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Playable heritage game

Tartan Sett Weaving

Also known as Breacan · tartan

A tartan is a woven twill cloth whose stripes of coloured thread run both ways in the same order, so that the stripes cross into blocks and blends of colour. The order and thread counts of those stripes is called the sett, and a weaver reads it like a chart.

Play the previewAbout this tradition
Tartan Sett Weaving: photograph by Karora
Photo: Karora, Public domain, source on Wikimedia Commons
Tartan Sett Weaving: the game in attract modeLive previewPlay

Runs in your browser, works offline once loaded.

How to play

  1. Pick a thread colour and a mark from the strip under the cloth: a solid block, a lengthwise stripe, a crosswise stripe or a blend.
  2. Tap a square to place it: the matching squares on the other side of the cloth fill in, because a sett is mirrored about its centre.
  3. Copy the small sett above the cloth, then press Check.
Rules at a glance
  • The cloth is mirrored left to right and top to bottom, as a sett turns back on itself at its pivot.
  • Where two stripes of the same colour cross the square is a solid block; where a stripe crosses the dark ground it shows as a line; where two colours meet they blend.
  • A square counts only when its mark and its colour both match the sett.

About the tradition

Tartan cloth has been woven in the Scottish Highlands and across Ireland for centuries, and weavers there and in other countries keep the craft alive. Individual clan and district setts are registered designs, so the setts in this game are original and generic.

Origins

A living tradition passed from person to person; it is not tied to a single dated origin. It belongs to the cultural world of Celtic and Atlantic Europe.

Credits

Sources

Get the app

Tartan Sett Weaving is one of 17 textile crafts in the Textile Crafts of the World app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Submitted to the App Store and Google Play; in review. Store links appear here the day it goes live. One app, many traditions, no account needed.

See all 17 textile crafts in the app

In review on theApp StoreIn review on theGoogle Play

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