Monday, February 25, 2013

More Rugs!

My studio time this week involved weaving rugs, again! I only really had 2 days in the studio but I got 6 rugs done. I had put about 19 yards on the loom so after 6 rugs the cloth beam was full and I had to cut them off. This morning I serged the edges and took some pictures to show the colors of loopers chosen for them.
 
This first rug is one of three identical ones that I did. I picked the colors I had alot of but also were cheerful, 8 of them. Then putting them in a laundry basket, in order, I chained them so that the same color always follows the other color.
 From a distance, as I was snapping pictures, these were the more subdued of the bunch I cut off. The colors are all fairly cheerful and I like them together, but they're not as "wild" as they could have been.  Doing three of them made for easy decisions!
 I have/had alot of yellow. In fact, I originally had a full rubbermaid of them. So last year when I wove rugs I did 2 yellow ones. This time I just did one of them. Chain 20 yellow loopers, then add a color. Again, this is very structured in that the same color looper is used in progression, ie, blue, then red, etc.
 The warp shows through in the yellow making for a quite cheerful primary color influenced rug!
 I added another green and another purple to this one. Again, color progression is rigidly followed.
 It's a lighter rug than the others were.
 I've still got a bunch of loopers but have decided to quit being so rigid in the colors and let it happen as it will. So I put a bunch of colors into the basket, mixed them up and chained them. Only rule.........never let there be 2 of the same color next to each other in the chain.
 It works plus I kind of tried to get all the colors in there somewhere.
The warp is tied back up and today I hope to weave a couple of more rugs. It's going to be another short week for weaving so have to do what I can now. My yarn order for production should be here in about 3 weeks so have less time than that to finish my rugs.
Rugs are heavy, especially looper rugs! I still have to hem all the ones I've serged, including the ones from last week. Plus, I want to put one more warp on for them so I'm developing muscles hauling them around!
Just weaving rugs takes more muscles because you have to place the weft, get those loopers right, so they're not stretched too far, in place. Then beat twice, heavily. Such a difference from production weaving where you throw the shuttle, beat once, throw again. Each style has its good points and I enjoy both. Just know that when I get back to production, it'll feel like such a breeze!!
Until next week, keep weaving!!
Carol

4 comments:

LA said...

Looper rugs are such fun! Glad you're getting the chance to do some weaving for pure enjoyment!

Linda said...

Isn't it nice to see so much color especially this time of year?

Bonnie said...

Wonderful color in the rugs. That yellow is very nice.

Maggie said...

I wish I had a space for that yellow one. It's very cheerful!