Different style of garters

[brewerpaul]

Your post has quite possibly tossed yet another hobby on my pile, I'm looking at loom plans and possibly kicking this into gear with a trip to the hardware store

Good deal, enjoy

[Todd Bradshaw]

It's fun to watch the pattern develop as you start weaving. For straps and items where we want more firmness and reduced stretch we use a lot of a cotton yarn brand common in craft shops (we've even seen it in Wal-Mart) called "Cookies and Cream". I don't know how they decided on that name, but it's good stuff and weaves beautifully. It comes in a pretty decent range of colors and is very cheap.





We even did a couple out of hemp twine that we dyed ourselves. Pretty stiff and a bit scratchy to use for something like garters, but it makes nice straps or belts with interesting surface texture.

[figheadair]

My own weaving of traditional Claddach garters.

[Luke MacGillie]

Way back when, using garters to hold up ones lower leg coverings was something that was not just a Scottish thing, but an actual need throughout most of the Western World. Today garters are pretty much relegated to Scottish Dress, Marine dress uniforms and the boudoir. My focus has pretty much always been the 18th Century, and I have always been on a quest for actually authenticity. There were specific woven products made to serve as garters. Not as fancy perhaps as the fingerwoven garters used by Native Americans and then Canadians, really just plain or patterned twill tape that you see in store inventories listed as "Gartering"

But look here, here are some quite fancy garters, not fingerwoven, nor just tape. This example comes from the MET Museum collection and is from late 18th Century France.

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...=20&pos=10

[freep]

What does that translate to? I've no French.

[Luke MacGillie]

More or less it says, If you follow him, you will have no friends

[OC Richard]

Two regiments use that style of garters, the Queens Own Highlanders and The Scots Guards:



When I first saw those I thought immediately of Guatemalan weaving.



Yet another one of those ancient folk-art things found the world over.

I would think those Highland garters are related to the crois, the traditional belt worn by Aran Island men.

http://irisharchaeology.ie/2014/09/c...h-woven-belts/



which are woven with your feet



It's interesting to see the connexions between the traditional Gaelic dress of Ireland and Scotland, the crois being one, pamputai another.