Show and Tell Week: Rugged

As a scandinavian weaver, it’s quite common to want to try your hand at rag rugs. So I’ve been wondering too whether that’s something I’d like or not!

When I bought the Lervad I got several kilos of “rags” made from socks cut into loops, then chained. Not very pretty, knots every few inches, it’s been sitting in a box for over a year. But I decided now was as good a time as any, do a bit of stash busting before I’m moving out, see if I wanted to keep at it or throw it away.

sockrags

My estimate of how much goes into x meters of rug was way off. So instead of a good sized runner and a bath mat, I got two very odd sized mats and then some leftover warp, because I didn’t want to do the random type of strips all mixed together. And once I realised which balls I would have liked to combine in hindsight it was obviously too late! Decisions were made quick, off the top of my head, since the building project got underway I simply haven’t had the presence of mind to go into a “design process”.

ragrug05

ragrug04

It was a really quick weave, despite having very little room on the side for the ski shuttles, which incidentally also didn’t fit as neatly in the shed as my regular small boats of course. I was also moderately pleased with the look of the fabric. But oy, getting those knots through and arranged for each pass. And more oy, the shedding! The whole room looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a decade. Lint everywhere.

sockrug02

These mats are quite stiff and sturdy, could easily work both as door and bath mats. The cats love them and they appear to hold up to that as well.

ragrug03

For the last bit of warp I decided to try out some thick, corespun cotton that I fought over 2 years ago to plant dye. Each skein had about 3-5 different overdyes before I could say they were more than beige or tinted offwhite. But that actually turned out to be quite a nice fabric too, so a good learning experience overall. And I haven’t completely been put off rugs either, although ideally you dedicate a loom for this and warp up 20 yards at a time, which I’m less sure I want to do, blocking my use of the Standard and 10 shaft weaving.

ragrug02

So anyway, I’ll have a few things to stand on up in the new room. And I guess at some point I’ll weave the rest of the sock loops too into one long runner. The twill threading doesn’t really show much, so next time I’ll just do plainweave for quick threading and tieup.

ragrug01

To deal with all the ends on the plant dyed rug I hope to find a black canvas type band to sew on as edging all around, rather than dealing with the bulk and unsightly mess of weaving them in.

ragrug06

17 thoughts on “Show and Tell Week: Rugged

  1. I think your rugs look just super, especially the last one with the cotton weft. But say, in that last photo. -is that a cat wearing a velvet cloak or something? Or what the ….?!

    1. The kittens were spayed last week and Mille was licking her incision too much. This “cape” prevents her from doing so and is more comfortable than the usual plastic cones around the face.

  2. Neat!! Love it. I especially like the way the felines have approved the projects. I once bought the mesh and tool for a pegged rug, intending to do artistic pegged rugs from colored tshirts from GoodWill. Eventually I gave the tool and mesh to Goodwill, it just never got to the top of the list…

    1. I know that thing about wanting to try all sorts of cool techniques, I have a few on my list with the lid firmly in place for now. Perhaps if I live to be 125.

  3. Kludetæpper er en dejlig ting at sætte sine kolde fødder på om morgenen. Det er sikkert derfor, det er en nordisk ting 😉 De ser dejlig varme ud, og jeg synes “sokkegarn” er et morsomt materiale, men det plantefarvede er flottere, især tæt på. Og så forstår jeg totalt din lyst til sorte kæmpeskråbånd til kanterne der, sikke en masse ender.

  4. They are all beautiful! I would never even have tried it, I would have thought there was no way I could make those materials look good. I love the twill threading, another thing I would never have thought of!
    I can’t believe you managed those ski shuttles in that tight corner. What persistence!

    1. Thanks 🙂 I was quite surprised how it turned out too – I don’t think I’ll be looking to get more of those loops, but I will use up the box that I have.

    1. 🙂 They like to sleep on them AND beat the living daylights out of them, even the old guy. I wonder if they have a residual foot smell only cats can detect! LOL (I don’t know if these socks were ever used or if they’re surplus material from a factory)

  5. These turned out cool! I’ve never tried a rug but I like the idea of using up old socks and other fabric that would be thrown out. The finished products are really quite good-looking and it sounds like you learned a lot. I’m interested, too, to hear about he kitten cape–our kitten will be spayed next week and I think the vet will insist on the cone. I didn’t know there were options.

    1. It’s called a soft cone and we actually got it from the vet. I’ll take some pix before the weekend is over which you can bring to show him. She wasn’t nearly as traumatized as they usually are with the hard cone, no trouble running and playing, eating etc.

    2. Oh, and btw our vet made very small incisions with stitches on the inside that disolve. One of the kittens didn’t bother with it, so she didn’t have to wear anything.

Leave a Reply to Ellen TurnerCancel reply