I am always happiest when I am working with my hands creating things. I especially love the challenge of trying something new which usually ends up exciting and fun. However, there are those far and few in between times where this isn’t always the case. One of these times occurred last month. I found something called rag rug weaving and it’s done on a loom. I did some research on different ways to go about it and all looked so easy and fun. It also reminded me of when I was a kid and received a small, red plastic loom with nylon loops that I could make potholders on. Now that was fun and easy.
If you like latching and hooking a rug, you would probably enjoy making a rag rug. I made a latch and hook rug many, many years ago and there’s a reason I only made one. It totally sucked. Big time! Not only was it boring, but it also chaffed my knuckles raw. And, after all the long hours I put into it, I ended up with an ugly, doormat sized, extra-long shag carpet rug that served absolutely no purpose. I ended up placing it on the floor in the spare bedroom where nobody would see it. About six months later, my 3-month-old puppy decided to chew off one of the corners. 😮 Yes! After all my hard work, I looked down on it, picked it up slowly, and excitedly dashed off to the dumpster to throw it away! It finally found its’ purpose as far as I was concerned. 😁
Because I couldn’t find a cool looking rug with the colors I needed for my bathroom, I knew that I would have to make one myself, hence the reason for my self-inflicted hardship. Now to make a rag rug, you need a loom. “Oh, Stephen” …😁! As always, he did a wonderful job on the construction of this beast of burden.
Once the loom is made, the FUN begins! I used 2 king sized sheets, a big thanks to Karen who generously sent some to me, which I had to tear into 1-1/2” to 2” strips. Oh, the loose threads that accumulated and turned into miniature tumbleweeds all over my non-carpeted floors, that had to be continuously picked up, was the first of fun things. Now once the strips are finally all torn, I needed to set the foundation of the rug on the loom which is called warping. To begin, I tied a knot around the nail on one end of the loom and then basically ran the strips, which all need to be tied together, vertically around each nail. By the way, the nails are set at 6’ on center. Let’s just say that there are a lot of up and down action going on and not in a good way.
After the warping comes the weaving which goes across from left to right, up and down and in between the warping over and over and over again until you get to the end. Fun, fun, fun and more fun… Ugh! I can tell you that there was a lot of ‘bitching’ going on during this arduous process.
So, at the end of this new endeavor, I ended up with this rag rug. Meh, it came out just okay, but I did learn a lot from making this one and I hope the others will come out much better. Wwwwwwwhat? Did I say others? Yes. I need 5 more rugs and I am certain that I will be unable to find exactly what I want, so more bitching for me down the road. Again, all self-inflicting. <wink>
Comments