From Sheep to Rug

by Kim Goodling | posted in: Fiber Arts, Uncategorized | 1

This fall at the Vermont Sheep Festival, rug yarn seemed to be the new rage. Vendors displayed their funky, colorful yarn. My booth sat directly across from a vendor who had a large display of this twisted, chunky yarn. All weekend, I eyed that yarn and could not wait to find the mill processing it. Before leaving on Sunday afternoon, I found Still River Mill. I left several bags of Romney wool with them and waited patiently for my own stash of rug yarn to appear on my doorstep.

Once I had the yarn in hand, learning how to work with it became my next task. Doing a trial run on own, I discovered that I needed more information about rug construction. As carefully as I wove my first rug, I unwove it, saving all of the yarn. For my birthday, my husband gave me some private weaving lessons with a local weaver named Susan Rockwell. Through my trial and lesson with Susan I learned much about rug weaving:

Double Warp Threads of Strong Cotton

Weighted Tapestry Beater Packs the Wool

Use a dark colored warp thread.
Run two strands of warp thread through each dent in the reed.
Weaving a strong header is crucial.
Using a weighted tapestry beater packs the yarn tightly so that the warp thread disappears into the wool.
Weave at a high tension on the warp.
“Bubbling” the weft with each pass allows the yarn to have more depth in the warp, making a softer feel to the rug.

Yesterday, I pulled my first rug off of the loom!

It is amazing! The rug has much loft and feels quite soft under my feet. Mmmmm….what a luxury!

I can see how this could become quite addicting. As with all the fiber arts, I love the feel of the wool through my hands, the unfolding of rich color as I work, and the satisfaction of knowing that the wool from my own sheep has turned into a lovely, useful item.

Proverbs 31:13

“She obtains wool and flax, and she is pleased to work with her hands.”