Way back in May of 2006, I did a post about the MacGregor tartans. I had received in my email a copy of a letter written by Sir Malcom MacGregor of MacGregor, clarifying just what was and was not an officially approved MacGregor tartan. I praised the letter at that time with the words, "it is always nice to know the wishes of the chief of a clan as to his own clan tartan or tartans, and now we know, straight from the source, the 'skinny' on the MacGregor tartans. Thanks to Sir Malcolm!"
It would seem that the letter was occasioned by the recording of tartans such as "Trade MacGregor" and "MacGregor of Balquidder," etc., by groups such as the Scottish Tartans Society, Scottish Tartans Authority, and Scottish Tartans World Register. These (and others Sir Malcolm mentioned) have never been approved MacGregor tartans, and he was simply dealing with the confusion and setting the record straight as far as what is and what is not a true MacGregor clan tartan.
Speaking of the multiplicity of "MacGregor" tartans, he wrote in that letter, "I am sure that many families, in the same vein as estate tweeds are used today, had tartans woven with a distinctive variation from the main clan tartan, being woven once and not repeated."
I followed that statement with my own comment in my blog post, "Like the 'Black MacGregor' tartan that I had woven as a personal tartan for my friend Ronan MacGregor, who simply does not like red tartans! This is a personal tartan, not a clan tartan, and there is nothing wrong with wearing a custom personal tartan, so long as erroneous claims are not made about it."
And all is right with the world, at least as far as MacGregor tartans are concerned, right? Well, almost...
This past weekend when conversing with Sir Malcolm at the Stone Mountain Highland Games (see my most recent blog post), he commented that he had done some further research into his clan's tartans and made some additional comments which were subsequently posted on the clan's web site. So this evening I took the opportunity to take a look. You can see "Part Two" of Sir Malcolm's article on the Clan Gregor web site, here:
http://www.clangregor.org/article-ourtartans2.html
Like the first one he wrote, this is a very helpful article in cutting through the confusion and getting right down to what the real story is behind the MacGregor clan tartans. The new article makes reference to "dialog" about the tartans on the Clan Gregor Society web site. Sir Malcolm references the STA database, and even myself in his introduction! And, I was delighted to note, he also references the Black MacGregor tartan that I am partly responsible for.
My curiosity getting the better of me, I took a look through the Clan Gregor Society web site archives. I found a few posts from last summer that mention my name. Four in particular are relevant here. They represent a discussion between a Mr. Dennis Bowers and Mr. Wesley Walker (whom I have had the pleasure of making a box pleated kilt for in the weathered MacGregor tartan).
The first post by Mr. Bowers is on June 5, 2008. He writes of the Scottish Tartans Authority and says:
"It has been many months since I looked at this page. It seems, once again, that some 'new' unsanctioned tartans, that are not officially endorsed by our Chief have sprung up thanks to Matthew Newsome of the Tartan Authority... I realize it comes down to money for these retailers but, there seems to be a false sense of what is accepted by our Chief and what is being called a MacGregor tartan... say someone was a 'newbie' at a MacGregor gathering, for an example, and they are wearing one of those 'MacGregor Black' tartans, which is actually green and dark grey with a little red....and everyone else is wearing the accepted tartans. Would that person not feel a little out of place?I know that I had sent the letter from our Chief to Matthew Newsome about a year ago. I see he has removed some of the tartans which were in question but added new ones in their place.Sorry for the rant. It seems that somewhere the line of communication lacks or there is a lack of consideration and respect."
Mr. Bower seems to be rather confused on more than one issue, I am afraid. First of all, though I am a life member of the Scottish Tartans Authority (by virtue of my acceptance into the Guild of Tartan Scholars), I am not employed by them, I am not on their board, and so describing me as "of the Tartan Authority" is a bit misleading. (By the way, there should be an "s" on the end of "tartan" in "Scottish Tartans Authority." It is plural -- there is more than one tartan, after all!).
I confess that I do not recall who sent me the initial email containing Sir Malcolm's letter, but it very well may have been Mr. Bowers. My response was to write my initial blog post, to help spread the word. I certainly have no control over what gets included on the Scottish Tartans Authority web site -- he seems to have me confused with Brian Wilton, director of the Scottish Tartans Authority.
And, by the way, the Black MacGregor tartan he references is most definitely black, dark green, red and white. There is no grey in the tartan at all. As I have made the only kilt ever made in that tartan, I think I'm in a position to know the colors in it.
But moving on... I was pleased to see Mr. Walker come to my defense a bit in his reply. He wrote, in part, "in my dealings and discussions with Mr Newsome, I have found that he is quite competent, not to mention well-read, on the subject of Tartan and its documented history as well as its legal status."
Regarding the STA, he pointed out, "they do distinguish between 'clan' tartans and 'personal' tartans... In other words, it appears to me that the Tartan Authority is distinguishing those tartans that are 'sanctioned' by the chief as 'clan' tartans." This is actually a very good point, and the STA has in fact recently introduced another classification -- "name" tartans. A "clan" tartan would be one approved by a clan chief or some other person or body authorized to represent that family or clan. A "personal" tartan is just that, a private design for personal use. A "name" tartan would be a tartan designed for use by all of the name, where there is no authority who is capable of determining a tartan for that name. Previously this latter category has also been labelled "clan" which has led to confusion.
Back to our discussion of the MacGregor tartans, Mr. Bowers was apparently not impressed by Mr. Walker's reply. He wrote, "In regards to Matt Newsome and your defense of him. Just for your personal information, it took some doing and a letter from Our Chief to correct what he had listed on his page. He wasn't quite as willing to be educated ,as your said, or understand until that information crossed his palms."
Again, he seems to have me confused with Brian Wilton. I'm honestly not quite sure where this confusion comes from. He's much better looking than I am. :-) That, and he lives in Scotland, while I am in North Carolina. And he's director of the Scottish Tartans Authority, and responsible for what gets in their International Tartan Index and what goes on their web site -- and I am not.
But I digress. One way or another Sir Malcolm got wind of the debate about the tartans listed on the Scottish Tartans Authority site and the "Black MacGregor" tartan in particular, and revised his article on the clan tartans. His conclusions really do cut to the heart of the matter. For example, of the STA (which he correctly understands to be run out of Scotland and not from my home in North Carolina!), he writes, "I have recently been in liaison with the STA in Crieff who have been most helpful in understanding the general predicament. Consequently, the MacGregor section of their website is helpful and accurate."
Regarding myself, he writes, "The discussion group made reference to Mr. Newsome from North Carolina, who has written some interesting articles on the subject. His history of recording tartan really is helpful in trying to understand something of the evolution of tartans and is well worth reading."
To this I say a very humble, "Thank you." I take his compliments as truly high praise indeed.
Regarding the Black MacGregor tartan, he includes this under "Miscellaneous Tartans" in his article and he simply states, "This is not a clan tartan. It was designed by a Mr. Ronan Macgregor from North Carolina for his own use and should not be worn by anyone else. He has paid for it and designed it. Individuals have been designing their own tartans for many years perfectly legitimately, but they should not be registered or promoted as clan tartans. The STA use the words ‘personal’ within its categorisation."
This is, of course, all very true, except the caveat that "it should not be worn by anyone else." This implies that Ronan MacGregor, the originator of the tartan, wishes to restrict its use. He does not. I work with him at the Scottish Tartans Museum and know for a fact that he doesn't mind if anyone else wants to wear the tartan. But he does not pretend that it is a clan tartan, and makes no claims for it to be one.
Since this has become the subject of some debate, which I was until recently not aware of, I wanted to take the time in this blog post to give the story of the "Black MacGregor" tartan, such as it is.
In early 2005, Ronan MacGregor, who is my assistant at the Scottish Tartans Museum, wanted to have a kilt made for himself. He favors dark colors. The MacGregor tartans are, for the most part, mainly red and he simply does not fancy red tartans. But he wanted something that would be evocative of his MacGregor name.
In speaking to him about this, I mentioned the common practice in earlier centuries of having a variation of a preexisting tartan custom woven for personal use. For instance, people would write to the mills as request a particular tartan with an additional yellow stripe, or with red changed to blue, etc. This was once much more common than it is today. But there is no reason one should not feel free to come up with custom variations for personal wear. In The Kilt and How to Wear It, c. 1901, the author speaks of designing tartans in seasonal colors to wear, speaking fondly of "hill checks" and the like.
So I suggested to Ronan that if he wanted a dark tartan, why not come up with a variation of the MacGregor clan tartan that was based in black, not in red. He and I sat down together and came up with three or four possibilities, and in the end settled on the design which he called "Black MacGregor." We had just enough fabric woven for his kilt, which I made for him. A sample piece was sent to the Scottish Tartans Authority for their records -- remember, the STA includes all woven tartans in their Index, not just clan tartans. It was added to their database and properly classed as a "personal" tartan.
We did not copyright it nor have we attempted to restrict the design in any way. Anyone who wants to have it woven is free to do so. However, they should be aware that it is not a clan MacGregor tartan.
Why is it called "MacGregor" if it is not a clan MacGregor tartan? Because it is an obvious variation of the MacGregor design. It is a tartan in the MacGregor "family" of tartans, even if it is not an approved clan tartan. It maintains the MacGregor motif. I suppose a good name for it would have been the "Ronan MacGregor" tartan, but the intent was not for him to have his own personal tartan that no one else could use, as if he had some entitlement to such. He just wanted a kilt in a black version of the MacGregor tartan for his own wear.
And this is not a unique case. There is another tartan recorded by the STA as a black version of the MacGregor tartan that replaced the green with black. It was woven special for the mother of actor Ewan MacGregor, for the same reason as Ronan had his woven -- to cater to his own personal taste.
But I want to point out here in no uncertain terms that neither he nor I have ever made the claim -- nor would we -- that this is meant to anything other than a personal tartan designed for his own use. It most certainly is not a clan tartan and should not be regarded as such. That was not and is not the intent.
And this was most certainly not a money-making scheme, as Mr. Bowers implied in his June posting to the CGS forum (note the reference to "retailers"). To our knowledge, only one length of this cloth was ever woven and it was for Ronan MacGregor's personal kilt. Neither he nor I have made a dime off of the creation of this tartan.
If anyone has any questions or needs any more clarification on the above, they would do well to contact either myself or Ronan MacGregor at the Scottish Tartans Museum, as we designed the tartan; Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor, who is the final authority on what is a sanctioned tartan for the clan; or the Scottish Tartans Authority whose business it is to collect and dissimate information on tartan -- and with over 7000 of them in the International Tartan Index, that is not an easy task.
Making assumptions and posting misinformation on Internet forums without having all the facts, though, only adds to the confusion. And there is already more than enough of that out there in the world of tartan.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Stone Mountain Highland Games 2008
It's been a while since I've had a post to this blog, but rest assured I've been keeping busy. This past weekend was no exception, as I attended with the Scottish Tartans Museum the Stone Mountain (GA) Highland Games, Oct. 18-19, 2008. We had a wonderful time, I have lots of great photos, and thought it a wonderful opportunity to revisit my neglected blog!
First -- the weather. We were a bit trepidatious when we drove down from Franklin, NC, to Atlanta on Friday. We drove through rain the entire time, and despite our prayers it did not let up at all once we got to the field to set up. The temperature was if anything too warm (all the humidity made it feel warmer than it really was), and we had to set up our entire gift shop display in rather damp and muggy conditions. The good news is that the weather reports we heard earlier proved true, and Saturday and Sunday were both sunny and cool. In fact, this is the first year I can remember where I was able to keep my jacket on throughout the day. I think I took it off for about an hour during the afternoon on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. Plus, the rain we had Friday kept the notorious "Stone Mountain dust" at bay until late Sunday afternoon (so now we know it takes about a day and a half for the field at Stone Mountain to dry after a rain storm).
Second -- how did we do? Well, as many readers are aware, Stone Mountain is one of the few times when we travel with our museum's gift shop inventory to vend at a games or festival -- normally we distribute information only. Stone Mountain is a wonderful fundraiser for us, and we greatly appreciate the opportunity afforded to us by the Stone Mountain board of directors each year. To be quite honest, we were prepared for a dismal year, what with the floundering economy and the high gas prices. And Saturday morning, the crowds looked pretty light. It seemed our fears would be realized. However, by Saturday afternoon the crowds were growing to their usual size and we were keeping relatively busy. I was telling people that sales were "doing well, but we weren't breaking any records." Well, I should have held my tongue because Sunday the crowds continued to be high and when all was said and done we ended up having our best ever sales weekend on record! Don't ask how we did it, but we are very grateful to all who came out and supported the Scottish Tartans Museum. The funds generated this past weekend will make our slow winter season much more manageable. (Come to find out by talking with the folks running the games, the parking lot was full to capacity on Saturday and 3/4 full on Sunday, which is higher than usual).
Finally -- the pictures! One of the Highlights of the weekend for me was the opportunity to meet Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor, 24th chief of the Clan MacGregor, and his wife, Lady Fiona MacGregor.
His were knit by his great-grandmother, whom he said was apparently a very avid knitter of kilt hose, as there are quite a few made by her hand still in use by the family! What a tribute to the durability of quality hand-knit goods! Notice the fine gauge, marled yarn, and St. Andrew's cross detail on the cuff.
I was very pleased to hear that Sir Malcolm and Lady Fiona were planning to spend part of this coming week in North Carolina, and they planned to make a visit to the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin on Thursday. I greatly look forward to their arrival and my opportunity to play host to this fine couple.
The reader of this blog may recall some time back a post I made about the MacGregor tartans, which was relating the position of Sir Malcolm regarding his clan's tartans. Sir Malcolm told me he has recently added more information to the Clan Gregor web site about the MacGregor tartans -- here is the link. (Note: I just noticed three articles I have written are in the links section of that site -- neat!) I think it is fantastic that a Highland chief has taken such an interest in tartan -- not all have -- and it is a great service to his clan.
Here is a shot of the couple from Sunday of the games. As before, impeccably dressed, both of them.
Sunday they were both outfitted in the Rob Roy tartan, which, according to the chief, should more properly be known as "MacGregor, Red & Black."
Speaking of other MacGregor tartans, there were many men outfitted on Sunday in the MacGregor of Deeside tartan, aka MacGregor of Glengyle. Here is a photo of a group of them on the field while their chief gave an award (I believe one of the piping awards).
The gentleman on the far right is Lamar Adron Britt, maker of the Ferguson Britt sporrans. We had many of his fine sporrans on display in our tent this past weekend, and Lamar was kind enough to spend part of the day with us, despite the fact that he was quite busy with the Clan MacGregor Society all day (they were the honored clan).
Here is some of the staff and volunteers who helped man the museum's tent this weekend. From left to right, there is Chuck Coburn, Lamar Britt, Ronan MacGregor, and Jim Akins. Not pictured are myself, my wife Joannie, Jim's wife Kathie, Ryan and Alan Ross, Bisell MacWilliams and his fiance Amanda. Sort-of pictured is Ronan's wife Mary (behind Chuck). Notice the many nice t-shirts hanging in the background. They are part of a new line we've introduced in the museum's gift shop. Not all of them are up and listed on our web site yet, but some are. Keep your eye here.
A few other assorted notes and comments about the weekend. I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Alistair Buchan, owner of Lochcarron woolen mills. I always enjoy getting to "talk shop" with Alistair, and this past weekend was no exception. He and I took the opportunity to discuss the topic of my upcoming November Scottish Banner article (no spoilers here!). Speaking of the Banner, I also had the pleasure of seeing once again my editor, Val Cairney, doing what she does best -- promoting the Banner of course!
(I should also say it is nice to be in a place where my children are not the only ones with names like "Malcolm" and "Alister" -- our spelling of the name.)
In fashion news, I belive I saw fewer Utilikilts this year, though my wife swears she saw more. Maybe I just chose not to see them! As always, Highland dress by those in attendance was a mixed bag. Walking among the other vendors, we did see one that had several racks of kilts bearing this infamous label.
However, I was pleased to see other traditional kiltmakers fighting back, with tactics such as this sign outside Geoffrey (Tailor)'s tent.
One trend we have noticed the past couple of years is fewer and fewer people asking basic "what's my tartan?" questions, and asking things such as "what is the difference between modern and ancient tartans?" and "what is the difference between 'Mac' and 'Mc'?" We were still asked this sort of thing, mind you, just not nearly as much it seemed. Others I talked to noticed the same trend. I can happily say people seemed more educated in these basic matters. Most people I spoke to knew the tartan they wanted to wear and their Highland dress questions were more specific and directed. Maybe we are doing a good job educating the public after all! Perhaps we are seeing the same group of people attending these festivals year after year and after a while people all know what their tartan is? Or perhaps the more readily availalbe tartan information on the internet now is helping? People can now plug in their surname at the Scottish Tartans Authority site, for example, and have their recommended tartan appear. So they show up at the Scottish Highland Games already armed with basic information. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues.
As usual, we were set up right next to the Scottish Spinning and Weaving Society tent, where weaver Marjorie Logie Warren and spinner & knitter Betty Johnson were demonstrating. Both are great friends and it was very nice having them so close by. Here the two of them are looking up the details of a tartan, it would seem. (Or did they come up to the museum's tent to shop for some shortbread?) Betty is on the left, Marge on the right.
One regret I have is that I did not get a photo of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police pipe band (wearing their new kilts made by Lochcarron). Betty and Marge did, however, have to run off at one point on Sunday to have their photo taken with a Mountie (or as they put it, "get their man!"). They asked my wife, Joannie, to"man the shop" for them while they were off on their quest. Joannie did a great job answering people's fiber arts questions while they were gone. So I thought I'd close off on this random post with a shot of my beautiful wife "at the wheel."
First -- the weather. We were a bit trepidatious when we drove down from Franklin, NC, to Atlanta on Friday. We drove through rain the entire time, and despite our prayers it did not let up at all once we got to the field to set up. The temperature was if anything too warm (all the humidity made it feel warmer than it really was), and we had to set up our entire gift shop display in rather damp and muggy conditions. The good news is that the weather reports we heard earlier proved true, and Saturday and Sunday were both sunny and cool. In fact, this is the first year I can remember where I was able to keep my jacket on throughout the day. I think I took it off for about an hour during the afternoon on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. Plus, the rain we had Friday kept the notorious "Stone Mountain dust" at bay until late Sunday afternoon (so now we know it takes about a day and a half for the field at Stone Mountain to dry after a rain storm).
Second -- how did we do? Well, as many readers are aware, Stone Mountain is one of the few times when we travel with our museum's gift shop inventory to vend at a games or festival -- normally we distribute information only. Stone Mountain is a wonderful fundraiser for us, and we greatly appreciate the opportunity afforded to us by the Stone Mountain board of directors each year. To be quite honest, we were prepared for a dismal year, what with the floundering economy and the high gas prices. And Saturday morning, the crowds looked pretty light. It seemed our fears would be realized. However, by Saturday afternoon the crowds were growing to their usual size and we were keeping relatively busy. I was telling people that sales were "doing well, but we weren't breaking any records." Well, I should have held my tongue because Sunday the crowds continued to be high and when all was said and done we ended up having our best ever sales weekend on record! Don't ask how we did it, but we are very grateful to all who came out and supported the Scottish Tartans Museum. The funds generated this past weekend will make our slow winter season much more manageable. (Come to find out by talking with the folks running the games, the parking lot was full to capacity on Saturday and 3/4 full on Sunday, which is higher than usual).
Finally -- the pictures! One of the Highlights of the weekend for me was the opportunity to meet Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor, 24th chief of the Clan MacGregor, and his wife, Lady Fiona MacGregor.
 |
| From Stone Mountain Highland Games Oct 18-19, 2008 |
Lady MacGregor's maiden name was Armstrong, and that is the tartan I am wearing in my kilt. My maternal grandmother's maiden name was also Armstrong. Both Lady MacGregor and I publish monthly columns in the Scottish Banner newspaper, so it was nice to get to meet a fellow author.
I have always admired Sir Malcolm MacGregor as a model of proper Highland dress. Whenever I have seen photographs of him in the kilt, he always seems so well put together, as a Highland gentleman should. In fact, I confessed to him that whenever I need a good example to show someone of proper, dignified Highland attire, I refer to him and Prince Charles!
I should not have been surprised, then, to discover that his lady wife also has impeccably good taste. Standing next to her in the above photo, I felt as if I were standing next to a member of the Royal Family. She was, hands down, the most well dressed woman at the games (you cannot quite make it out in the above photo, but notice the tartan detail on her hat, as well).
A few comments about Sir Malcolm's outfit -- first, the sporran. You may immediately notice it is an antique. I asked him about it, and he related the story in his family that it was found on the Culloden battlefield and gifted to his great-great-great grandfather (I believe I have the number of "greats" correct) some 70 years after the battle. It has been in the family ever since.
 |
| From Stone Mountain Highland Games Oct 18-19, 2008 |
The top of the cantle is engraved with the year "1736" (I believe -- I am forced to go by memory as silly me did not get the top of the cantle in a photo). The leather bag, which is very old, is assumed not to be original, though he did not know when it might have been replaced.
Another part of Sir Malcolm's outfit that I noticed were his hose. As my wife is an avid knitter, and I have a great appreciation for hand-knits as a result (especially kilt hose), I asked him about his own hose.
His were knit by his great-grandmother, whom he said was apparently a very avid knitter of kilt hose, as there are quite a few made by her hand still in use by the family! What a tribute to the durability of quality hand-knit goods! Notice the fine gauge, marled yarn, and St. Andrew's cross detail on the cuff.
I was very pleased to hear that Sir Malcolm and Lady Fiona were planning to spend part of this coming week in North Carolina, and they planned to make a visit to the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin on Thursday. I greatly look forward to their arrival and my opportunity to play host to this fine couple.
The reader of this blog may recall some time back a post I made about the MacGregor tartans, which was relating the position of Sir Malcolm regarding his clan's tartans. Sir Malcolm told me he has recently added more information to the Clan Gregor web site about the MacGregor tartans -- here is the link. (Note: I just noticed three articles I have written are in the links section of that site -- neat!) I think it is fantastic that a Highland chief has taken such an interest in tartan -- not all have -- and it is a great service to his clan.
Here is a shot of the couple from Sunday of the games. As before, impeccably dressed, both of them.
Sunday they were both outfitted in the Rob Roy tartan, which, according to the chief, should more properly be known as "MacGregor, Red & Black."
Speaking of other MacGregor tartans, there were many men outfitted on Sunday in the MacGregor of Deeside tartan, aka MacGregor of Glengyle. Here is a photo of a group of them on the field while their chief gave an award (I believe one of the piping awards).
The gentleman on the far right is Lamar Adron Britt, maker of the Ferguson Britt sporrans. We had many of his fine sporrans on display in our tent this past weekend, and Lamar was kind enough to spend part of the day with us, despite the fact that he was quite busy with the Clan MacGregor Society all day (they were the honored clan).
Here is some of the staff and volunteers who helped man the museum's tent this weekend. From left to right, there is Chuck Coburn, Lamar Britt, Ronan MacGregor, and Jim Akins. Not pictured are myself, my wife Joannie, Jim's wife Kathie, Ryan and Alan Ross, Bisell MacWilliams and his fiance Amanda. Sort-of pictured is Ronan's wife Mary (behind Chuck). Notice the many nice t-shirts hanging in the background. They are part of a new line we've introduced in the museum's gift shop. Not all of them are up and listed on our web site yet, but some are. Keep your eye here.
A few other assorted notes and comments about the weekend. I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Alistair Buchan, owner of Lochcarron woolen mills. I always enjoy getting to "talk shop" with Alistair, and this past weekend was no exception. He and I took the opportunity to discuss the topic of my upcoming November Scottish Banner article (no spoilers here!). Speaking of the Banner, I also had the pleasure of seeing once again my editor, Val Cairney, doing what she does best -- promoting the Banner of course!
(I should also say it is nice to be in a place where my children are not the only ones with names like "Malcolm" and "Alister" -- our spelling of the name.)
In fashion news, I belive I saw fewer Utilikilts this year, though my wife swears she saw more. Maybe I just chose not to see them! As always, Highland dress by those in attendance was a mixed bag. Walking among the other vendors, we did see one that had several racks of kilts bearing this infamous label.
However, I was pleased to see other traditional kiltmakers fighting back, with tactics such as this sign outside Geoffrey (Tailor)'s tent.
One trend we have noticed the past couple of years is fewer and fewer people asking basic "what's my tartan?" questions, and asking things such as "what is the difference between modern and ancient tartans?" and "what is the difference between 'Mac' and 'Mc'?" We were still asked this sort of thing, mind you, just not nearly as much it seemed. Others I talked to noticed the same trend. I can happily say people seemed more educated in these basic matters. Most people I spoke to knew the tartan they wanted to wear and their Highland dress questions were more specific and directed. Maybe we are doing a good job educating the public after all! Perhaps we are seeing the same group of people attending these festivals year after year and after a while people all know what their tartan is? Or perhaps the more readily availalbe tartan information on the internet now is helping? People can now plug in their surname at the Scottish Tartans Authority site, for example, and have their recommended tartan appear. So they show up at the Scottish Highland Games already armed with basic information. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues.
As usual, we were set up right next to the Scottish Spinning and Weaving Society tent, where weaver Marjorie Logie Warren and spinner & knitter Betty Johnson were demonstrating. Both are great friends and it was very nice having them so close by. Here the two of them are looking up the details of a tartan, it would seem. (Or did they come up to the museum's tent to shop for some shortbread?) Betty is on the left, Marge on the right.
One regret I have is that I did not get a photo of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police pipe band (wearing their new kilts made by Lochcarron). Betty and Marge did, however, have to run off at one point on Sunday to have their photo taken with a Mountie (or as they put it, "get their man!"). They asked my wife, Joannie, to"man the shop" for them while they were off on their quest. Joannie did a great job answering people's fiber arts questions while they were gone. So I thought I'd close off on this random post with a shot of my beautiful wife "at the wheel."
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