Rising price of wool to drive up Kilt costs

[piperdbh]

I should imagine that Scottish wool would be more suited to be woven into tweed.

Hooray for tweed, especially Harris!

[saxandpipes]

As far as what typically goes into most quality Scottish woven tartan, it's wool from Australia and New Zealand.

I would have guessed that. And explains why a kilt in NZ is so expensive... and I mean expensive. At least 1000NZD, just about anywhere.

The wool has to get sent to opposite ends of the earth, twice.

:S

[CDNSushi]

Well, hey... You can still get PV kilts for a good price. Polyviscose wool comes from plastic sheep!

[RockyR]

I blame the high cost of wool on the high price sheep are demanding. Those 'number sheep' on the sleepy's commercials are greedy.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I had this same conversation with people at a few of the different woolen mills I visited last fall. The answer I got everywhere was simply that the local UK sheep's wool was considered too coarse (i.e. scratchy) for making tartan for kilts. People want a softer, smoother hand to their kilt cloth. And that means Merino wool from Australia and New Zealand.

[tpa]

The answer I got everywhere was simply that the local UK sheep's wool was considered too coarse (i.e. scratchy) for making tartan for kilts. People want a softer, smoother hand to their kilt cloth. And that means Merino wool from Australia and New Zealand.

I got the same answer when I asked that question with the rider that Scottish sheep are considered more attractive that their antipodean cousins. Being neither a farmer nor a sheep "expert", I can neither confirm nor deny that assertion, but it did have me pondering about the source of the information.

[Tobus]

Scottish sheep are considered more attractive that their antipodean cousins

*insert "why do Scotsmen wear kilts" joke here*