Isle Of Skye: odd pleating choices

**OC Richard** · 8th July 15, 04:51 AM

This kilt just came up on Ebay.

Beautiful kilt, great price. It will probably sell quickly.

It took me a moment to realize why the pleats struck me as odd: they're creating a sett which is different from Isle Of Skye, the dark stripes being moved from the junction of the seafoam green and purple, to the junction of the seafoam green and olive green. It creates a nice tartan, however a different one.

Here's the auction

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mens-fine-10...item20febddbd3

Here's the photo of the pleats from the auction

**tulloch** · 8th July 15, 07:27 AM

That's really interesting. Two setts for the price of one!

**sydnie7** · 8th July 15, 08:59 AM

Cue the Wayback Machine. . . I don't have time to search for it now, but a former forum member (involved in commerce/kiltmaking) posted shots of an IoS pleating pattern that his young daughter had created while playing with scraps. It was pleasing, as I recall, while being neither to the stripe nor to the sett. He dubbed it. . . Skye's Folly? [Daughter's Name] Skye? Thought I might have saved the pictures but they don't come up on a quick look through my folders.

Anyway, it's a lovely tartan and you'd be hard-put to make it look bad!

**Blupiper** · 9th July 15, 11:04 AM

Maybe in deference to the two IOS looks, it could be called the IOS "Coming and Going." Or separately.

JMB

**RockyR** · 9th July 15, 11:50 AM

Looks like they used less than 8 yards and had to "cheat the sett" or the sett size was so big that they had to cheat it to keep the pleat width under 1" wide.

I have a 5 yard IOS that I made for myself several years ago and that is EFFECTIVELY how I pleated it.

**OC Richard** · 9th July 15, 07:31 PM

Pleating to the sett is a Dark Art to me. It's sort of like cricket: no matter how many times I hear it explained, I just can't wrap my mind around it.

This "cheating" is even more mysterious to me.

**RockyR** · 10th July 15, 05:22 AM

To pleat to the sett, you take an element (let's say the middle light tan stripe in isle of skye) and fold it over so that it overlaps (covers) the next time that same element appears in the tartan (the light tan stripe).

To pleat to the stripe, you take the light tan stripe and fold it so that it's JUST SHORT of the next stripe, allowing both to be seen side by side.

To "cheat the sett", you fold it even MORE short of the next stripe, somewhere on the pattern where it's looks nice, but will use less cloth.

In reality, I've found (as a kiltmaker) that "cheating the sett" is probably the most difficult and takes the most "artistic eye", even though it's generally done on less expensive kilts. Once you "get it", pleating to the sett is easy b/c the pattern is there for you. Pleating to the stripe is even easier, b/c you don't really have to think about it at all... just follow the stripes. "Cheating the sett" is the most artistic b/c you're making up a new pattern using an existing pattern, to work within the length of cloth you have. It's often not easy to get a "nice looking pattern" as a result. That's where the "artistic eye" comes in.