I cut the strips 1" wide and sewed them on the bias as I did for the earlier mat. On Rugtalk people were discussing different ways to work with rags: sewing, glueing, tapering the beginning and end of a strip. Those that glued used a water soluble glue. It holds the strips together while weaving, but washes away without leaving any hard spots on the mat. The 1" would make a nice place mat. I think I'm going to wash these mats several times to see how the raw edges on the strips hold up. I'm still thinking that bias strips would not fray as much.
I dragged out a fleece that I love, but was giving me problems. It's a beautiful, fine fleece with wonderful color, but it seems to my unskilled eye that it sort of felted together by the clippers. After teasing and carding I still wasn't happy. I know June would have said "send it away" but I was too involved at this point and needed to find some way to make it work. What worked was to spin fine, allowing me to pluck any neps that didn't work out during processing and then 3 ply.
I wish there was some way for me to show you its squeezable softness. I feel like Mr. Whipple is going to come around the corner and yell "stop squeezing the corrie!"
I love those kinds of rugs. A friend of mine weaves and all around her house she can point out that skirt her daughter wore in 3rd grade, right there woven into the rug.
ReplyDeleteHappy sigh. I love reading about weaving and spinning. My weekend is starting off really good. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy unsolicited thoughts on cutting on the bias: won't the stretch factor of a bias cut fabric affect the way the rug weaves up? I dunno, just askin'! Hmmm, are those rolls of cut fabric cut on the bias? I have one around somewhere. Must find it and see how it's cut.
ReplyDeleteI love the rag rug. The colors are wonderful.
The rugs you're weaving are going to make your house have that fresh new feeling! How do you make your 3 ply? from 3 plies or navajo?
ReplyDeleteOne thought - I mean, aside from the obvious "send it away" (ha!) - have you tried dragging the tips through a face-up handcard before feeding the locks directly onto the drum? It's tedious as all get-out, but it does make a nice almost-top.
ReplyDeleteCharleen, next time you have a fleece with problems, call me. You can borrow my PG picker, which I reluctantly used on a similar problem on a fine shetland lamb fleece & then had to wonder why I hesitated. Turned out gorgeous & made the carding so much easier.
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