Hello! I'm in Germany and would like to start weaving tartan, primarily as kilt fabric. I've been searching for a source for suitable yarns and can't seem to find anything. What I'm looking for is "worsted" wool yarn (ie: long fibers, combed) and spun with a tight twist. This is the yarn that typical tartan fabric is woven from (as far as I know). I'll be weaving twill and I need to end up with a fabric that has about 40 EPI. I've contacted several tartan mills in Scotland and asked if they sell yarn or can suggest a source, but got only negative replies. If anyone has any suggestions, or a source, I would be very grateful.
Thanks so much!
-DWass
I see you are in Germany, I was born and raised in Bavaria but I live in Northern California now. Let me see if I can address this question without ruffling any feathers. As I understand it the tartan is a design that is unique to certain clans or family groups in Scotland. Most Tartans I am familiar with are wool and now there are wool blends being used. It is my opinionn that there is not a specific type of wool that is designated as Tartan wool but rather it is wool that is dyed Tartan colors therefore the trick is to find the shades used in Tartans for genuine authenticity. I am sure that there are those more knowledgeable than Ii who will correct this if I am wrong. the Scots do claim that their water is what makes their wool superior, at least that is what Harris Tweed advertises :)
You might also be interested in checking out this weaver's website: http://www.thescottishweaver.com/
The official Tartan Registry is located here: http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails.aspx?ref=1727
If you sign up for the Register or Tartans you can also request informatino like thread counts!
There is also a really cool Tartan designer program (web based) at: http://www.tartanweb.org/designer/laddie.php
Regards, Charles
You may find this site of use.
http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/weave.html
It's a virtual tour of artisan tartan weavers.
Tells you about the yarn preparation and the colors they use. I beleive they retail the yarns as well.
you'd be looking for fine "Kammgarn" - Traub in Sindelfingen carries some finer qualities in white and colors - I just finished a pari of curtains with their 28/2 (ca. 7000 yards per pound) which would come close to meeting your needs.
There are also a few weaving businesses that carry Swedish wool yarns (including worsted) that might be able to help you.
To all who have commented, thank you! When I said I was looking for "suitable yarn", what I really meant was a "worsted spun wool with tight twist". It seems that most tartans are woven from this type of wool as it makes the fabric firm and smooth and it pills less.
None of the Scottish tartan mills I've contacted sell yarn.
Regarding colors, my opinion is that this talk of "tartan colors" is a lot of nonsense. If you look at tartan fabrics manufactured by Scottish tartan mills, there are wild variations of colors even for the same tartan pattern. There are 4 "official" color "themes" anyway: modern, ancient, muted and reproduction! In my case, the tartan I want to weave is the "Cameron Hunting" and this tartan contains 4 colors: red, green, blue and yellow. I've looked at samples of fabric in this tartan from different mills and the red is anything from orange to pink to dusky rose to wine, the blue is anything from purple to royal to teal, the green is anything from brown to grey to olive to forest, and the yellow is usually something approximating gold! So much for "authentic" colors ;-) Based on this information, I think I can choose pretty much whatever colors I want (within a pretty wide range of interpretation) for the tartan I want to weave.
Sara was right on the money with "Kammgarn" from Traub. I didn't know that "Kammgarn" was "Worsted spun", so this was a big help. I had already bought some Swedish MORA from Traub, which is a worsted spun 20/2 wool for another (tablet weaving) project and realized that this is probably exactly what I've been looking for. Just for fun I also ordered some 28/2 and 12/2 Kammgarn from Traub to see how that will make up as well.
Last week I made up a small sample warp that is about 35cm wide and about 2 meters long and on the weekend I put it on my Berga Savonia (Varpapuu) loom and tied it all up for the first time. Since this is my first weaving project on this loom I expected it would take some time to get all the kinks out (I've only done one other weaving project on a floor loom before and that was about 20 years ago!). I wove about 20 or 30cm in the tartan pattern and it looks pretty good (for a first project)! I'm still playing with the tension on the loom and the stripes are a bit wavey (not exactly sure why). Also I realized that I was beating too hard at the beginning so that the checks were not square like they should be. I'm going to try to figure out how to post some pictures here and link them in.
Thanks again for all your suggestions and assistance and I'm hoping that I'll soon be turing out massive amounts of kilting material :-)
I created a project page at http://weavolution.com/project/dwass/cam... and put up some pictures. Please have a look and let me know what you think.
I created a project page and put up some pictures. Please have a look and let me know what you think.
