This mid-weight ecru cotton calico is based on Tender’s standard Calico, with a textural check made up of cells of Tender’s Beekeeper’s Cloth.To do this, a special gear had to be constructed to change the tension on the yarn ends that make up the warp stripes of the check.

A gear (or reed) is a bit like a giant comb which sits above the weft tape in the loom and tensions the warp yarn as it comes into weaving.The yarn tension is similarly varied in the weft picks, forming raised cells in a windowpane check which show up particularly dramatically where they take on the natural turmeric and annatto dyes.