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The profile challenge 2012

Some of our pages are translated to English: Anniversary exhibitions 2007:
About CORDUROY.

First a little about the meaning of the word.
The English word CORDUROY has a somewhat obscure history. Many older sources link it to French (cord du roi, which means cord of the king). However... it appears that in France there has never been an expression even approximating that... What the English mean by corduroy, the French call velours à côtes (meaning striped velvet).
More modern sources want to see it as derived from cord duroy, where cord still means cord, and duroy is an ols English fabric quality (a coarse woollen), now obsolete.
Then we come to the Swedish KORDEROJ, a word that has been used for at least 120 years. It sounds very like the English word, right? BUT: every encyclopedia (both general and textile) say that it is (my translation) a simpler coat fabric, often striped or checked, coarse enough that it will never get shiny. Some sources also point to the English word, stating that that is a very different quality and that we Swedes usually call that "Manchestersammet" (Manchester velvet).

The rug to the right was woven by Elsas for the January exhibition of our anniversary year. A short description was published in Solvögat 2/2007, but can also be found here ("Kan man väva ett skidspår?", in Swedish).

Elsa's rug

So, CORDUROY it is, and nothing else!

As said above, it is the same structure as we usually call "Manchestersammet"
Peter Collingwood is among the first to adapt this structure for making rugs. His big (and quite fantastic) book about rug weaving, The techniques of rug weaving can be downloaded from www.handweaving.net. Collingwood is, as usual, modest, and points out that he got the idea from Alastair Morton (a well-known British textile designer, from the first half the 20ieth century).
In the Swedish book VÄV gamla och glömda tekniker by Eriksson, Getzmann, Gustavsson and Lovallius (Stockholm 1993, ISBN 91-27-03533-6) there is also a chapter on corduroy.

samples samples

Above:
Elsa's rug, as a runner on the table.
The rest of the samples are woven by Kerstin - a "magic carpet" with cellophane as weft, a couple of small grass carpets (ok, so it should be "lawn" in English, but...), and a sample for a shaggy rainbow.

Above right is an old sample, in a proper rug quality, and a narrow length of various cord structures. (Cord is not the same as corduroy! - and yes, there is a sleying mistke in the middle...)



In the Collingwood book there are also a few examples of colour-and-weave (I suppose it can be called that?) - patterns that result from the order of the colours in the weft.
Top right is a picture from the book, below is my try to get that same pattern. It is not very good... but, perhaps it would look different in a "proper" rug quality?



Below left is the flying carpet; right is a detail of the rainbow sample.

what it should look like

but...
A flying carpet A shaggy rainbow

www.riksvav.se/kronobergsvav/