Kilt Knitting

#1

My friend has Scottish roots, and has asked if I could knit him a kilt. I am fairly new to knitting, and have no idea how to do pleats even. Is it a project that can be done? If so, how? I can’t find a pattern, the only info I could find was on a site for men

#2

I don’t think kilts are knit. They [I]are[/I] made out of wool, but I can’t imagine that you could make one that didn’t look like a sweater-skirt.

#3

I have a friend who makes kilts (for real) and she makes them with wool fabric.

I don’t see any kilt patterns for men. Mostly it’s just kilt hose, etc.

#4

Yes, it’s woven wool of plaids. He might want to rethink that one. I don’t think a knitted one would look right. Imho he might get laughed at. Tell him to buy a woven one with a nice kilt pin.

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#5

I wear kilts, I sew modern kilts, and knit kilt hose. I don’t think your friend would be happy with a knit kilt. If you were to knit a kilt I would suggest knitting a flat piece and then turning it in to a kilt. I do not believe that a knit kilt would have the right swing.

Sewing directions:

The definitive directions:
http://www.celticdragonpress.com/

Other sources:
http://www.scottishdance.net/highland/MakingKilt.html
http://sewingsteps.com/blog/sewing-tips/how-to-make-a-kilt-step-by-step
http://www.karen.htmlcreators.com/ancientkiltmaking.html

and if you want to make a non-tartan Contemporary kilt directions for the X-Kilt (from xmarksthescot.com) Contemporary kilts are made from heavy cotton material, I like heavy no-iron.
http://www.stanford.edu/~ahebert/X_Kilt_adobe.pdf

Joann’s Fabrics will often carry a light weight polyester cloth in Royal Stewart, Black Stewart.

If you friend want a starter kilt look at Stillwater Kilts. Stillwater offers a starter kilt for about $30 (US) in acrylic fabric. These kilts are excellent quality for the price.

A step up in quality there is USAKilts.UsaKilts have a broad cross section of products from off the rack polyester kilts to made to measure polyester and wool kilts, and full kilt packages.

There are a lot of kilt makers and suppliers in the US and world wide these just two I like.

Have your friend stop over at X Marks the Scota forum for kilties.

#6

Thanks guys. The nearest he’ll get then is the scarf I’m doing him. It’s two alternating rows of the main 2 colours, and will try to add backstitching in one of the other colours after

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#7

Have you considered an argyle scarf in his tartan colors?

#8

I see you’ve already basically ditched the idea of a knit kilt, but I’ll add one more word of warning (just in case he begs and pleads and you need more ammo): Knitted skirts (and dresses and kilts) tend to conform to a person’s body very easily. In fact, if he so much as sits down, he would have a butt imprint on the back of his kilt that wouldn’t go away until he washed and blocked it.

This is why you see all the models wearing knit dresses and skirts carefully [U][I][B]standing[/B][/I][/U]–and you can bet that they were told not to sit and to barely even move before the picture was taken!

#9

What clan(s) is your friend rooted in?