Weaving Rag Rugs on a Loom

AS you can see, this Kessenich jack loom is huge. I feel like I am at a concert organ, especially with the 8 peddles on the floor that operate the shafts.  I have my carpet warp sleyed and I am headed to making rugs out of the carpet thread and strips of NEW fabric for two of them and old denim for the third.  This is my second project on this loom, after the mug rugs.

I kept thinking - what have I got myself in to?  My instructor was kind enough to come to help me get my first warp going. Since then, I have done three of my own warps, and learned that warping is the 'make it or break it' piece of weaving on a loom.  AND you can buy a DVD that helps - it's a process that doesn't exactly stay with you in the beginning.

Part of what took a very long time and is tedious, is cutting the strips of fabric that I wove with.  I used a cutting wheel and a cutting mat (just like quilters do) and cut 1 1/2 to 2 inch strips.  You need a ton and FYI, I have a 'She Shed' full of yarns, fabric, crafting supplies (from my 'hoarding' years), that are 'outside' of the realm of painting or 'doing mark making'.



















This is my first rug, I used fabrics with a touch of purple.  It measures 28" x 44".  No fancy weave pattern, just simple 'tabby' as it is called...back and forth - two shafts - up and down.  Pretty easy, once you get going.

This rug is on it's way.

Rug is finished.  

And these are the other two rugs from this warp...

I switched the second one to DENIM, used and new fabric.

It measures 29" x 33".

And the third one, same fabric as the first rug, smaller size, 29" x 30.

These aren't designer rugs, they are for function.

Someday soon I will attempt some rugs made from rug wool with

designs and pattern.

For now, I bounce between, about a month of painting and then about a month of 

weaving.  The guild I joined - "Wet Mountain Weavers", in town, has a once a year weaver's guild sale around and through Labor Day.  I participated in my first sale this year.  It was great fun, got to be with my weaving friends, and I met some new people.  I even demonstrated weaving in the back of the gallery - MUG RUGS.  It was fun seeing many "new to weaving" people who had the very same reaction that I did, thinking that this was an impossible, mysterious art, however...  

...it isn't. I think you just need a mathematical mind, 

and can think in patterns and numbers, 

perhaps a little 'sewing' knowledge - as you have to finish your pieces. 

The designing and beyond this tabby weave stuff ~ is also about creativity.

As with everything I 'get into' - THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

I have a whole studio and 'She Shed' and under beds and in closets in my house - that are 

FULL OF ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES. 😁😁😁