall-outdoors" look going on. Both would look great as a kilt and/or waistcoat that I wouldn't hesitate to put on. The others examples just look a bit muddy to me.

[Tobus]

I'm seeing a pattern here. Muted no. 1 and Hunting no. 2 seem to be the ones that people are picking, and I see why. Honestly, those are my two favorites as well. I don't know if I necessarily want to have a bright red stripe in the tartan, and was thinking of going with a brownish-red. But I can see how making it brown tends to make it "muddy".

I guess what I need to do, then, is decide on a kiltmaker that can get the material and do the work, and in the meantime I can get some yarn samples from DC Dalgliesh to make a final decision on colours.

Thanks for posting the examples, ShaunMaxwell and paulhenry! Those are very helpful. I think I'm starting to zero in on a final plan!

[davidg]

Lochcarron already do a weathered version of the tartan you require in 16oz Strome

http://www.lochcarron.com/tartanstrome/colquhoun.html

They will also send you a sample swatch for around $3 or so

[M. A. C. Newsome]

No, they don't do 18oz, I can answer that up front. They used to do a range they called F/1, which was like the regimental 18 oz cloth, but they do not offer that any longer. If you desperately want that, I believe House of Edgar can do it, but their minimum run is larger. I think 15 m or more. I'm not certain because I don't normally do custom runs through Hoe.

But for Dalgliesh, the minimum is 4 yards of single width cloth, so what you are looking to have woven is no problem. And yes, you'd be best to go through your kiltmaker who has an account with them.

I did something similar a while back. I wanted the Armstrong tartan in weathered colors, which is not available from stock anywhere. Here is the end result.



For comparison, here is what the tartan looks like in the modern colors.

You can see it is similar to your Colqhoun in terms of color, with the absence of white.

[Tobus]

Lochcarron already do a weathered version of the tartan you require in 16oz Strome

http://www.lochcarron.com/tartanstrome/colquhoun.html

They will also send you a sample swatch for around $3 or so

Yep, that's the one that they say they have, but they really don't. To get them to do a run of it is very expensive, and I think I'd like the colours a little more earthy anyway.

Matt, that is gorgeous! Looks like a much smaller sett size, too. Was that intentional?

[creagdhubh]

Lochcarron already do a weathered version of the tartan you require in 16oz Strome

http://www.lochcarron.com/tartanstrome/colquhoun.html

They will also send you a sample swatch for around $3 or so

Lovely colour!

[creagdhubh]

Yep, that's the one that they say they have, but they really don't. To get them to do a run of it is very expensive, and I think I'd like the colours a little more earthy anyway.

Matt, that is gorgeous! Looks like a much smaller sett size, too. Was that intentional?

Did you check with Nick at Scotweb in regards to this particular tartan?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Lochcarron's tartan availability list on their web site has not been updated in several years, and I know for a fact that there are a handful of tartans listed as available that no longer are, as well as a few new tartans they are doing which do not show up yet.

If you want to know about current availability, check with your kilt maker or tartan retailer who has their most recent availability list.

(FWIW I have compiled a list of current tartans available in heavyweight 16 oz only from Lochcarron, House of Edgar, and Dalgliesh, here.)

Tobus, yes the Armstrong tartan I had woven in the weathered (reproduction) colors is a smaller sett. This was not intentional -- I just had Dalgliesh weave it as they normally do, only in their reproduction color scheme. The sett did come out a bit smaller than I normally like it, but it did allow me to make my four yard box pleated kilt to the sett, which is a bit unusual. I was happy with it in the end.

I'm having them weave a length of Armstrong for me currently in the old Wilsons of Bannockburn colors, and I was much more particular about the sett repeat for this one. It will be a larger sett size, and I modified the proportion of the thread count somewhat for my own tastes and preferences. Should be interesting when it comes in.

Just for comparison purposes, if memory serves the sett repeat on the weathered version is about 6" while the modern (Lochcarron) version is about an 8" repeat.

[Tobus]

Thanks for the input. This has all been very helpful.

After playing with the Scotweb tartan designer for hours on end, I found that I kept coming back to the same colour scheme. And so this is the one I think I'm probably going to stick with. Incidentally, it's virtually identical to the Lochcarron "Colquhoun Weathered" that they have on their site, which is not available. The only real difference is that I like a more muted white colour than the blazing white they use in theirs. For my own future reference, the colours I'm using in this version are: midnight grey, muted white, old red, pewter blue, and tarragon.



That being said, I really like the colours that Matt ended up with in his weathered Armstrong shown above. I love the yellowish tone of the weathered green portion, as well as the hue of the blue. I cannot seem to replicate those using the standard "weaver's colours" on the Scotweb site. Matt, may I ask what colours you specified for those? Do they correspond with any of the colours on the Scotweb tartan designer, or do they go by a specific dye number, etc.? Seeing photos of your kilt, I would be comfortable doing my custom weave using the same colours, and in fact I'd have more confidence in that, over the computer-generated colours I'm seeing.

Also, if I may ask another question, I seem to be a little confused on sett size and thread count. When I go to the Scotweb tartan designer, and pull up the standard Colquhoun tartan, it produces what I assume to be the standard sett. But at the bottom it tells me that this sett size is not ideal for a kilt. The thread count per repeat is 330, with a sett size of 9.2". But the thread count it gives me does not match the existing Colquhoun tartan I have on my kilt (which is 16 oz Lochcarron Strome).

For reference, here's the count it displays on the Scotweb site (total count 330):
blue - 6
black - 6
blue - 48
black - 48
white - 6
green - 48
red - 12
green - 48
white - 6
black - 48
blue - 48
black - 6

My actual existing Lochcarron tartan has a count of exactly 216 threads (which oddly enough is the minimum thread count for an ideal sett size of 6"):
blue - 6
black - 4
blue - 32
black - 30
white - 4
green - 32
red - 6
green - 32
white - 4
black - 30
blue - 32
black - 4

So I'm more than a little intimidated by the prospect of ordering a custom weave and trusting the sett to be right, considering that I have wildly conflicting information on the proper thread count. Notice that it's not just that they scaled up the thread count. They also changed the proportions of the stripes and lines. At this point, I'm not even sure what's supposed to be correct. Is this common for weavers to make subtle changes to the sett? I would assume that they do it so that they get an ideal mirror image across the width of the cloth (which is important for kilt-making when one splits the double-width cloth and re-joins it for a kilt). Is this regularly done? And if so, do I need to take that into account when specifying a custom weave, or will they take it upon themselves to modify it as necessary?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm discovering that things are not what I thought they were!

[creagdhubh]

Looks great Tobus...very smart colour scheme indeed!