Together Again

As promised, I finally got the rugs hemmed and inventoried. Most of what I did were looper rugs. These loopers came from just south of Knoxville. There are lots more where these came from! Using them keeps them out of the garbage.

The first two looked like this. One has natural loopers plus the black stripes. The other has pale grey loopers with the black.

Then I got tired of being organized and decided to do some "birch" rugs. They kind of remind you of the tree with the stripes on the trunk. There were several of these. Actually, I used up all the loopers that I had, or so I thought....

After I'd congratulated myself for being done, I found another bag of loopers, just natural and light gray. 

So another 3 rugs to finish them!

I wind my warps at 10 epi, weave them at least 45 plus inches and using 2 strands of the carpet warp, weave a hem which I sew. I recommend that people either wash them in cool water on gentle in an industrial washing machine or take them out and hose them off. My personal looper rugs have held up nicely.

So then I pulled out all my selvedges. These are the waste product from afghan, upholstery, etc production that I found a source for in Iowa. It's an easy 20 minute detour when I head back down from Canada in summer.

Pulling out the more neutral colors, this rug ended up with a bit of a green tone,

More brown for this one.

Then I pulled out a big bag of just natural, thick selvedges. I had 3 rugs left on this warp and they all ended up with this bunch of selvedges for weft. They are thick and nice to stand on.

I spent this morning putting on a black warp. It's going to be fun picking colors for them. I love seeing the colors come alive in the rugs. There will be 8 on the warp.

Personally, our life took a bit of a turn this week. Last Saturday my father in law suddenly passed away. He would have been 93 end of March. He was frail in body and spirit and we were sad but glad for him. On Monday my sister in law told their Mom. She almost immediately went downhill and Wednesday morning she died. She was 86 and incredibly frail. We hadn't been sure she even understood what she'd been told but I am convinced she heard it and knew there was no reason to stay. 

As much as all of us will miss them, it's good that they're together again. No more aches, pains or foggy memory! You have to rejoice with them but our daughter is just sorry she didn't get to see her beloved Grandmother just one more time. I suspect my husband and his siblings feel the same way.

So that's been our week, full of emotion and memories. I have a lot of the craft items she had bought, trims, lace, buttons, silk, etc. In looking forward to using them in projects, she will be on my mind as I and Tuesday Weavers use them in the coming months and years. Sometimes there's a good part of being a hoarder of cool things. 

I'm trying to get another 10 rugs done so that I can take all of them to a shop in Gatlinburg in a couple of weeks. Guess I'd better tie that warp on and get busy! 

Til next week, keep weaving.

Carol