Rugs and Kitchen Towels

This past week I've been working hard on weaving some rugs.  This is my first time using the loom I got from Peggy.  I don't know yet if this loom will work for everything I want to weave but it's a fabulous loom for rugs!  I put on a 12 yard warp and finished weaving it off a couple of days ago.  I thought that much warp would use up all the big fat jute and cotton cored yarn I had accumulated over several years but probably should have done the calculations.  I'll have to do another rug warp to finally get it all woven.   I've gotten very tired of looking at this yarn - it was clearly time to get it woven up.  I love the rugs I've gotten.

Rugs are usually woven with very high tension on the warp and the weft is beaten in with a lot of force.  It's a powerful double snap of the wrists/arms.  The blue and green yarn was dyed by us; the natural colors are undyed Shetland wool.  I'm tickled with the final product.

I wove off all the first rug warp and bought enough of the heavy linen to do one more 12 yard warp for rugs.  Almost all the jute cored yarn I have left is white and I think it needs to be dyed.  I've never been a fan of white rugs.  For now I'll go on to something else but we'll get that big fat yarn dyed sometime this summer and then get it woven into rugs.

Today I've been weaving kitchen towels.  It's been an odd transition.  The kitchen towels are woven with a firm beat but nothing as strong as the rugs.  I think the first inch or so of towel ended up being beaten to within an inch of it's life.  I have managed to recalibrate back to my kitchen towel beat now that I've worked on it for a while.

Notice:  We will be closed tomorrow, Saturday April 11.  Come find us at the Sealy Spring Picnic held this year at the Liedertafel Hall at 116 Lux Road.  That is the far west end of Main Street.  We should be there from 10 am till the middle of the afternoon.  We'll be outside under the trees if the weather is nice or inside the building if it's raining.  Come see us!