This lovely cushion is made by Stoorstalka. The colours are delightful and it brightens up the room. It is very comfortable.
 |
| A beautiful cushion from Stoorstalka |
Tartan as a fabric has travelled around the world, not least because of the entrepreneurial spirit of Scottish men. On our travels in Finland, we discovered in 1820 James Finlayson established a cotton mill because he recognised the potential of the fast flowing river. We started to notice the number of times in the history of places we visited the importance of Scottish immigrants.
 |
| Close up of the material |
A postcard from the Stoorstalka shop shows the delightful shawls which look just the thing to wear in such cold weather. Shawls are such a practical and yet decorative item. Their brightness is very visible in northern climes when sunlight is very low in the winter. I think it is a shame that scarves have taken their place.
 |
| Bright cheerful shawls |
Addition to post
I have had some beautiful pictures sent tome by a friend who is cruising the Norwegian coast. here is a great picture of a Sami shawl.
Canada
First Nation and Métis women across Canada also took to wearing tartan shawls which were worn up until the 1950's. The wearing of shawls was also very meaningful in other ways. With a shawl, you can lift it up to hide or conceal your face which can indicate a willingness or unwillingness to communicate. Shyness, modesty and concealment can all be conveyed with a simple gesture of the shawl. With the lower part of the face concealed behind the shawl, eyes alone can communicate and can show emotion surprisingly well.Look at this web site for a picture of the tartan shawl being worn by a Métis woman.
http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_metis/fp_metis1.html
The Aran Islands
 |
| Inishmaan in the 1940's |
Italy
In the wonderful textile museum in Prato, Italy which I visited last year, had a book about tartan which was written to accompany an exhibition in 2004 (See my blog entry for June 1st 2017). The booklet is called, 'Tartan: the Romantic Tradition - Plaid, a fabric and a cultural identity.'
The exhibition was 'a gesture of gratitude towards a textile design that accompanied, from the mid 18th century, the destiny and success of our industry and thus of our company'. They describe the long and intense bond which grew up over the decades between a fabric and a distance culture:
'The tartan is a reference point in western taste and for the aesthetics of all time.'
Tartan is everywhere.
STOP PRESS
This week in my Sunday newspaper, The Observer, there is an article by Morwenna Ferrier about tartan with the headline;
'Loud proud and rebellious: tartan is back as designers celebrate the spirit of punk.'
It seems that fashion has appropriated the tartan yet again, with labels such as' Balenciaga to rising star Loverboy.' The article finishes with this:
'Wilton believes that the resurgence in popularity of tartan reflects something deeper than a designer's heritage, or even a colour scheme. "It represents rebellious youth but, at times of uncertainty, people want to feel like they belong. Tartan is a good visual identifier - and provides a sort of security."
The Observer, 11.02.18 pages 16 - 17.
You can read the article here:
Tartan is back.
Susan J Foulkes Feb 2018
Good day Susan, I have received my Sunni heddle 24 and have threaded it according to the 17-3 pattern from the Sami Band weaving e-book. However,I have struck a hiccough. Threading from centre left, I found that the centre of the heddle was a long slot.I finished that section by putting the centre pattern thread through the first short slot and carried on. However when I came to thread the right side I didn't know how to carry on.The first slot to the right was a long slot, so I threaded a background thread through there, then the next slot was a pattern slot, but my next thread was a background thread.I threaded that through a hole, leaving the pattern slot empty.Then I had to skip a long slot as the next thread was a pattern thread. This has left a long and a short slot empty. I do understand that tensioning the warp will prevent gaps, but it means that one could find one has run out of pattern slots if using 24 pattern threads. I wonder how to get around this problem. I had thought the centre slot would be a pattern slot. I could email a picture of it if you would need clarification.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynn
DeleteI think that you have ordered the Sigga heddle 24 which uses a different weave structure. This does have a long slot in the centre. If you look at the band being woven on their online store you will see that the pattern threads are in colour groups. The Sunna heddle has a different configuration of pattern slots, long slots and holes. The Sunna double slotted heddle has either 5, 7, 9,13 or 17 pattern slots. The 17 slot heddle can be used for bands with 15 pattern threads easily. On all of the Sunna heddles as well as the 17 Sunna double slotted heddle the centre is a shorter pattern slot. I am afraid that you cannot weave the patterns in the book with this type of heddle. I did run an online workshop with the Braid Society showing the use of the Sigga heddle.
If you have a standard heddle, you can use that but the pick up is less straightforward as you can see from the book. The one big advantage with a standard heddle is that it can be used to weave bands with almost any number of pattern threads. The Sunna heddle has a fixed number of pattern slots so you can weave with slightly fewer pattern threads by paying particular attention to the tension as there will be empty slots and holes.
Susan
Thank you for clearing up my confusion. I will have a look at the Stoorstalka site.
DeleteRegards,
Lin.