Strome Questions for the Pro's

[The Wizard of BC]

As PaulHenry said Strome refers to a weight not to a level of quality.

The 'sticky out parts' are the wool 'hairs'. Kilt wool is Worsted or pulled and straightened before spinning to minimize the numberso of hairs sticking out.

And by the way the itchiness of wool is the result of these hairs sticking out. Worsted wool itches less. But we are still not talking about a level of quaility that you can specify when you order your fabric. All the mills I know of use worsted wool for their kilt fabrics.

Each mill produces a fabric which has a different 'hand' or how it feels but there are also variations within each mill. Again, not something you can specify.

So what it comes down to is that you are dealing with a natural product. The length of the wool hairs, the curliness or kinkiness and the thickness of the wool is different by species of sheep and many other factors such as first shearing or late season shearing. Even what the sheep grazed on can effect the wool.
Then there is the cleaning, worsting, felling, spinning, dyeing, and finally weaving of the fabric. Each of these can, and often do, effect the final product.

The production of kilt fabric is not as automated and exact as we today are used to thinking. It is actually old technology. Much the same as it was before the industrial revolution. In fact many of the machines used in the production are the same. We just power them with electricity today instead of the human power or water wheels or steam engines that powered them in the past.

Take a look at the video of D. C. Dalgliesh. The pedals that were pumped by the weaver are still there on the machines.

This is one of the things that make kilts so fasinating to us in the business. No two kilts are ever identical.

I can make a kilt today and another one next year. Both could be from the same mill in the same Tartan and weight of fabric. But the two could look and feel completly different.

[Macman]

I can make a kilt today and another one next year. Both could be from the same mill in the same Tartan and weight of fabric. But the two could look and feel completly different.

I've found this as well. I have three kilts from one company in the same fabric and weight and they all feel just a bit different.