Veggie/vegan Kilt wearers out there?

[brewerpaul]

I plan to get hemp or hemp/cotton material from this link below. They also sell hemp webbing that can be used for the kilt straps. You could use a regular buckle or a double Dring friction buckle.

http://www.hemptraders.com/


This site has 12 oz hemp twill fabric and webbing. Depends on the look and feel you want, this wont match wool or PV but could be nice cloth.

http://hempbasics.com/

[piperdbh]

So I'm just curious why a vegetarian would want to avoid wool cloth?

Some hardcore vegans don't use any animal products at all, not even honey. I'm not one of them, as you know.

I'm not asking to be antagonistic, I'm just curious.

We wouldn't expect anything else.

[SF Scot]

I have lots of vegetarian friends and none of them have a problem wearing wool -- in fact most I would say have a marked preference for natural fibers over man-made. So I'm just curious why a vegetarian would want to avoid wool cloth? After all, the sheep need shearing, it's part of good animal husbandry. It's actually quite distressing and unhealthy for them not to be sheared.

I'm not asking to be antagonistic, I'm just curious.

The answer to your question depends on if the OP is a vegetarian or a vegan, and it's unclear to me from his post which one he is. A lot of people lump them together, but there are big differences between the two. Vegetarian usually refers to diet only (i.e. omitting meat from one's diet), whereas vegan indicates a far broader meaning, usually transcending the diet issue and encompassing all aspects of a person's life (i.e. a "vegan lifestyle"), of which one of the more common aspects is the refusal to wear leather adn fur products. This has to do with animal rights issues and not health issues (which would be diet related).

If the OP is concerned with the welfare of the animals used to procure the wool for his kilt, I would think that a little due diligence would lead him to a mill that raises their sheep humanely, thereby nullifying the animal rights aspect of the situation. However, some of the more hardcore vegans eschew the "use" of animals by humans in any form whatsoever, and the welfare or treatment of the animals is not even considered. Essentially, any control by humans over animals is not acceptable. In its most extreme form, this includes owning domestic pets, sometimes referred to as "animal slavery."

Personally I am vegan in diet only (mostly for health reasons, but I'm well aware that some animals raised for food live in deplorable and unconscionable conditions) and because of that, a lot of hard core vegans would argue that I'm not a true vegan. People define things different ways. I'm comfortable calling myself a vegan, even though others will disagree.

[Chas]

As far as I am aware, all mammals shed their hair as a normal part of living. Sheep are no exception. I have seen fields with sheep grazing amongst what looks, from a distance, like small drifts of snow.

There is an annual competition, somewhere in the Highlands and Islands to produce a jumper in the shortest possible time.

Teams of men run into fields, gathering up the sheddings which are passed to the washers. After washing, the wool is dried and then carded and spun into yarn. The completed balls are passed to eight knitters who make the parts which are finally sewn up together.

Each year there is a prescribed number of cable stitches that have to be incorporated and the pattern has to be adjusted, because the knitters don't know who they are knitting for until the last minute. I know that Jeremy Paxman and Prince Edward have both been the recipients of a jumper and present the prize.

I believe the record for sheep to worn garment is 5 hours and 59 minutes.

Regards

Chas

[Geoff Withnell]

<snippage>
What would you replace the leather kilt straps with on a PV or acrylic kilt?

I have seen kilts with the straps made from the same tartan fabric as the kilt itself. Not being a kiltmaker, I don't know how well that works.