I wove a green and gray-blue goose-eye rug at the Weavers Guild last weekend, and spent two evenings at home watching “Making a Murderer” while I twisted the fringes. I will be happy to sell or give away the rug, as it will forever be entwined with that depressing depiction of the justice system and most of the people depicted.
I worried that I did not have enough weft prepared to make an all-green rug, so I purchased gray-blue fabric as well. As it turns out, I think rug number two is coming soon.
Whoever gets or buys that rug will be very fortunate. It’s beautiful.
love it! did you just use sort of cotton sheet weight cotton?
The green is a very lightweight cotton/poly blend, cut 1-½” wide, and the blue-gray was an all-cotton broadcloth, cut at 1″ to make the approximately the same size when weaving.
thanks, that is useful to know for a weaver in my group who is doing rag rugs.
Could you post basic epi and threading on the rug?
Hello Max, We used carpet warp, doubled ends every other dent in a 15 dent reed. We’re using a medium blue and a medium hunter green, 242 pairs + 2 pairs floating selvedge, 32 1/4″ through the reed. Our rug was based on a pattern in the book Swedish Rag Rugs 35 New Designs, Lillemor Johansson, editor, published by VävMagasinet. (I’ll check to see if the goose-eye draft is a common one; I’m not sure if I should post the one from the copyrighted book.)
Thanks! I think goose eye is common enough that anyone can find it. N.
It’s a beautiful rug, Robbie!
Robbie, I have recently started weaving and I became interested in the book Swedish Rag Rugs 35 New Designs, Lillemor Johansson, editor, published by VävMagasinet. You mention it here as your inspiration for this rug. This book seems to be out of print and copies of it are over $200. What is your opinion of the book and why do you think it is so expensive?
The rug is beautiful. I hope to one day be able to weave something so nice!
Oh my! I’m sure the Swedish rug book is so expensive because copies are scarce. It is lovely and inspiring, but not worth $200 when there are so many other rag rug books on the market and opportunities to find nice rag rug patterns. I have almost a full run of Väv Magasinet and easy access to the book at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. I think I paid a bit over $40 for it many years ago, and you could have my copy for $50, if you like. (Just send me a message.) I was also going to suggest ordering it through interlibrary loan through your local library, but I looked it up and it only shows up on one American library, in Florida! So I guess it is a bit scarce.
After many months, I have just seen your reply. I would be interested in purchasing what you have, if you still have it and are still willing to sell. Thank you for offering. In the meantime, I purchased the book in Swedish, as it was much less expensive and I found it inspiring enough to want to own it, even in a language I cannot read.