Riveting... Recycled Blue Jeans

Riveting, a new yarn by Kollage (available from Cotton Clouds) made of 100% recycled blue jeans, is what I used in my latest weaving project. Although available in 25 colors (15 solid and 10 marled), I chose to use a classic denim blue for the weft and and neutral greyish white that reminds me of the reverse side of denim.

The weave structure is an 8-shaft turned twill. For those of you who are not weavers, you might be interested to know that twill is the structure of denim. Take a close look at your blue jeans and you'll see the diagonal twill lines. If it's difficult to see, look on the reverse side and you'll find them there.

Here's a bit of blue jeans history according to About.com: 

In 1853, the California gold rush was in full swing, and everyday items were in short supply.   Levi Strauss, a 24-year-old German immigrant, left New York for San Francisco with a small    supply of dry goods with the intention of opening a branch of his brother's New York dry goods  business. Shortly after his arrival, a prospector wanted to know what Mr. Levi Strauss was selling. When Strauss told him he had rough canvas to use for tents and wagon covers, the prospector said, "You should have brought pants!," saying he couldn’t find a pair of pants strong enough to last.

Levi Strauss had the canvas made into waist overalls. Miners liked the pants, but complained that they tended to chafe. Levi Strauss substituted a twilled cotton cloth from France called "serge de Nimes." The fabric later became known as denim and the pants were nicknamed blue jeans.

While planning the vest it occurred to me that it might be fun to combine the woven fabric with some actual pieces of blue jeans. Here is the resulting vest:

 Front; zipper removed and waistband extended for the closure.

The collar pieces were cut from the legs.

  and the back.

I'm happy with the finished vest. Now all I need is cooler weather so I can wear it! 

Now back to the loom!

 

Spinning Straw into Gold ...

Rumpelstiltskin is the name of the antagonist in a Grimm's fairy tale who tricks a miller's daughter into trading her first-born child for a room full of straw he spins into gold for a greedy king. 

I didn't spin straw into gold, but this warp seemed to hold some fairy tale magic, and I felt a bit like Rumpelstiltskin ...weaving, rather than spinning, this combination of yarn into a shimmery copper blend. Below is a shot of the warp (rayon boucle and 20/2 cotton) over the back beam:

The weave structure is diversified plain weave from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, page 170, a variation of the treadling in the upper left corner.

The weft is rayon chenille and 20/2 cotton. Hard to see here, but if you squint a bit, you can see the square motifs:

While Strickler's book states, "The structural threading and treadling units cannot be enlarged", that is true only if one uses the threading sequence provided which alternates the tie-down threads for each block on odd and even shafts. In other words, the tie-down threads being 1 and 2, Block A is threaded 2 -3-2, Block B is threaded 1-4-1, Block C is threaded 2-5-2, and so on. If threaded in this manner, it should be obvious that threading two of the same block sequentially is problematic. For example, two A Blocks would be threaded 2-3-2, 2-3-2 which places two ends on shaft 2 one next to the other. In order for the tie-down threads to work, they must alternate on shafts 1 and 2.

A solution for enlarging the units can be found in "Thick and Thin" by Interweave Press which explains the "new" diversified plain weave. This method alternates the tie-down threads on shafts 1 and 2, but each block uses one of each. Block A is threaded 1-3-2, Block B is threaded 1-4-2, Block C is threaded 1-5-2, and so on. For example, two A Blocks would be threaded 1-3-2, 1-3-2. Using this threading system it's possible to expand the threading and treadling units without limitation. Sampling provided me with the information I needed to determine the desired size of the unit I chose as well as the final combination of yarn and colors. 

In my next post I'll show some of the samples and talk about the metallic foil I used to embellish the finished garment.

Atwater Bronson Lace Sample and Fabric

My Weave Structures Study Group has been focused on various lace weaves this year, and I recently discovered a draft for "Concentric Squares" by Dorothy S. Burton in Carol Strickler's 8-Shaft Pattern book. 

I thought it would be interesting to see if the squares could be woven in different combinations and/or with some solid, some open areas. After a lot of experimenting with a computer drafting program, I wove a sample-- a portion shown here:

While I have several ideas for using the squares-in-squares possibilities, I also worked out a way to weave open and closed squares across the width of the cloth. That fabric is now on my loom:

The limitation with this particular combination is that, in addition to the shafts for tabby (2), each square requires two more shafts; so eight shafts can weave three different squares. I used three of each square for a total of nine across the fabric, alternating weaving them solid or open.


The fiber is white tencel and natural 8/2 cotton woven with the warp floats on the surface. But... I think I'll use the reverse side of the fabric for the right side. I like the look of the weft floats, and, on that side, the pure white tencel creates a tiny bead-like spot between the lace squares which will look great with the beading I plan to do on the finished garment. 


Now, back to my loom!