Yarn Preparations

Selecting colours

Each tartan sett is different, and each can be woven in a range of colourways, such as bright modern colours, subdued ancient colours, or earthy reproduction colours. So we must choose yarns that we think will show off that sett to the best.

To help, we often consult our unique library of swatches, built up over decades, which is one of the world's largest collections.

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Dying the Yarns

Next the yarns must be dyed. We stock a large range of the most commonly required pre-dyed shades.

But sometimes we'll dye specially to create just the right colour. Our specialist dye house is just about two minutes up the road.

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Winding the Yarns

The chosen yarns are then wound onto cones (for the warp) and bobbin 'pirns' (for the weft), with one cone and many pirns needed for every single thread in the tartan sett. (You'll see why next.)

We have machines for this, but each cone or pirn must be set up by hand, then watched for breaks, and a new one started when one is fully wound, which means little rest for the weaver. Two such sets of pirns and cones are wound from scratch for every single tartan we create.

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Our Stock Wool Shades

These are the shades of yarn we aim to hold in stock at all times, in both heavy and light weight wool. Other colours are available on request, but may be surcharged for smaller volume orders. Note that for silks the range of shades stocked is smaller; please enquire for details.

Blue Yarns
Blue 20	Blue 40	Blue 50	Blue 60	Blue 70	Blue 80	Blue 90	Blue 100
Blue 110	Blue 130	Blue 140	Blue 150	Blue 153	Blue 160	Blue 170	Blue 180
Blue 190	Blue 200	Blue 210	Blue 213	Blue 220
Brown Yarns
Brown 10	Brown 20	Brown 30	Brown 40	Brown 50	Brown 70	Brown 80	Brown 90
Brown 101
Green Yarns
Green 10	Green 20	Green 30	Green 50	Green 54	Green 60	Green 70	Green 73
Green 80	Green 90	Green 95	Green 101	Green 120	Green 130	Green 140	Green 160
Green 170	Green 180	Green 196	Green 200
Grey Yarns
Grey 10	Grey 20	Grey 30	Grey 40	Grey 60	Grey 80
Natural Yarns
Natural 10	Natural 20	Natural 25	Natural 38	Natural 40	Natural 50	Natural 100
Purple & Pink Yarns
Purple 10	Purple 20	Purple 30	Purple 40	Purple 45	Purple 50	Purple 69	Purple 70
Purple 76	Purple 80	Purple 82	Purple 90	Purple 99	Purple 111
Red & Orange Yarns
Red 11	Red 18	Red 20	Red 30	Red 33	Red 44	Red 50	Red 55
Red 60	Red 70	Red 80	Red 90	Red 99	Red 102	Red 110	Red 115
Red 120	Red 166	Red 191	Red 200
Yellow Yarns
Yellow 10	Yellow 11	Yellow 15	Yellow 20	Yellow 22	Yellow 36	Yellow 40	Yellow 44
Yellow 50	Yellow 90