Weaving tartan (pics)

[Tattoo Bradley]

Well, 25" should be wide enough to allow for most fellow's kilt length...

[Barb T]

Well, 25" should be wide enough to allow for most fellow's kilt length...

It's pretty tough to do kilting fabric on a hand loom. Even 16 oz tartan is 48 picks per inch, and weaving fine wool that densely is difficult. Hard to get a clean shed, easy to break threads.

Barb

[Pleater]

Its hard enough just getting the materials.

I weave a little, and I took one look at the logistics of weaving a tartan and decided that it was not for me.

Even when you have the right colours the fineness is difficult, and you have to get the warp all the same tension, and then weave so it is balanced, and straight on the grain too. Once it is off the loom it has to be worked and fulled

The more I learn about weaving the more I look at ebay fabrics.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

It's pretty tough to do kilting fabric on a hand loom. Even 16 oz tartan is 48 picks per inch, and weaving fine wool that densely is difficult. Hard to get a clean shed, easy to break threads.

Barb

My Mull tartan kilt is made from hand woven cloth.


It was woven by Marjorie Warren, and she used yarns from Lochcarron's strome (heavy weight) range. Even then, this has a different character entirely from the usual machine milled cloth.

Last I talked to her about it, I beleive she was charging $100 per yard (single width) for kilt quality material.

~Matt

[ChromeScholar]

Well, it's still early days yet. This loom is a little on the small side. Once we have the larger loom completed, we'll see how things go.

[Mr. MacDougall]

It's pretty tough to do kilting fabric on a hand loom.

I imagine it would be fine for a belted plaid, or phillabeg. After all, our ancestors hand-wove their wool.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I imagine it would be fine for a belted plaid, or phillabeg. After all, our ancestors hand-wove their wool.

And the cloth that went into making the early tailored kilts was all hand woven, as well.

Barb wasn't saying it cannot be done, just that it is not easy to do! But if you ever get the opportunity to have a kilt made from hand woven cloth from a weaver who really knows how to do kilt cloth, take advantage of it!

By the way, it just occurred to me as I was replying that all my Harris Tweed kilts are also hand woven (as is all Harris Tweed). Though that is a different type of material, it is also very suitable for kilting.

[Barb T]

Marjorie Warren is quite famous for her hand woven tartan, and she is very good at it. And, of course, all kilting tartan used to be "hand woven". I guess what I really meant is that hand weaving tartan that looks and feels like what one expects commercially woven kilting tartan to be like is really difficult (not impossible, but a real challenge).

The main difficulty is the thread count and the size of the threads. If you wanted to duplicate Lochcarron's Strome, you'd need to set the loom at a minimum of 48 pick per inch. That's a much finer weave than most hand weavers are accustomed to dealing with, and it's not immediately obvious what potential problems loom ahead (heh heh) as a result. Wool thread that's commonly available is a bit fuzzy, and the threads tend to stick together when you try to open the shed. It helps that the weave is a twill, because two adjacent threads rise together (plain weave is more of a nightmare, actually), but it's still common for the shed not to open cleanly. Then, you throw the shuttle, and, boing, it bangs into a thread that isn't far enough up or down, and you've got a broken thread. Grrr. It helps to keep a spray bottle handy with a little dish detergent in it to lightly spray the warp, but you have to be careful not to let your reed rust. And then, of course, you need to be vigilent about that 45 degree diagonal. If you beat slightly unevenly, it wanders drunkenly across the fabric.

Anyway, these aren't unsurmountable problems, and I presume that it _really_ helps to be working with the same thread that Lochcarron uses (a harder twist with fewer fuzzies) rather than what's commercially available in the US (although I've never tried Lochcarron's thread - I haven't woven tartan in quite a long time). And, as Matt says, the hand will be different from commercially woven tartan.

Cheers,

Barb

[O'Neille]

Here's my baby at home. I'm just warping the "Sierra Vista" tartan I designed. The design can be seen attached to the loom. I'll be weaving a double width X 9 yards. My weaving instructor has been a huge help with tips and tricks.