A Summery Rug

I frequently follow this path to weaving project planning. Think of idea. Bask in inspiration. Visualize the outcome. Begin weaving. Realize I don’t have enough materials. Dive into the challenge of making something great with what I have on hand.  Just like I treat leftovers, my husband commented.  Sometimes it works out swimmingly – “oh look, you can’t even tell I ran out of one gray and had to substitute another,” for example.  The latest rug was successful, and smashingly so when I add in the fun of weaving it in Nedra Granquist’s Three-Shuttle Rag Rug course. Here is it in front of my flowers, and on my neighbor’s red-painted porch, which always shows my weaving to advantage.

At first I thought I would just use my stash of straight-cut fabric, but when I got to class I felt I should follow through on Nedra’s recommendation of bias-cut strips.  (Hours and hours later, I have now mastered the cutting technique and I may switch over to using bias strips all the time.)  I didn’t have much fabric around, but I had two large lavender sheets.  That was my start.  Then I happened on a this beautiful photo of a weaving by Inge Dam on Facebook.  Clearly, I needed to add green and pink to the purple. I ended up buying pink and green fabric, and then stumbled on yellow sheets at a local garage sale.

Valuable lessons.  I used one of the two Glimakras owned by the Weavers Guild, which taught me about my own Toika.  All the texsolv cords dropped smoothly into each hole.  I struggle too much with my own loom!  I will visit a woodworking store and figure out the best way to smooth out the holes in my treadles (round sandpaper? A rasp?).

I loved the tight, uniform edge created with the three-shuttle technique and a floating selvedge.  I’ll do it again for sure.

Nedra has a beautiful hemming method, involving a row of soumak while weaving, a damascus edge, and machine sewing. I was happy with the firm crisp edge (and my stripes, too).

I thoroughly enjoyed the other students in my class, and it is always fun to see the color choices of other weavers using the same technique.  I used a screaming bright combination; Sara Okern chose a palette completely different – beautiful subdued grays to purple.

I spent many hours at the Weavers Guild in the past couple of weeks, which also served me well as the Communications Chair for the Guild.  I have wrangled at least three articles for the newsletter, and help with the annual report.  I snapped some great photos for the Guild Facebook site, and enjoyed seeing many friends who happened to stop by.