Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 20, 1994 TAG: 9412200061
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Stiobhan Rois Airchartdan (Steven Ross Urquhart)
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bumbee (pronounced boom-bee): Thin wool. Something that isn't tartan, but looks like it. The expression ``bum leg,'' meaning "no good," came from this word.
Check: A simple tartan of two, three or four muted colors.
Kilt: Skirt-like wrap worn by men in Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece and the Middle East, but now associated almost exclusively with Scotland. Women wear kilt-skirts, which are cut differently and use less wool.
Pattern stick: A piece of wood wrapped with colored thread representing each thread in the tartan, instructing the weaver how to set the warp and weft on the loom. They were hunted down and destroyed during the tartan proscription.
Plaide: (pronounced played or played-dee) blanket. Originally, a giant piece of tartan, belted in the middle, hanging down like a kilt, with one side pinned at the shoulder, the other left free of the the sword arm. Now used for the upper half of the old plaide and worn in imitation or folded and placed over one shoulder. The modern kilt is the bottom half of the old plaide.
Tartan: Originally a French word for a type of cloth.
Tweed: The word twill misspelled by the English. Harris Tweed is famous for its subtle colors and simple checks.
Twill (pronounced tweel): The type of weave used for tartan. Threads cross over two, then under two, causing diagonal lines within each square and creating many more colors than there are threads. Green over black gives dark green.
"The whole nine yards :" It takes nine yards of tartan to make a kilt with military-style box pleats that really show off the design. If you're thrifty, you can make a less-attractive and less-expensive knife-pleat kilt from eight yards or less. To go the whole nine yards, meant money was no consideration, which was the quickest way to impress a Scot!
Keywords:
STEVE URQUHART
by CNB