Beginning and Improving

Rep Rugs
One of these is destined for a wedding gift

"We've Only Just Begun", sung by Karen Carpenter is playing in my head.

Here is my latest warp of rep rugs. Their sizes were dependent upon my supply of certain types of rags. The smallest one is with teal colored wide wale corduroy of which I had a limited amount. The beauty of that teal with this warp just sings. The happy combination more than compensates for the rug's small size. One of the longer rugs is destined for our dear friends' son and his bride.

As of today, the young couple has been married exactly two months. This gift rug will be in the mail to them far before the honeymoon glow has dimmed. For some couples that glow remains steady through decades and decades. That is our wish for Alec and Sarah. The rug should serve them well for at least the first couple of those decades.

These rugs are woven in Rep Weave using 8/4 cotton carpet warp sett at 24 e.p.i. The rags in two rugs are mostly old bed sheets. The other two have wide wale corduroy as the thick weft.

My experiment with floating selvedges in Rep Weave continues. Even though weaving with them is slightly slower, the method agrees with me. An extra opportunity for a splash of color adds to their appeal. Floaters greatly improve the selvedge edge on hems. This particular adventure will continue. Who knows the twists and turns to occur in subsequent chapters?

A floating selvedge in a contrasting color adds punch

The fuchsia-colored floater enhances these rugs

Life is a journey. Weaving can also be seen as a journey. In the studio and at the loom many discoveries are possible. Some things remain the same. But who is to say a new thought, new experience, new venture isn’t just around the corner? Even weaving an oft-repeated draft can spark a revelation or two.

Rep Rugs showing both sides. These rugs are reversible.

Time passes and every living thing ages. It is said that some things improve over time. Wine comes first to mind. Rugs age, may they do so gracefully. Marriages can mellow and bloom. I pray this is the case for Alec and Sarah. May it also be the case for their rug, a small token of our best hopes and wishes for a long and happy life together.

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Warp Speed Summer & Quality Assurance

From June 2017:

During the last few weeks I hosted a mini-workshop and a study group meeting, both here at our home. My guild, the Seattle Weavers’ Guild, boasts around 325 members with many activities and sub-groups, Mini Workshops being one of them. Any member can request a leader or topic of interest for an informal learning opportunity. Having hosted and led Mini-Workshops in the past but not recently I volunteered to have another go.

I decided to keep the topic open by suggesting the title “Shop Talk”. Nine weavers converged on my home. We had a lovely time, at least I did. They were interested in my weaving process and it was fun to share things I have learned and worked out for myself over my 29 years as a weaver. As I told the group, “For the most part we weave alone.” It is easy to feel like a Silas Marner of sorts and it isn’t until Hephzibah comes along that we realize the need for her company. At least that is how I feel.

After the fact, it would have been good to limit myself to a specific topic. I had enough material for far longer. Single topics could possibly be Rep Weave, Tips & Tricks and Rag-Monger 101. I have specific ways of preparing and arranging rags within a Rep Weave piece that others find interesting and possibly helpful. Believe it or not, rags can be a hot topic. So I will consider and perhaps volunteer to teach again.

There is one point in particular I mean to stress whenever and wherever I speak of my work: the learning never ends. Or in other words, this is how I do things today but if I learn a better way I may change tomorrow. Weaving is full of learning opportunities and I intend to make the most of them whenever possible.

My husband and I, best friends almost from the moment we met, mark nearly four decades of marriage this June. Our firstborn will celebrate his 36^th birthday this month. Then there was Father’s Day. Plus early next week our son-in-law, daughter and our three little grandchildren arrive for a visit. June 2017 turns out to be an especially busy month.

Much Later:

Wow! June and July went by in a flash. I wrote the preceding with intention to post just as we hit warp-speed here at home.

In spite of great busyness I have been weaving a bit. For my workshop and rug group meetings I warped my loom with rep rugs in purples and gold/greens. I will share photos next post. Yesterday I tied on to that warp a new color way to weave a wedding gift rug for Alec and Sarah who were married July 1^st. Yes, I have some catching up to do but, as they say, the beat goes on. (That last sentence would not please Lynne Truss. Might she grant dispensation in the case of idioms? Ms. Truss is among my heroes and I would hate to disappoint.)

Test-Napping a Wee Pine Tree Coverlet

In the meantime, while here our tiniest family member took on the job of quality assurance. Here she is test-driving (test-napping?) one of my Wee Pine Tree coverlets. I am happy to report it earned her stamp of approval.

August brings “dog days” but also the hint of autumn. So there is hope. Happy August, everyone!

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

It's Wedding Season

Yes, it's that time of year again and already there are three wedding invitations in my inbox. Yesterday's children are preparing to say "I do." Time passes in spite of the fact that I cannot possibly be any older.

With each invitation's arrival I check the online wedding registries to look for the happy couples' color ideas. Then I look for a rug in my inventory. But a recent bride, Allison, chose a combination that I hadn't yet attempted -- turquoise, mint green and grey. These are three colors that I would not have put together and could not see myself using. Since then I have discovered that for the moment these colors are tres chic.

Allison's Rug by RepWeaver

Where to start? The biggest hurdle was getting over my own color sensibility. After a long deliberation I decided the best thing to do would be to add a few of my own ideas to include lighter and darker shades as well as highlights.

For some time I had been wanting to use common Inkle-type threadings side-by-side in a rug. The possibilities are absolutely endless so it was a lot of fun playing with various ideas and combinations.

I limited the warp length to six yards due to the fact that I had limited amounts of either shade of grey on my shelf and also because I had limited time before Allison was to be married.

The rug went out in the mail a couple of days ago and should be delivered today. It will be interesting to hear how it is received. I sure do hope the newlyweds like it.

Here are the three rugs fresh of my loom before they were hemmed. I'll post a few more photos of the finished rugs soon.

My Hip Pocket

One side of "My Hip Pocket" #4

Remember all those jeans pockets I've been saving? Recently it occurred to me that even though two pockets from a single pair of pants may not be symmetrical, they are mirror images of one another. I suddenly saw that they would make the front and back of a bag. So I combined the pockets with the zipper from a pair of jeans, added an inkle band, some tatting and beads. Voila! Here you see one of my creations, a tiny shoulder bag. I am having a load of fun with these and will post more photos later, perhaps when the rye bread I'm baking comes out of the oven. Or after I have sampled said rye bread.

The reverse side of "My Hip Pocket" #4

RepWeaver

Top Secret Project Underway

My collection of jeans pockets is growing.

Rag rugs woven with old jeans as weft are fabulous. I don't regularly choose to use denim in my rugs. Weaving with old denim poses respiratory risk and wearing a mask does not suit me. So it's only when my husband and I have worn through several pair of jeans on our own that I weave with denim.

As a rag rug weaver I hate to waste any useful fabric so when weaving with denim cut from discarded jeans I always remove and save the back pockets and the zippers. Not that I ever had a plan for the pockets and zippers. They just seemed to need saving. And over the years my collection slowly grew.

Well . . . at last an idea occurred to me and these salvaged orphans are finally finding a use. Hooray! Sorry, though. I'm not yet ready to spill the beans. Here is a hint: I am combining several of my favorite needle pursuits to make something just a bit unique to me and my interests. And I am having the most fun!

I showed my secret project to a small group of my weaver friends and now they are donating their jeans pockets and zippers to the cause. One friend even did the seam ripping for me and gave me several matched sets of pockets and zippers. She is one dedicated friend for sure. Have you ever tried removing intact pockets and zippers from jeans? It requires determination.

Don't know how long I will keep this under wraps but if I can finish several of them in time I intend to put them in the Seattle Weavers' Guild annual show and sale.

Weave off,
RepWeaver