Barb: In your post #40 you wrote ...

"If you asked a weaver to look up the US Air Force Reserve Pipe Band tartan in the Registry and weave you a length, you would get the following:

http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar....aspx?ref=4180

What started this in the first place is that is exactly what I did. And I got a length of tartan that does not match what the USAF Reserve Pipe Band wears in their uniform, as you can see in what Carolyn is wearing in my previous post. So, that's where the mystery lies."

I'm not understanding how this is not a weaver's mistake. The way I interpret your comment above is that you asked a weaver to weave the US Air Force Reserve Pipe Band tartan, but instead they sent you Strathmore's US Air Force (Not Official) cloth. That seems to qualify as a mistake to me. What am I missing?

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In your post #44 you wrote ...

'... so I don't know what you mean by "two distinct thread counts" - ...'

I mean literally that. The USAF RPB tartan has one threadcount given by the SRT as

Threadcount: AL30RB4RB6AL68RB16DR6K40RY6RB88

Pallet: K=101010BLACK;DR=880000DARK RED;FSB=2474E8FS BLUE;DY=E8C000GOLD;RB=1C0070ROYAL BLUE;AL=48A4C0ANDERSON BLUE;RY=BC8C00DARK GOLD;

while Strathmore's US Air Force (Not Official) threadcount is different.

In Strathmore's the width between the two Royal Blue overstripes is 14, but it is 30 in the USAF RPB tartan. In addition Strathmore's tartan is completely absent the two Royal Blue vertical bands outside of the red overstripes that appear in the USAF RPB as you have so clearly illustrated.

Finally, I suspect that the sett size of both tartans is not the same, though I cannot state that with complete certitude. I would guess that Strathmore's is a bit smaller given the absence of the Royal Blue bands and the narrower space between the double blue overstripes.

The evidence strongly suggests that we are dealing with two different tartans here, and folks just have to be careful to distinguish between the two.

John