Sett Size

[Guinness>water]

Yes sir, your right.

Do you think sett sizes have changed much from back in the old days? Is a sett repeat bigger today than back then?

[figheadair]

Do you think sett sizes have changed much from back in the old days? Is a sett repeat bigger today than back then?

Again, by back in the old days I presume you mean pre-19th century. That being the case then you are asking the wrong question and are trying to equate our modern use of tartan to that of our forefathers which just doesn't work.

In 'the old days' tartan was generally woven with an end use in mind and therefore the sett size, and in fact even the sett itself, was depenant on the end use. One also has to remeber that sett size and sett complexity are two different things.

There was no such thing as a clan tartan and therefore no need to conform to that constraint. Plaid settings were generally larger as the cloth was designed to be joined to make it double width and the sett and sett size was produced with that in mind and on the intended effect with the colours available. That said, not all old plaid setts were large. Similarly, setts and settings for made p clothing tended to be smaller than those for plaids but not always.

A simple answer to your question: there was no such thing as a standard sett size so it cannot be copared to today where weavers tend to work to rough standards in order to maximise the utilisty of the cloth.