McLean and Co Weavers, run by the McLeans, showed off the new tartan at an open day of their weaving shed for the recent Victorian heritage celebrations.
Mrs McLean said the couple had been talking about a Waitaki tartan "for ages" but had not had the time to follow through on the passion project.
"One day, we just decided if we don’t do it now, we’re going to miss the boat.
"So we just decided to bite the bullet."
Their plans were met with some apprehension early on, she said.
"We went and talked to a friend who’s really good financially and he was like ‘you know, this doesn’t stack up financially. This is probably not the best idea of how to spend your KiwiSaver’.
"We talked more about it and then he said ‘it doesn’t really matter what I say, does it? You’re going to do it anyway’ and we were like ‘yeah’.
"The kids all thought we were crazy but sometimes in life you just have to bite the bullet and do your dream."
It was the first time the McLeans had bought fleece directly.
The 450kg of 21 micron merino wool was ordered from Benmore Station, in Omarama.
The wool was scoured in Washdyke, north of Timaru, then spun in Christchurch before it was dyed at Oamaru’s Godfrey Hirst Woolspinners.
The colours were each carefully selected.
The bush-green represented the native flora in the district and the aqua is for the Waitaki River as well as the Pacific Ocean.
Rock-grey is for the mountains, fawn is for the fossil rich limestone and the red represents the people of Waitaki.
The tartan marked "our time and place in the Waitaki", Mrs McLean said.
"Neither of us were born here — I was born in Northland and Rod was born in Southland — but we came here 32 years ago and this is our home.
"We wanted to leave a legacy that acknowledged and honoured the past and now in the future."
They very quickly lost count of how many hours they put in to the project.
"It’s a labour of love," Mr McLean said.
A piece of the tartan made its way to Chile in September for the International Conference of Unesco Global Geoparks as part of their Weaving for Hope initiative.
The textile pieces were then moved to Unesco Global Geoparks headquarters in Paris.
"It’s a bit surreal to think a piece a fabric we’ve designed and Rod has woven has it’s own place in the Unesco geopark," Mrs McLean said.
The next step for the design is to register the Waitaki tartan with the Scottish registry of tartans, she said.
It is available to buy in limited quantities at Crafted Artisan Gallery, in Oamaru.
