What, a Crepe?

When Seattle’s Nordic Heritage Museum packed up the old place and moved into their shiny new building they unloaded old, non-museum-quality stuff. You know how it is during a move. They offered several boxes of cut/torn rolled rags to my weaver’s guild. Two of the boxes found their way to me.

Toothbrush rug from narrower rag strips

Enter the toothbrush (rug). Well, I don’t actually use a toothbrush since the old style is virtually extinct although one at last has been found and properly carved into a point. But that is beside the point. The name has very little to do with the technique being the name of the old homemade tool used to make these rugs.

Toothbrush rug, detail

Normally toothbrush rug technique calls for rags strips 1½ to 2 inches wide. The rags I’d been given were only 1 to ¾ inches wide. But they were worth a try.

Here is the result: a finer rug than the usual. It looks good and works well in our Powder Room. If it holds up I will switch to narrower rag strips in future toothbrush projects.

A study group I attend is studying Crepe Weaves. Having very slim experience with this structure I began thinking it would be a quick study. Did I ever have a lot to learn. It isn’t!

First attempt at weaving crepe

Putting together a threading from one source and a tie-up from another that seemed like a winning combination. Choosing two similar shades of green 10/2 perle cotton I chose a sett of 30 e.p.i. and dressed my loom. The result produced the required overall pebbled crepe effect. But the cloth seemed heavy and did not satisfy me. It’s time to think again and head back to the drawing board.

May the learning continue.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

(P.S. What a difference a comma makes!)

Under Water

My blog has been too quiet lately. I am sorry.

We had a lovely summer. My husband was home for with a nice long visit by our daughter and two grandchildren. Low tides and fair weather made for exciting days at the beach where we found abundant sea life to explore. It's hard to say who had the most fun, children or adults.

As mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and I are in the process of a long-distance move. We have been struggling to decide what to do with our home where we have been happy to live for 20 years. For the time being I remain behind overseeing repairs and updates. However, not all of the repairs have been voluntary.

When I went to bed on August 10th my washing machine was off and all was well. At 2:00 a.m. our cat Jenny woke me. Sometimes this happens but this time she was unusually persistent so I got up to take her downstairs to the laundry room. At the bottom stair I stepped off into water. Water!

Sometime after I went to bed my three-year-old Amana washing machine turned itself on and overflowed and overflowed and overflowed. Water was everywhere including in my studio and under my loom.

36 x 48" Toothbrush rug on newly refinished wood floor

An emergency water removal crew arrived right away and I worked along with them through that night, through the day and into the next evening to remove the water and evacuate the first floor of our home. The crew ripped out carpeting, padding, linoleum and underlayment. Everything in my studio was moved and dumped in piles here and there. What a night that was!

It took 13 giant floor fans, two huge de-humidifiers and several mats taped down to the wood floors with a great big suction machine to dry things out. For four days temperatures inside the house hung around 100 degrees and the noise of all those machine was deafening.

Repairs took nine weeks to complete. Since my loom was in pieces during those weeks weaving was out of the question. Instead I worked on this toothbrush rug. Work on the rug and knitting helped me deal with the disruption of my life and home. While the wood floors were being sanded and Swedish finish was applied, the cats and I had to vacate. For those four days I was able to take this rug with me and work on it at my hotel. I do not know how I would have managed to weather the upset without my handwork. The flood was a lot for me to face alone. But it could have been far worse without the wakeup call from our sweet JennyCat.

Now things have pretty much settled down at home. My loom is back in action and I am nearing the end of a warp. I promise to show and tell you about the results soon.

My husband is enjoying his new job in a distant place. We are in constant contact and we travel to see one another when we can. Being apart is no fun but it won't be forever.

A logo I created for Jenny in my Graphic Design class

I am grateful for daily blessings. Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

P.S. I wrote about my adventures with the Amana washer in an earlier post here. The repairman and I agreed that it was not worth fixing the thing. In it's place we now have a brand new Speed Queen commercial washing machine. It rivals our trusty old Maytag and does a great job - highly recommended and built in America!

Flannel for Body and Sole

Four yards of blue flannel dotted with white sheep have been in my stash for so long that the original purpose for purchase is lost to memory. Usually such a nice piece of cloth would have soon found its way into one project or another. But not this yardage, as sweet as it was I could not bear to cut it into strips.

Blue Birthday nightgown
just before I popped it into the mail

I have been working on another toothbrush rug, this time coincidentally in flannels. The goal was twofold: one to use up flannel from my stash, two to provide a warm non-latex non-skid rug for my daughter’s cold stained concrete floor. Searching for flannel in red, white and blue was how I stumbled upon the long forgotten blue sheep-dotted yardage.

Our little granddaughter is a Laura Ingalls Wilder and Beverly Clearly type of girl. Her mother and father spend countless hours reading books aloud for her. She loves dressing up and hearing about yesteryear and long-ago people. Long flannel nightgowns are her bedtime delight and her birthday was fast approaching.

My collection of patterns includes those for the nightgowns I sewed for her when our daughter was young. Every Christmas Eve new home-sewn pajamas waited beneath the tree for each of our children. A lovely tradition, my own grandmother did the same for my sisters and me when we were young.

Combining two projects made sense. First I would sew a nightgown for our little girl and then I would use the scraps in toothbrush rug already in progress.

Our little girl was thrilled to receive the nightgown and her parents are thrilled at her new eagerness to don her nightclothes.

I will show the rug at my monthly Rug Group meeting. Then it will go into the mail to our far-away little family. It is filled with scraps of many memories that my daughter might recognize including scraps from a few of her long-ago Christmas nightgowns, flannel shirts her father wore, and pajamas from other family members. Do you think she will notice the little bits of blue sheep-dotted flannel included in the rug? Do you suppose she will feel our love for her and her family with both sole and soul?

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Toothbrush Rugs

Toothbrush Rugs

Have you ever heard of "Toothbrush Rugs"? They were named before the advent of the modern toothbrush. Back in the day, a toothbrush handle was straight, simple and had a hole at the end. I guess it was the thing to hang your toothbrush for storage. Anyway these old brushes can be fashioned into a tool to make rag rugs. First the brush part is cut off. The remaining handle is shaped into a point at the non-hole end. The resulting needle is threaded with rag strips to sew them into thick and sturdy rugs.

Here are second and third toothbrush rugs I have made. Since I didn't have an ancient toothbrush I simply used a very large tapestry needle. It worked just fine. This is a great way for me to use up odd lots of rag strips left over from my Rep woven rugs.

These rugs are generally round or oval shaped. It has been a bit of a challenge trying to make them rectangular. But I am getting better with practice.

The one at top lives next to our shower door where it makes a perfect step out rug. The one at bottom now lives with a family member living in the deep South. Her kitchen floor is stained concrete. Since any latex product causes damage to such a floor, it's a challenge to find a rug that doesn't need a grippy non-slip pad underneath. Since this rug is heavy and a bit stiff, I hear it stays in place on the slippery concrete floor.

These rugs are hard-wearing and machine washer and dryer friendly. They are especially useful in homes with children and/or pets.