The Tartan Weaver's Guide - Tapa dura

This volume combines practical experience of tartan-weaving with a grasp of Highland social history. Aimed specifically at the amateur tartan-weaver, it contains much that should be of interest to students of either subject. The weaver is provided with useful hints on the special requirements of weaving tartan, and the student with authentic information about their history. Threadcounts, accompanied by historical notes, are given for 228 tartans, 142 of them illustrated in colour. There are articles on tartan pattern, colour, yarn, threadcounts and their adjustment to suit different purposes and yarn thicknesses, and on the actual weaving of the cloth. There is also a glossary of weaving terms for the benefit of transatlantic readers. The basis of any tartan, as the author points out, is a simple two-colour check which may be varied by the addition of over-checks, bands and stripes in constrasting colours so arranged as to give a balanced and harmonious pattern. James Scarlett has devoted many years to the study of tartan both independently and as a close colleague of D.C. Stewart, author of the definitive "The Setts of the Scottish Tartans". "D.C." bequeathed him all his work on tartans, published and unpublished, together with what he possessed of his father's (D.W. Stewart) work in the field. James Scarlett and D.C. Stewart are co-authors of "Tartan: The Highland Textile".