Rag Rugs weaving loom

I would personally think about myself a novice weaver. I haven’t done many jobs back at my small rigid-heddle loom, and I also know I have plenty to learn. But I always obtain the itch having a project warped and ready to weave. Fortunate for me, we needed a rug for my cooking area, and rags sounded such as the perfect product.

Here’s where i am going to leave my small disclaimer: i've never ever woven with towels prior to. Maybe not once. But the idea seemed easy enough—instead of using yarn you use cloth pieces. Easy, right? Ends up not so much. But after completing my carpet I’ve started to appreciate the problems and marvels of weaving with towels. Here are some of this lessons we learned while weaving my carpet.

Woe – we can’t reduce a straight line to truly save my entire life. My fabric strips would be the epitome of rags, going from extra thick to barely indeed there and right back.

Wonder – Most yarns (besides novelty yarns) will be pretty symmetrical throughout, which often tends to make your weaving really symmetrical throughout. Because my towels are not also, my weaving is certainly not also, but this gives the weft a far more organic feel. It moves collectively and appears like it was supposed to be irregular. I that can compare with the look.

Woe – I’m nonetheless learning. And I also screw up my warps lots. But we preserve that training will only make myself better. So, it was no surprise for me whenever I messed-up my warp stress with this task. It started off fine, but after about six inches of weaving I understood I became probably need retie my warp. Bummer.

Whitney's next task?

Ponder – Cloth pieces are a lot more straightforward to eliminate from a warp than yarn. In just a matter of moments, I'd undone all my weaving (with several cringes) and retied my warp to perfect also tension. It had been a letdown to have to undo most of the work I had done, however it moved therefore effortlessly so it made me personally love using towels more.

Woe –i enjoy reuse everything I am able to, therefore my pieces originated from old clothing that I not any longer put on and other things of that nature. What which means is that my fabric pieces are different lengths. These people were all also mainly smaller than the width of my warp. There is no hope in attempting to fit them on a shuttle, so I needed to use my fingers. Certainly not the most perfect scenario.