Tartans: The Love of My Life

Putting My Feet Up in Via Fossa, Manchester

One of my childhood memories about books is connected both to knitting and to Scotland. In one book there was this illustration: a man in kilt and long socks was sitting by the chimney, knitting. I learnt to knit, as you know, while tartan has become one of the favourite materials. Pretty similar to my adored streetlights, tartan has made it into my poems on a couple of occasions already.

Elliott tartan

I cannot say that I own many clothes made of this fabric. In fact, the only one is the skirt I am wearing in the photo on the top left, and it is obviously not the “proper” tartan. But I do like men in kilts, so when I saw this post about tartan, men in kilts, and Highland sports, I knew I had to mention it. As a matter of fact, one of my close friends and a member of extended family belongs to the Elliott clan. Their tartan is shown on the right. Personally, I like their mottos: Soyez Sage (Be Wise), the old one, and the current Fortiter et Recte (Boldly and Rightly, or With Strength and Right).

There are some good resources on the web, particularly House of Tartan that helps you weave your own tartan. You can try your hand at creating a tartan over at Victoria and Albert Museum’s website. The interactive service is dedicated to the Vivienne Westwood exhibition there in 2004; and in 2008 Westwood incorporated tartan in her collection once again. The photo of the checkered bag and purse was taken during my trip to York in September 2008.

Vivienne Westwood boutique in York, 2008

The closest I have yet got to Scotland was in 2004 when I visited Shap Wells Hotel. It is technically in Shap, near Perth in Cumbria, but in fact it is ideally located to explore not only the Lake District, but also North Pennines, Yorkshire Dales, and the Scottish Borders.

I’ve not written any New Year resolutions here, and in fact I won’t be doing it this year, as I have decided I was going to inform you of the results of my intentions, rather than intentions themselves. But one of the resolutions is to finally visit Scotland. And I am being drawn all the more there as I view Tour Scotland Photographs each day in my Blogger dashboard.

Lastly, I have been experimenting with making tartan-like knitting patterns. I did not make a real effort to handknit a proper multicolour tartan, but this is where I got so far (see below). This is the pattern of one of the sweaters I made for myself, and I wear it with the same degree of pride as the Scottish people – their kilts.

And here are “tartan” results from Google Images. Are you a Scot? Do you have a tartan to wear?