Handwoven Rugs

Day 57: This project is no longer looming over me! I started weaving these rugs about a year ago (maybe a little longer) and although I'd sleyed them with the intention of using a traditional bird's-eye weave, it quickly became apparent that the chenille yarn I'd chosen for the weft was too fluffy to allow the warp threads to show. I said a few choice words, picked back the first few throws and resigned myself to the monotony of tabby, i.e., treadles 1,3 and 2, 4 as steadily as if I'd been hiking up a hill. Bored, I only worked on them sporadically and the top of the loom became a repository for quilt parts, other sewing projects and fabric photo backdrops. Every now and then, I'd clear it off and do 25 or 50 throws, "Nope, I'm bored with this. I'm out of here."

A few days ago, I was organizing things in my craft room and was putting away some remnants, and the mood came upon me to weave. I raced through the third rug and began working on the fourth and last one. This morning, I finished up and pulled the cloth from the heddles. I still have to tie fringes, but there you have it: done! And the warp for my next project is laid out and waiting to be measured.

Weaver's Web

Day 90: Any time a fiber artist uses a new yarn or thread, there are bound to be surprises in the way it performs. Occasionally, this means rethinking the entire project, but sometimes unexpected results can lead to a better finished product than envisioned. Such was the case when I began weaving today with Bernat's "Blanket," a bulky chenille-type yarn. I had threaded the loom in a traditional birdseye, expecting the black warp to appear as a subtle pattern; instead, the fluffy chenille completely concealed it, packing densely into a soft but sturdy cloth as the weft was beaten into place. Since the birdseye pattern was not apparent, I reverted to a simple tabby weave. Backed with a non-skid material, these rugs will be durable and attractive. That said, I think this cloth would also make an excellent upholstery fabric.

Rugs In The Raw

Day 88: With my last project fresh off the loom, I was anxious to get started on another one, but when I dove into my weaving supplies, I discovered that I was short on cotton warp by about half. I contacted my supplier to order more, and was delightfully surprised when they shipped it to me with two-day delivery at no extra cost. One craftsperson to another, I'm sure they understood my desire to get started right away.

Setting up a loom to weave is a multi-phase endeavour, beginning with selecting a pattern and determining the number of ends (threads) and length of warp required. When you are making small projects, it is more economic to warp for several items at once, otherwise there is too much wastage. I decided I wanted to make five rugs approximately 22" x 30", so I measured off six yards of warp per 288 ends to be sleyed at 12 dents per inch. Once the warp was measured out, I removed it from the warping board and "chained" it over my hands to prevent tangles. The next step will be mounting it on the loom. Small bundles of warp will be weighted so they can be evenly wound onto the back beam, and when that is done, each end will be brought first through the eye of a heddle and then through a slot in the reed. The heddles must be threaded in the sequence specified by the draw-down (pattern) in order to create a design. I will be using traditional birdseye in this case. Once threaded through heddles and reed, the warp bundles will be tied to the cloth beam and the actual weaving may be begun.

Weaving itself is a repetitive and rhythmic action. The shuttle flies back and forth as the weaver's feet dance on the treadles which raise and lower the heddles in their harnesses. The clatter of the loom is a soothing sound, metal heddles rustling, wood clapping against wood, the shuttle whisking through the opened shed of fibers. It is easy to get lost in the harmonies of weaving, easy to lose sight of time and cares. The loom is an instrument, and the weaver a musician, playing a score of cloth into existence beneath gifted hands. These are not rugs I weave; they are the songs of fibers set in motion by the magical loom.