Rag Rug No. 2
Working on the second rag rug. A labor intensive project; there is an historical reason that quilts and rag rugs and re-use of previous products for new crafts is linked to lack of television, a life on the prairie in the nineteenth century, and possibly, large families.
Still, once you find enough old sheets at the Goodwill, rip them into strips, sew those strips back together, end to end, warp the loom, wind the shuttles, and start weaving, things move fast. I wove about 50 inches yesterday, while listening to an audio book version of Christopher Fowler's Ten Second Staircase (a Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery).
I warped the loom with Maysville carpet warp, 125 inches long and 38 inches wide. The pattern is again Finnish Bird's Eye. But this time, I played with color and did Fibonacci-based stripes of eggplant, red, and dark purple carpet warp bordering a wide center of dark purple. My inspiration was a homey kind of Oriental rug. What I've learned is that the sections where you can see the contrast of the warp colors works better than the places, such as the navy blue you can just glimpse in the next picture, where the dark purple fades out against the blue and there's an imbalance of places where warp is visible/or not.
I need to crank this out so that I can get a new warp onto the loom. My study group in weaving guild is presenting in two weeks, and I'm supposed to have at least a 7 by 10 inch sample of some hand-manipulated lace weaves ready by then. Good luck to me, on that one!
Still, once you find enough old sheets at the Goodwill, rip them into strips, sew those strips back together, end to end, warp the loom, wind the shuttles, and start weaving, things move fast. I wove about 50 inches yesterday, while listening to an audio book version of Christopher Fowler's Ten Second Staircase (a Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery).
I warped the loom with Maysville carpet warp, 125 inches long and 38 inches wide. The pattern is again Finnish Bird's Eye. But this time, I played with color and did Fibonacci-based stripes of eggplant, red, and dark purple carpet warp bordering a wide center of dark purple. My inspiration was a homey kind of Oriental rug. What I've learned is that the sections where you can see the contrast of the warp colors works better than the places, such as the navy blue you can just glimpse in the next picture, where the dark purple fades out against the blue and there's an imbalance of places where warp is visible/or not.
I need to crank this out so that I can get a new warp onto the loom. My study group in weaving guild is presenting in two weeks, and I'm supposed to have at least a 7 by 10 inch sample of some hand-manipulated lace weaves ready by then. Good luck to me, on that one!
Comments