Doodling with a Sett

**Jon Lilley** · 29th January 12, 02:58 PM

I like the overall effect, but Barb has a point. It would be rather difficult to pleat to the sett with all those little lines "in the cluster" without diminishing lines. It has a classic look to it and the color choices are very nice. I'd be happy to pleat it to the red stripe and be done with it. I think the cluster colors would be too far into the back of the pleat to flash much, if any, really.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a special place Barb could keep all her threads? I think it'd be great to have a place for just tartan design and discussion. Scotweb wouldn't know what to do with all the business.

Keep up the great work, Ian!

Jon

**Ian_G** · 30th January 12, 02:44 PM

Had another play with the sett and came up with this

Lost the little fiddly lines and not sure if I have lost the spirit of the first version. Still keeping the base red and green for Wales, the blue and white cross from the Saltaire, the Royal Navy element and the yellow and red from the Griffiths crest.

Further comments more than welcome.

Ian

**Jon Lilley** · 30th January 12, 03:05 PM

Hi Ian,

This is so different looking from the last. In my humble opinion, I'd tighten the cluster edges back up, because it looks as if you've got a secondary over check pattern now. The eye doesn't settle on any one spot like it did in the last example. Your colors are great and I think the extra bit of width in the blue in the cluster hit the mark. I hope you saved a copy of the last one. You may need it. Beautiful work!

Slàinte,

Jon

PS: Just as a suggestion, try putting brown guard lines (single row/both sides) right next to the red (between the red & green) and see what happens. If you've got the time and want to play, try it with black or white guard lines, too . . . just for the heck of it. Then let me know what you think.

**Paul Henry** · 30th January 12, 03:28 PM

From a kilt makers view, that would offer many options of pleating, and because of that it works better. I suspect that the white tram lines might appear very contrasty when pleated.
There is always a matter of subjectivity on any tartan design, and also one of compromise to get something that works with a kilt, and yet still keeps the designer happy!

**Ian_G** · 30th January 12, 03:41 PM

Ok, taking the last two comments on board. Trying to remove the overcheck and make the tramlines easier to pleat.
How about this.

I really appreciate this, guys.

Ian

**Jon Lilley** · 30th January 12, 04:35 PM

Oooo, thanks, Ian!

I think you're onto something now, but wait for Barb to see what she thinks before you get too much farther along. My only worry is that going back to too many small stripes at the center of your cluster has made it difficult to pleat to the sett again. ? ? ?

@ PaulHenry: "Tramlines, eh?" I love it!!! I'm going to use that next time! It's great! Cheers!

Jon

**Paul Henry** · 30th January 12, 04:44 PM

"tramlines" it's not my original use, but thank you!

I think I still favour number 2 to number 3 but they are both easier to work with than number 1

**Barb T** · 30th January 12, 06:45 PM

I like the look of #3 (has more of the feel of #2), and the spacing of stripes should make it much easier to pleat. Just to make sure, though, can you tell me what's the width from the outer edge of the red to the outer edge of the red in the cluster of stripes at the pivot?

**Ian_G** · 31st January 12, 02:29 PM

Thanks all for your continued interest, especially Barb T.

Using the Tartan Designer from http://www.scotweb.co.uk/tartandesign/design the thread count for the half set is 130 deducting the count for the two pivots (16 + 6) gives a total of 238 for the whole sett. The designer gives width of 6.5 inches and the central stripe is
4R 2W 4Y 6R, so the width from red edge to red edge is 20 threads.

So if my calculation is correct ,the width of the central stripe from red to red is 0.71 inches. Which, I guess, is not enough to pleat with safety.

Back to the drawing board.

Ian

**Barb T** · 31st January 12, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by Ian_G

Thanks all for your continued interest, especially Barb T.

Using the Tartan Designer from http://www.scotweb.co.uk/tartandesign/design the thread count for the half set is 130 deducting the count for the two pivots (16 + 6) gives a total of 238 for the whole sett. The designer gives width of 6.5 inches and the central stripe is
4R 2W 4Y 6R, so the width from red edge to red edge is 20 threads.

So if my calculation is correct ,the width of the central stripe from red to red is 0.71 inches. Which, I guess, is not enough to pleat with safety.

Back to the drawing board.

Ian

Well, it's still a bit problematic form the standpoint that, if you had a pleat 3/4 at the hips and it tapered at all toward the waist, you'd lose the edge red stripes. If the pleat were a bit bigger, say 7/8 at the hips, and it tapered toward the waist, you'd lose the blue on each side of the red and the red would merge at the waist. If you like the cluster of stripes, try making the center red stripe in the cluster wide enough that a kiltmaker could split it between two pleats. You could get a bundle of stripes in, and you'd still have something "pleatable".