Winter Weavings…

Our winter was spent in productive hibernation. Wrapped up in handwoven garments to avoid the chill, dreaming of the next woven design was always close at hand! This time, we decided to replicate history to show our appreciation of the craft and its traditions.

A small piece (22 x 17” / 55cm x 43cm) of fabric, was discovered around 40 years ago in the bog of Glen Affric in the Highlands of Scotland. Few historical fabrics survive Scottish soil, but luckily this was buried in peat and the lack of air, slowed decay. Dye analysis and radiocarbon testing place this fabric in the 16th Century ~400 years old, making this the oldest surviving piece of “true” tartan in Scotland. For the tartan-history-uninitiated, a “true” tartan includes several colors with multiple stripes.

Imagine.

This fabric (pictured left) likely existed during the reigns of King James V, Mary Queen of Scots or King James VI/I - between 1513 and 1625!

The Glen Affric tartan colors were identified as green, brown, red, and yellow. The red color is interesting because it was considered a status symbol by the Gaels. However, the cloth had a rustic background which wouldn’t be associated with a king or someone of high status, so it was most likely an “outdoor working garment”. Inspired by this idea, we took our photos during the spring fruit tree pruning!

(Just noticed. We’re not sponsored by Stihl, but we do enjoy their products here in rural Maryland.)

Recreating this tartan was so much fun! Watching videos of tartan experts such as Peter MacDonald and others describing the science and anthropologic analysis, as well as determining the probably SETT or yarn distribution, so that this could be recreated by Scottish mills was inspiring. We spent a fair bit of our time determining the calculations (lots of math on warp amounts by color!) for the best weave to honor this piece of history. We chose to weave ours with two ply superfine merino wool in a symmetrical 2/2 twill design and it is buttery soft. The type of wool used in the past is currently being researched by Scottish tartan experts and was most likely woven with non-plied yarns loosely, but evenly spun, sheep unknown! We’ve added a classic herringbone edge to both selvedges (sides), common for traditional handweavers prior to commercial mill production with cut edges.

Herringbone selvedge displayed on left side of Glen Affric tartan above. Note: Blue woven fabric far left for contrast only.

As you can imagine, this tartan is important to Scotland and their history, so this design has been protected under UK Design Registration No.6295231 (08 July 2023). As a result, commercial production is controlled, and we are awaiting approval from the Scottish Tartans Authority to sell our scarf and future items using this design.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this small bit of history about this special tartan as much as we enjoyed researching and making it! Keep checking back or subscribe to see when/if it’s available for sale here. Looking forward to spring…