Craftzies: Weaving Something New

A really nice customer messaged asking if I would make her a runner woven rug in earth tones recently and I couldn't refuse. So I geared up the loom and got to work. Here are some photos of the rug finished ->

She picked fabrics with the colors of off white, natural, beige, tan, khaki, light forest green, olive, brown, dark sage, and blended fabrics of various prints that had those colors mixed in though I only added in a dash here and there for some variation.

The difference with this one was that I warped the board, removed the twine from the loom and dyed the twine in a tie dye style and then once dried (and that took days to dry because you know it started to rain the moment I dropped it in the dye lot) I wound the loom and got started weaving. While the warp was drying I got to work on making the fabric balls. Since the customer wanted all natural colors and a woven rug 7’ + rug in length I had to make a TON of fabric balls. Days later I had made upwards of 12 large fabric balls for the woven rug and I warped the board to the longest I am able and the entire warp only made this one rug. In the end it went to Canada and the price to ship was $41 and it went usps priority because it was too heavy to ship any other way. I think that shipping price is way too high but at the same time I cannot do anything about those prices, that is something completely out of my control.

I named this woven rug Sand Bar Summer and all of the materials were cotton with a tie dyed twine of natural and light olive green. The final length was seven feet +. I think in the future I might experiment with other tie dyed warp colors. I like making the earth toned rugs but I also like to mix it up so making the colorful one right after was a nice change, especially since you feel like you have been weaving forever once you reach the end of the runner. Seven feet might not seem like a lot but it is when you are weaving it up from strips of fabric.

This next woven rug is my latest and is not a custom order, just a regular ‘buy it if you like it’ kind of item. I just listed it in the shop a little while ago and I really like it. It too was a bit of an experiment in that I used a modge podge of fabrics for the waft. The warp however was a striped mix of natural and navy blue twine. I don;t usually have a lot of colored twine on hand but I tossed it in while warping the board for this one. In the end I ran out of the navy which is why the top is thinner but I liked the randomness of it. The last one I sold like this was a favorite so I think this one should be as well. It has some of my favorite scrap fabrics mixed in and the photos definitely do not do it justice. I will try to get better photos tomorrow but you can find the listing in the shop, I have named it the Indie Tara Woven Rug.

Measurements: width 26" (66.04 cm), length of the woven part of the rug has a length of 41" (104.14 cm) and a gusset/ depth of 9" (22.86 cm).

and then one more in similar size and style ->

Well, that’s about it for now. I have one more woven rug to add tomorrow to the shop that is going to be about the same as the last one shown here. For design you have a blend of miss matched fabrics and a natural and navy blue striped twine running lengthwise for the warp. I left the knotted strands on the end longer but you can trim them if desired. This is machine washable but do wash it on a gentle wash and line dried. It is stronger than you would think but never the less it is handmade and I have found they hold up for a long time if you take just a little extra care when laundering them. I hate to lecture but if you knew how much I liked these rugs you would wonder why I sell any of them at all (ponders this…)