As Promised

I did finish the last rug project I posted about!  I procrastinated a bit towards the end for some reason, but yesterday I made myself go to the studio and finish the last 2 inches of hem, took it off of the loom and hemmed it straight away!  I knew that if I let myself I could easily do some more procrastinating!

This is of course the Hollywood warp pattern found in the "Rug Handbook" by Meaney.  I chose to cut wide loops from the t-shirts this time to make a thicker rug.

T-shirt loops are softer than sock loopers and the joins are not nearly as hard or numerous either.  I really had some fun putting the colors together.  Can you spot the "Big Orange" of the University of Tennessee?

Bertha the 60 inch Leclerc behaved beautifully on this 30 inch rug.  I have just enough warp left on the loom to rethread for a sample of an upcoming project.  One of my clients has requested a full width shag rug!  I think a small rug to get the feel of this weave structure and an estimate of just how many t-shirts will be needed is in order.










This summer, we will continue with our Tuesday blog posts about what is happening at the Center.  The personal posts that Carol, LouAnn and I do may be sporadic for various reasons.  If we have something to post about, you can be sure that we will!

As always, keep Weaving, Tina

Thick and Thicker

I posted a picture of rug that I was working on last week, I will repost the picture here so that you don't have to go looking for it.....

Having separated what I had prepared into 7 different bundles, I found that there was not enough in this first representative bundle to make a rug the size that I wanted to make.

I went stash diving and found several that were in tune with the theme of the rug, (teams and institutions frequented by the recipient) to beef up both the size of the rug I wanted to make but also the color palette as well.

I can't tell you how happy I am with this rug!  It is just so much more than I hoped for, and I hope that the recipient is pleased with it too.  I plan to finish this rug in short order and then, when I cut it off I intend to rethread for a different project altogether!  More on that next week hopefully!

(I posted about my bobbin lace project on The Farmstead Studio, which you can find in our blog list)

Until next week, Happy Weaving, Tina

Finally an Empty Loom!

Last week I had stopped weaving the 4th t-shirt rug because I wasn't sure I liked the color for the hem that I had chosen.

I pulled out several colors I had on hand and stepped back and took a picture.  I can somehow see color combinations more clearly in a picture, and it confirmed my new color choice.

I chose the last one on the right,  and while it doesn't match either the copper or the brown in the rug , it is somehow a combination of the two.  Once that choice was made I quickly wove the rest of this rug.

It is always fun to see the newest rug coming around to cover the last one.
















I could tell that I only had enough warp left to do one more rug, so I went across the hall and started pulling out colors.  I wanted use white as a contrast again, and I had fun choosing a new combination of colors.

I neglected to get a picture of this combination  in strips or on the loom, but I have one of the finished rug you will get to see further down.

I cut the rugs off and laid them out to rest before I cut them apart to hem.

Rug #1 was a striped pattern that I found in a swedish weaving book for rag rugs.   I liked it well enough but I feel that t-shirt weft doesn't look the same as regular rag weft, and I started thinking of a new way to combine my t-shirts.

Blues, Browns and Gray as the contrast color was my first combination.  I love how it looked on the loom, but I was surprised at the almost clasped weft effect that showed up once the rug was off the loom.

Then I decided to do some bright colors, red, turquoise, yellow, orange and black with white as the contrast.  Again, I really like the clasped weft effect.

Peacocks at the Museum were on my mind when I chose the colors for this rug, three browns and 2 blues.

For the 5th and final rug I went with white as the contrast color, then 2 blues, 2 reds, and a green.  I really wanted to use an orange in this one, but in the end the green won.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this warp in the Hollywood pattern in black / white and I plan to do another one very soon, though I think I will be looking for a wider loom, 28 inches is as wide as Carl Jr, (the small Cambridge rug loom) will do and I know that I would really like to use at least 30 inches in the future.

I will now turn my attention to the 8 harness loom that is ready to have it's warp threaded in the rose path pattern, more on that next week.

Until then, Happy Crafting, Tina