The challenge is to make functional & aesthetically interesting garments with one piece of fabric using only 128 spindles of yarn and some finishing ingenuity.

This is a jacquard circular lace braiding machine. There are 128 spindles of yarn that run on "tracks" around it's circumference. The spindles can be programmed to move forward, back or not at all. Telling the spindles "how to move" is called patterning.

Product and pattern development is simultaneous since our product is the YARN and the ways they are linked and interlaced determines how a fabric looks and performs.

There are countless ways you can link and interlace yarns with a 128 spindle machine. Finding the balance between function and aesthetics is the objective.

For us, since the yarn is the final product, the yarn's size, strength, twist, and sensation, as well as how well it runs on the machine, are important considerations.

We make our own elastic yarns that are integrated into the fabric. We aim to use as little elastic as possible.

Color and surface decoration is another patterning challenge. Randomized coloring that accentuates the fabric texture and weave is one possibility.

Patterning the fabric of a product so that it can be finished efficiently is another aspect of product design. We've had to develop some innovative finishing techniques over time.

"What I wound up finding out playing with all these patterns for many a year, that they need to function with a balanced tension. I find that the machines' taught me how nature works in that the only good patterns I can produce function under a balanced tension, which is to say, the patterns were pliable, they can adapt to situations and pressures nicely, and conform to different shapes as needed. It is hard not to get that analogy to life, that it balances itself as nature intends to, and we as humanity, you know, I think, would be better off attempting that balance with nature and ourselves." - Brad Jamison of TEF Braids and Tensengral