Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Rag Rug Redux

The Road to Wisdom?  
Well, it's plain
and simple to express.
Err and err and err again,
but less and less and less.  
~ Piet Hein

You may remember that, for Christmas, I made rag rugs out of recycled t-shirt yarn for all of my friends.  Well, it turns out that I overbought (what, me?!?!)  the white cotton yarn that made up the warp (lengthwise threads) of the rugs and I had enough to make another batch of 6 rugs!  

It took a while to get the loom ready, but I finally was able to start weaving over the last weekend.  I started by making a rug for my second cousin.  We are very close because she lives near and cared for my grandmother for many years and so we got to know each other quite well.  

Her kitchen is decorated in a kind of "vintage Coca-Cola" style.  So I picked red, white and black for her rug colors.  


I was going back and forth over how to arrange the three stripes, when it hit me that (regardless of what I did for the Christmas rugs) I am not actually restricted to making three, twelve inch stripes.  ;)

After some experimentation, I decided on this sequence:

6 inches black
6 inches white
12 inches red
6 inches white
6 inches black

I think it's going to look really nice!  

I don't remember if I complai...  I mean, if I mentioned it or not, but I had a lot of problems warping the loom this time.  And, once it was all "done" - I found this twisted bit:  


I'm sure it can fixed somehow - certainly by undoing and redoing everything (PASS) and maybe by snipping those few threads that are wrapped around others inappropriately, untangling them and then tying them back together (untwisted).  

But I decided to see what happens if I just ignore it - given that I am weaving rag rugs, which can tolerate a larger degree of "slop" than a fine silk scarf, for example...  

So, we'll see if I'm sorry or not - keep your fingers crossed for me!  ;)

PS - once I started mixing it up with the width of the stripes, I went a little crazy with weave patterns - I've got some cool pictures to show you later this week!  :)

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great way of using up your leftovers! I'm sure the recipients will love them. :)

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    1. Thanks Becky - I don't know why I enjoy weaving these rugs so much, but I may end up making them for everyone I know in the world - I sure hope people enjoy them! ;)

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