Venne Eco-Jeans 100% Recycled Yarn is (amazingly!) made from recycled denim and plastic bottles. This cotton-like yarn has been available at Fibrehut for quite a while but I’ve never actually got round to using it – until now!
I had put on a 6 yard warp for a series of plain weave napkins using the Venne 8/2 organic cotton which I sett at 16epi for a little more drape. I was using two shades of grey for a monochrome stripey look but halfway through I thought I might try something else for the weft. The Eco-Jeans is available in 6 colours ranging from a pale platinum to almost black. I chose steel blue and slate blue and used one colour for each napkin.
The yarn is slightly thicker than the 8/2 organic cotton with a little more of a slubby texture but it has a softer hand. I wove at around 14 or 15 picks per inch to achieve an even plain weave structure and had very little draw in and almost perfect selvedges! After washing and pressing, the napkins shrunk slightly more in width than they did in length so the Eco-Jeans appears to shrink very slightly more than the 8/2 cotton and you would need to take account of that. The resulting fabric though is soft and drapey with a slight rustic charm – perfect for picnic napkins!
If recycled yarn is your thing, or if you like the blue denim hues, then I strongly suggest you give this yarn a try – it will work for tea-towels, table runners, napkins of course, and even clothing fabric.