Tartan Tablet Cover

What can you do with that remnant tartan cloth laying about?  Make a custom tartan cover for the new tablet that Santa brought, of course! 

I obtained this one from Belvi Designs, whom I found on Etsy selling tweed tablet covers.  I almost pulled the trigger on one of those, then thought -- if she can make one from tweed, surely she can make one from the New House Highland tartan.  A few emails exchanged, the tartan mailed off to her, and a few days later I was rewarded with this. 

I love using it, and knowing there is not another one out there like it!

 

 

Expanded color range for Genmore hose!

I am very pleased to announce that the affordable Glenmore hose, from House of Cheviot, is now available to the North American market in an expanded range of colors!

New House Highland is now stocking a full range of nine colors of Glenmore hose.

As shown above...
Top row: ecru, charcoal, black
Middle row: tartan green, blue mix, navy
Bottom row: bison, ancient green, brick red

These hose are made from a super comfy merino wool blend that is also easy to care for (machine washable in cool water, gentle spin).

Click here to find a retailer near you!

Quite Possibly the World's Best Kilt Hose

That's how I'm billing the hose that are made by the House of Cheviot in Hawick, Scotland, and I stand by that! Personally, since I discovered this company a few years back, I wear their hose almost exclusively (with the exception of those hose my wife has hand knit for me, of course, which are in a category all their own).

We have sold hose by the House of Cheviot in the Scottish Tartans Museum gift shop for a few years now. Specifically, we sell quite a bit of the Lewis Hose line. We brought them in because of the color range -- we stock them in 18 different colors! They cost more than our standard hose, but we figured we would sell a few in the more unusual color options to our more discriminating customers.

Boy were we shocked! All people had to do was to see and feel the quality of these hose in person, and they quickly became our best seller. Despite costing about $20 more than our "standard" hose option, they outsell all of our other hose bar none.

Needless to say, I am a big fan of House of Cheviot and their product. Which is why I am very excited to announce that New House Highland is now the official North American distributor for House of Cheviot's Highland range!

I have a new web site established at:
http://www.scottishkilthose.com/

This is a public catalog web site. Please take a look and browse through all the available offerings. New House Highland will be selling House of Cheviot products wholesale to the trade only. Retail inquiries are welcome, but will be directed to the nearest stockist. We are currently building our state-side inventory, as well as building our client base. So, if you have a Highland Dress business, we want to hear from you. If you have a favorite place to buy your Highland Dress goods, please tell them you recommend they stock House of Cheviot hose. We are also happy to sell at discount rates to Pipe Bands.

This is a new venture for us, one which we are very excited about. Please help us spread the word!

Introducing the New House Highland tartan

I took delivery today of two very special packages from our mill in the Scottish borders. Two lengths of tartan I designed especially for my wife and I. I had a kilt length woven in heavy weight wool for myself, and another length in lighter weight wool, which my wife plans to make a dress from for herself.

The funny thing is that, although I have designed many tartans for others, I have never truly had a desire to create a tartan for myself.

The inspiration for the New House Highland tartan came from a series of tartans I worked on for the Scottish Tartans Authority, intended to be woven as Harris Tweed for the 100th anniversary of the Orb Mark last fall, but which never came to fruition.

One of those designs really held my eye and I kept coming back to it again and again. I liked it so much I had the thought to have some woven for myself. I tweaked the design a bit more to make it more to my personal liking, consulted with my wife about it, and thus was created the New House Highland tartan.

Pictures below. I can't wait to wear it in a kilt, and I look forward even more to seeing my wife in her new dress!

Find Me on Facebook

I've been on Facebook the past few years (ever since I started working with college students -- I was told it was a must!). I've since learned that it's a great way not only to stay in touch with family and friends, but also for businesses to stay in touch with clients and reach out to the public.

I get a lot of requests from people to "Friend" me on Facebook. Most of which I admit I decline. Unless I know you personally, I'm not likely to accept a friend request. Like many, I use Facebook to share photos of my kids, my vacations, and post little non-relevant tid bits about my life. So unless you are a friend or family, I don't really like to allow access.

But most of these Friend requests are no doubt coming in from people who are interested in my work with kilts, tartans, Highland dress, etc. So, in order to stay in touch (without necessarily sharing the news of how my three-year-old's potty training is coming along!) I have set up a Facebook Page for New House Highland.

You can view it here.

If you sign up to be a fan, follower, or whatever Facebook is calling it, you can get updates on kilt-related things I have going on and stay in touch. (Of course, following this blog is a great way of doing that, too).

I already have pictures up of some kilts I have made, my wife's knit goods, and some photos of my trip to Scotland last fall so you can see some of the woolen mills we obtain our cloth from.

Oh, and don't forget, the Scottish Tartans Museum has been on Facebook for some time now, so you can become a fan of that page, as well.

Latest celtic knot hose

These are the latest Celtic Knot fancy cuff hose from my wife. Black socks, with hand knit black cuffs featuring grey celtic knotwork. Hopefully our client for these will really enjoy them. They should add a nice design element to most any Highland outfit.


We have also just recently lowered the price on these. You can now order your hose with specialty hand knit cuffs for only $95, or order just the cuffs themselves for only $60.

http://newhousehighland.com/hose.html

Be sure to check out the other knitwear we have added to the site, as well. In addition to these fancy cuff hose we have fingerless gloves, lace jobot, and great winter hats!

New, but not really new

Well, most of you know that I make traditional style kilts (I'm mostly known for my four yard box pleated kilts), which are sold through theScottish Tartans Museum gift shop, as well as directly through my own web site.

And many of you also know that my wife is quite the accomplished knitter, and that we offer a few of her creations through the museum's gift shop, as well as my own web site.

We have decided recently to give this little family enterprise of ours a name, and with the new name, we've come up with a new web site.

In reality, it's not anything new, as we've been kiltmaking and knitting some some time now. But we are quite proud of the new website and we hope it will be easy to navigate and use.

My long-time website, www.albanach.org is the repository for my various writings about Highland dress. I had been offering my kilts through a subdomain off that site, http://kilts.albanach.org. I still plan on leaving that site up for a while.

But my primary site for personal retail of my kilts and my wife's knit goods is now....

www.newhousehighland.com

Please take a few moments to browse around. The Harris Tweed section of the web site is yet to be built. And I also did the whole thing without benefit of a spell check, so if anyone catches any spelling errors or typos that I have missed, please bring them to my attention!

I also hope that I have made ordering a kilt directly from my web site a bit easier, so any feedback on the ordering process is appreciated.

Of course, you can always still buy my kilts through the museum, or just emailing me directly with your details, and I'll be more than glad to help.