I started this rug last year after seeing the colourful autumn leaves blowing about in the wind.
After a quick sketch on paper, I transferred the design to some hessian with a large felt pen.
I bought four woollen blankets from charity shops and dyed them with various acid all in one dyes from Omega Dyes.
I dyed them in a large saucepan (used only for that purpose) and didn't agitate the fabric too much, so that I ended up with a blotchy effect on the fabric, with some darker and some lighter areas.
The hessian was fixed into a frame, and I used a shuttle hook from Debbie Siniska to do the hooking. I later learned that you should pull out one thread from each edge of the hessian to check that you have a perfectly straight edge to work from. My rug started becoming quite twisted because I hadn't done this and I had to go back and pull bits out of one edge and re-hook the other edge straight.
I rested the frame on a couple of trestles to do the work, although I see that most people work standing up when using this tool. The hooking is carried out from the reverse, so there is a lot of turning the frame to trim fabric ends and check that the design is going as planned. I tried to do no more than an hour at a time to make sure that I didn't strain my back or hands.
The strips of blanket were too thick for the shuttle hook to begin with: the thicker blanket needed to be just over 1/4", the thinner blanket strips nearer to 1/2" for them to run smoothly, otherwise the strip rucks up and gets caught under the point of the tool, and it is hard going on your hands and wrists. One tip is to try a few strips with your tool before you cut hundreds the wrong width...
As I neared the end, I could see that I was going to run out of the background fabric so I cut the design short by about a foot in length. Note to self - make sure you have plenty of fabric dyed ready beforehand - any extra could be used in another project or for repairs.
When I was finished, I cut out the rug with a two inch border of hessian. I folded over a one inch hem then folded the whole to the back and stitched in place by hand using a curved needle and strong button thread. I had checked with two professional rug makers about whether to add a backing or not, and whether to use latex to back the rug. Their advice was 'no' to both: apparently latex may damage the fabrics over the long term and a backing fabric can trap grit which then acts like sandpaper rubbing away at the fabric strips and causing damage over time.
After a few days of use and watching the dog surfing about on the rug over the wooden floor boards, I decided to add some rug grip tape from Lakeland. I tried hoovering the rug with the upright vacuum cleaner, but this pulled up a few stray ends, so I've decided to stick to the hand tool in future, and I've got my eye on a proper carpet beater listed on Ebay.
Now to get started on the next one...
2 comments:
That's a beautiful Rug. I was just mooching round google looking for a frame. I've always been a knitter and sewer and confectioner thanks to my mum and nan but my step mum taught me how to hook a rug when I was about 10 and I've just started again. I'm finding it a bit lacking in the texture and freeflow department so think I'll take a look at rag rug making. Your design is very inspirational. If that's your first attempt then wow.
Thank you! You should definitely have a go at a rag rug - maybe start with a cushion or wallhanging to begin with. This rug took me months (years?) to finish and it does get a bit disheartening. I'm almost finished a second one now - a much simpler 'primitive' looking one that I've hand hooked. I'll get a picture up when it's done.
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