Blue zigzags

Finished up the last of my rug warp!  This blue rug turned out really pretty.

Another rug!

I need my 8-shaft loom in order to finish more samples for my book, but I didn't want to let this warp go to waste!

The book is progressing along just great!!  I can't wait for everyone to see it!!

Roll out the red carpet!

 This one is coming off!  Looks like the loom is spitting it out!

Here is what I saw the very first time I saw it unrolled from the loom:

 

Before I cut it off the loom, I just want to note how I did the edges.  It always seems to immediately want to unravel as soon as the tension is released, so I cut it off in sections and tied it as I went along.  I started in the center and skipped every other group of 8 threads.  After I worked my way across the top, I took the whole bottom off and laid it out on the floor and finished it there.  I noticed that it doesn't seem to explode as much as the top.  I think it must get packed a little bit more at the bottom edge.

Here is a full floor shot of Ensuing Chaos!  I think this would be such a chipper way to wake up in the morning.  I think I am going to put it on my side of the bed.  Oddly there is a tile floor in our bedroom (thank you previous owners!) so I will have to get a non-slip mat.... or this will most definitely end up being an unplanned trip to the ER!

It turned out so cheerful and zig-zaggy!

I have enough wool for at least one more rug, maybe two.

In the next one, I think I will do shorter zigzags and have one main color (like the dark gray) and have all the background colors changing.

I don't think I have enough warp left on my loom for a whole new rug, so I might have to warp it again.  Or just make a short rug.

I love this one!  

It's so me!
And as a secondary bonus, I didn't think my hubby would like it very much because it's all the colors mixed together, but guess what?  He loves it, too!!  Yay!  It's a win/win!
I'm for sure keeping this one!

Ensuing Chaos

I've named this rug Ensuing Chaos because reminds me of the end of a chaotic school year like the one we just had.  It is also a very wild pattern, so the name fits in that respect also.

I'm already almost done with this one...

What a perfect day it is to weave!

illusions

 Sometimes this particular rug tricks my eyes!

Sometimes the lines look like they are bending in all kinds of crazy directions!

But it's just an optical illusion created by design and color!

I think I shall call this rug "Ensuing Chaos" because it has helped clear my head for the summer following all the chaos of the end of the school year.  This thing is like a huge brain splat!

Feeding the machine

 I'm starting to get a feel for this rug and what direction to go in.

It wants colors!

I feed it color... 

... it gives me designs... 

 ... and happiness!

We get along real great!

Too many colors?

I don't feel like I have many options left to make 2 color rugs, so I think from this point on, I will have to do some combinations.

It's not a bad thing, it's actually a really relieving feeling to me!

I'm the kind of person that likes to mix things all-together and see what happens.  I married someone completely opposite of me... I married someone who likes things very organized!  So he will probably not like this as much, but this is right up my alley!

I am using the zigzag pattern and repeating it 3 times to make it 1 inch long.

I have blues, greens, blue/greens, whites, yellow, two shades of red, and some brown to choose from.  I hope it looks ok in the end!  I am betting it will, but I'm feeling a little unsure at this point in time.  I mean, I personally like it, but I hope the colors don't distract from the zigzags... or I hope that they don't clash too badly.  I will admit (but I don't do it very often) that sometimes my stuff doesn't work out.  Oddly in the blog world, you can kind of skip showing that kind of stuff!  But I think this one will be ok.  I think there is a lot of potential here for creativity!

Oh, and PS.  I dyed the green!  Remember it here??

It's off, and it's beautiful!

 It's off!  

 

The directional changes are hard to see from the far away distance, but here it is a little bit closer.

Finished size = 24.5"x40.5"

100% pure wool

Took about 6 skeins of yarn, which is about 1620 yards of weft!

It turned out awesome!

In fact, my aunt saw it on Facebook and wanted it to decorate her beautiful house.  She's really into art, so I'm glad it went to someone who will appreciate it!

In fact, she made this painting in the background of the above picture.  It's awesome!  She said that someday she'll tell me the story behind it.  I can't wait to hear it someday!
 
My aunt is actually going to use the rug as a table top decoration.  It fits perfectly in her house with the style, color, and type of decor. 

It was meant to be hers!

Almost there!

Six more inches and then I can cut this rug off the loom, finish it, and then tie-on the rest and begin again!  I think the next one will have zigzags every inch.  It will be 3 repeats of the pattern.  I'm not sure of the colors yet... possibly lots of colors? 

Slurping up the stash

 I decided to change directions every now and then... maybe it will be planned and maybe it will be unplanned!  I kind of like random things more than planned things, but sometimes planned looks good, too.

I think the changes work much better when the warp is set up in a straight line than the other way around.  I'm not too fond of this pattern when the warp goes in different directions.  I think it's because of the weft-faced fabric.  When you change directions while treadling, it makes a much tighter point. 

I think I might do very tight zigzags on the 2nd rug!  

Black Cherry

Here is the rug so far!  

 

It's using up an incredible amount of wool, which is a good thing because I have so much that needs to be used up.  I decided to start with the diagonal stripes to remind myself of the pattern.  After this rug, I want to make one with zigzags.  I haven't decided the colors of the zigzag rug yet, but it will probably be just as neat!

Won't this be flashy?  It will spruce up any room nicely!

Rug

Remember the rag rug I made last year?  It was blue and white and made of old wool...??  Maybe this will help:

I've decided that I wanted to use up more stash and make another one.  But I also wanted to do a different pattern.  Zigzags are so hot right now and the left/right color changes were much better looking on the former rug than the up/down!  I also want to do one with some diagonal stripes, and I want to use the same warp.  I want to use several different kinds of colors, so it won't be as coordinated as the blue and white rug!  Hopefully it will work out ok though!!

Salvaging the worst invention. Ever.

 I saved it by

 

quilting it

with cat fabric on the back.

It's not the best looking rug, but it's very soft, thick, and feels like a terry cloth towel.

To me it's kind of ugly and not really what I had in mind, however it's soft and durable and it will do a good job. 

Plus, I saved its life!

Epic Huge

These are HUGE!

Like, Epic Huge!

And just as predicted, so are the floats.

But I like the pattern enough to stick it out!

Perhaps a quilted rug is on the horizon?  I'll have to see how this washes up!

Larger than Life Hounds Tooth

So I got this random idea while I was measuring out the warp for my loom... what if I tried to make even bigger hounds tooth... I mean, this is worsted weight cotton and it's going to be about the size of the hounds tooth on the acrylic scarves, so what if I doubled it?

My idea came from this picture on Pinterest:

I was looking online to see if Peaches & Creme still make the double worsted weight cones, but I did not see them.  I emailed them, and the company has since sold and that is one of the discontinued lines.  In their email, they suggested doubling the worsted weight, so I'm going to thread my loom as 1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4-5-5-6-6-7-7-8-8 and weave it the same way.  This is just an experiment, so who knows!  I may terribly regret this decision, or it may be the newest, latest, and greatest thing!

The only problem is the floats will be quite large... but you don't really know if it's going to work or not unless you try, right?!  Maybe it won't make the greatest floor mat, maybe our toes will get caught and we'll fall and hit our heads on the sink... and maybe not.  Doc Brown in the movie Back to the Future had a lot of luck when he hit his head on the toilet.  That's when he invented the flux capacitor... and you know life changed ever since that invention!  You just never know... I could also sew them down on my sewing machine... almost like when a quilt is "quilted".  There are options that I'm willing to explore later down the road, if needed.

Here are the stats:

• 2 yard warp
• 14-15 wraps per inch of worsted weight Peaches & Creme cotton
• Sett is 9 on #10 reed (I just threaded 8 and skipped a space)
• 26" across on loom
• 234 ends total, so it will be 14 hounds tooth across
• 468 yards for each color in the warp, and each cone has 106 yards
• 56 times around the warp board for each color, so I did it in sections of 2, or 28 each

I love these stripes in the blue!  The official name is Hippi.

So in this warp, there will be 7 hounds tooth of each color... 

I'm soooo super excited to try this!!!!
The loom is ready to thread... and it should thread up quickly!