The Woolly Rug

The woolly rug is done. I thought I'd use a crochet hook and pull the odd long pieces through to the back but I actually like the wild woolly look as is. Now I just need a house with wood floors to put it in.

Cotswold Rug

This is a project for those who like to play with wool. I've been pulling apart locks and sliding them into the warp on my loom. It's so much fun. First I warped my loom with a black cotton rug warp, 8 epi. I'm using two shades of gray hand spun yarn in the weft also. I started with a 1" plain weave boarder then I went in to a pattern of 1 row of locks, 2 rows of yarn. As you can see from the small sample of locks above, the texture and color range greatly. The fabric is turning out to be random and wild. I've conscientiously tried to not do too many darks or lights in a row, but in general I'm just grabbing the locks and weaving them in.
When I started this rug, I wasn't sure how to make the edge look good. I'm improving my technique I as go, so this will turn out to be a "learning rug". The good news is that I'll still have enough of the Cotswold fleece to do 1-2 more rugs after this.

Pain-free Warping

I've returned to the loom with a new attitude: easy does it. No more long hours of warping. I'll just do an hour here and an hour there and eventually get it done. This way I won't kill my back slumping over trying to tread the heddles. The last rag rug was a good learning experience. It's stiffer because I used 12 epi and a wider strip of fabric. It has lumps because I used the existing seems in the cotton pajama pants I cut up.


Not only does craftypuppylover make awesome rally signs (see last post), she also makes beautiful Batts! Check her out on etsy.

Meet My New Loom

Ah, here she is--my new loom! She takes up a lot of space, but I love her. My work-space is the dining area--it has good light, but it's a tight fit to squeeze behind the loom when I'm warping.
This time I made 2 rugs from the same warp.
The warping goes slow, but the weaving goes fast. After I knotted the ends, I had 2 rugs...
...one out of cotton scraps...
...and one out of wool. Now I'm ready to put on the next warp and make more!

My First Rag Rug

I haven't put any photos of it up yet, but I got a floor loom a few weeks back. My first project on it was this rag rug. I'm going to give it to my mom when I see her at Thanksgiving (hi mom, if you are reading this). As soon as I starting thinking about rag rugs, I became obsessed with them. I have purchased 3 books and have started following a few blogs of rag rug makers. The piles of fabric scraps are growing! To me rag rugs are a combination of weaving and quilting. The thing that I love about quilting is using up scraps of fabric. It appeals to the recycle-er in me. I'm going to start warping for my next project: a wool rag rug.

First Project from Weaving Class

Here is my first actual completed piece from the weaving class that I'm taking this summer. It only took a few hours warp, weave, and finish. The yarn is from my stash---the thrift store score of Silk/Seacell. I did a simple plain weave to show the variegated yarn. After this one, I warped the loom today so I could start another scarf. The next one is similar, but longer. I'll put a photo up on the blog tomorrow.

what I'm doing on my summer vacation

I'm taking a break from work and enjoying the summer. I took a trip up to Vancouver Island and Vancouver (the city) last week. I figured I'd be blogging more, but I haven't actually sat down to focus on this yet. I've been doing a little bit of everything in regards to crafts. My knitting project is a Danish Shawl. This project seemed like a good one for using up my vast collection of hand spun yarn.
My spinning project is the wine-colored batts that I dyed and carded last summer.
When I went back and looked at my blog to see what the fiber was (I didn't record it), I noticed that it was exactly one year since I made these batts. I started spinning them on July 25th. They are spinning up nicely even though the fiber only had one pass through the drum carder and then it was stored in a plastic bag in the closet for a year.
Of course my weaving class has been keeping me busy. Soon I will have to produce projects for the class and I'm thinking that I'll have to give all my free time to that. For now we are just trying out different patterns for our homework.

try try again

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And if that doesn't work, take a class. My class at Weaving Works starts July 8th. In the mean time I will attempt my second weaving. I have made the same mistake again--the view from the top is the "back" of the fabric. What am I doing wrong?

My First Woven Piece

I really have no idea what I'm doing here. I got the loom warped and then I started weaving. The top side was the back of the fabric--I guess. At least I liked the back side better. At first the weft was compact and then it got loose and I have no idea why. The edges look awful. I think I need to take a class. I could spend a lot of time figuring this all out by reading books and looking at youtube videos, or just go straight to the experts.

I'm going to keep this---my first woven piece of fabric!

Isn't She Lovely?

After a long day of work on Tuesday, I got in the car and drove north for about 2 hours. Destination: Anacortes, Washington. Purpose: to acquirer my new loom! Isn't she lovely? I had seen an ad in the "Equipment for Sale" notebook at Weaving Works that seemed like a good deal. $200. for the loom, stand, shuttles, and bench. It's a Nilus Leclerc loom, but that doesn't mean too much to me. My knowledge of looms is very limited, but this 4 harness table loom looked like just the right place for me to start. I googled this type of loom but I still can't tell what year it was made and the lady who sold had no idea. I can't wait to get started weaving!