Sett Size

[zazenkilter]

Sett size gives the formula that is made of thread count and colours used to make a tartan. once the formula is sett and registered, IT CAN NOT BE CHANGED and be what it was named as, to change the formula or sett, you will make a completely new tartan. the only way the set is changed is the ounce of the thread used to make the tartan. a 10 oz is smaller, therefore the tartan sett size is smaller then aa 22 oz thread and so on...there is NO OTHER WAY TO change the sett size for a given named tartan. hope this helps you. You can always create a new tartan based on an original tartan, by change in the number of threads per colour and repeat the pattern, but if it is to close to the original tartan the Registry of Tartan, may not pass if for registration.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Sett size gives the formula that is made of thread count and colours used to make a tartan. once the formula is sett and registered, IT CAN NOT BE CHANGED and be what it was named as, to change the formula or sett, you will make a completely new tartan. the only way the set is changed is the ounce of the thread used to make the tartan. a 10 oz is smaller, therefore the tartan sett size is smaller then aa 22 oz thread and so on...there is NO OTHER WAY TO change the sett size for a given named tartan. hope this helps you. You can always create a new tartan based on an original tartan, by change in the number of threads per colour and repeat the pattern, but if it is to close to the original tartan the Registry of Tartan, may not pass if for registration.

This is not correct at all. The thread count of a tartan is there primarily to give you an idea of proportion, not to formally dictate the exact number of threads used. What defines the tartan is a combination of the pattern and colors, and if you change all the numbers in the thread count proportionally, the pattern (and therefore the tartan) remain the same.

This can be easily demonstrated by looking at how the thread count for one of the simplest tartans is typically rendered. The black and red "Rob Roy" MacGregor tartan is often written thus:
K=R

This means that the number of black threads is the same as the number of red threads, giving you the simple "check" design of the Rob Roy tartan. If you weave it with 8 threads per color, or 20 threads per color, or 32 threads per color, it would still be the Rob Roy tartan.

In fact, here are images of three different versions of the Rob Roy tartan found in a pattern book from the first half of the 1800s. All three are from the same pattern book, same weavers, same weight and quality cloth. All that is different is the proportion of the thread count. The tartan is the same.

[davidg]

What defines the tartan is a combination of the pattern and colors, and if you change all the numbers in the thread count proportionally, the pattern (and therefore the tartan) remain the same.

I've never understood why anyone has any trouble with this concept. In a recipe 4 ounces of fat and 8 ounces of flour is seen to be proportional. In other words, you want more pastry and you size the recipe up! The thread count works the same way but some simply do not see it. 4 parts (threads) red to 8 parts green is the same as 8 parts red to 16 parts green. Perhaps we should have called it the THREADS (plural) count