Sunday, July 30, 2006

Dizzy

So, where was I? Oh, yeah. I was running around in circles.
I finished weaving the loom bench pad.



This is a very heavy, two ply spun from the Beast, carder waste from Brown Sheep. It's about 11" x 18" and feels great under foot, although it's final destination will be my bench. The edges are loose, I'll need to figure out how to remedy that before I make a larger rug for the floor. I'm sure it will pack in more when I use my Macomber, but the Dorothy did a surprisingly good job.



As you can see at the top, where I wove 1-3, 2-4 the doubled cotton rug warp was not completely covered. The fabric is also rather thin. After an inch of plainweave I changed to 1-2, 3-4 for 16" and then finished up with plainweave. This covered the warp very well and the resulting fabric was quite thick. I was happy to find that my huge stash of worsted to bulky handspun will have a home in rugs throughout the house.

Now I was ready to start sampling with some rags. I cut lengthwise strips out of leftovers from a blouse I made last fall. I sewed the seams in one continuous length, cutting them only as I wound the shuttle, as suggested by Meany and Pfaff in the Rag Rug Handbook.

This fabric had a little more body than the dyed muslin I used for first rag rug I made, so I used 3/4" strips.





I have enough warp left for one more mat. I'll probably use some more of the handdyed cotton squares I did a few years ago.

So back to the circling. Things are going along just fine. I'm thinking I'll get a warp on the loom and finish a few projects before I my last class. I also had plans for a quick trip to Ontario to have my wheel adjusted. Right. The storms hit and we were out of power for more about 28 hours. So what do you do when you need to have some clean clothes and you forgot to move your car out of the driveway and the street is torn up for repairs (nothing to do with the storms)?



Two big tubs and you get a little production line going on the deck! Finally, the power comes back and the next thing you know Laura and I are heading up 81. By the time we near Watertown it's dark and there's driving rains, heavy winds, thunder and lightening. My hands are in a death grip on the wheel but I keep going. Finally the rains stop and the lane changes due to construction come up. Now what do you think this would look like in the pitch dark?

I honestly thought there was a guy standing on the cement divider. I didn't say anything, but then my daughter gasped. After a second or two we saw another, then another. The storms didn't stop me, but I almost had to pull over because we were laughing so hard.



Wow! What a difference a little sun makes!

13 comments:

  1. The driving story was too funny!
    Love the rugs!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great rugs! Back in the 80's, my dad and I would bring my boys up here to Ohio from Louisiana, to visit family. In many yards on country roads, people had life sized silhouettes. Several times, I waved at someone waving at me from behind the trees, only to realize, as we got closer, they were plywood!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Too funny about the construction signs!
    I sympathize with you on the power outage....we had that 5 day black out in 8/03 just as we pulled in the driveway from attending my mother's funeral in Pa. I never want to experience that again.
    There's nothing quite like having a handwoven cushion on your loom bench. However, mine requires a piece of that nonskid stuff they sell for throw rugs. Other wise the cushion and my butt are sliding all over the place as I try to weave.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a great story. I love your loom bench pad and think it would be an excellent way to use up some of my bulkier handspun yarns. And the rag rugs! Fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have been thinking about rugs. I see that I will return to this post for further inspiration and thought.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So, how did you finish the edges on the "beast" weaving? Or did you?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I would have thought the same thing on the road!
    Hard to believe the school year is about to start again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Funny, my mind has been turning to rugs lately, too. Maybe I'll become a hooker.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've long wanted to weave a couple of pads for my loom benches. Thank you for the reminder and the inspiration. Glad to see that you made the trip all right! It must have been so dark!

    ReplyDelete
  10. So your blog has convinced me to order the Rag Rug Handbook from Amazon. :) Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Rag rugs....lovely folk art and a great recycling project. Got a bag of rags....got a loom that'll handle rug warp. That, too, will be a project one day.

    ReplyDelete
  12. So is weaving a loom bench pad sorta like knitting a knitting bag? Just a vicious circle of self-enabling? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Charleen, I want to thank you for the suggestion to use plastic canvas in the bottom of the knitting bag I made. I used it and it worked perfect! I posted pix of it on my blog and have I've gotten a couple of comments on what a clever idea that bag bottom was. The credit for that goes to you!!!

    ReplyDelete