I wasn’t happy with a simple “X” for the design area, but I struggled to come up with something better for this rug. And then, Steve and I went to the symphony. There, on the floor, in the long hallway, was the inspiration I needed for the pattern design on this rug!
Design inspiration is found on the floor on the way to the symphony.
Despite all that went wrong from the start, and how many things I had to undo and do over, I must tell you that I really did enjoy weaving this rug. The rya knots and loops made it fun and interesting. And this unique fluffy rug will always remind me of that sweet symphony date with my honey, when he patiently waited as I pulled out my iPhone to snap a few shots of the floor. Now that’s love.
Counting warpends on the warping reel.Dressing the loom starts with pre-sleying the reed.Ski shuttle holds doubled weft–fabric cut into 3/4″-wide strips.Three different lengths of fabric strips are used for making the rya knots.Adding more rya knots.Loops are made with the help of a wooden dowel.Brown paper cartoon under the warp has the outline for the pattern. Lines on the cartoon, showing where to change the inlay technique, are inked onto the warp as a guide.Making loops.After weaving a sample at the very beginning, I re-sleyed the reed, spreading the warp ends further apart. Excess warp ends, because of the increased width, are chained on both sides. Future band loom warps?Don’t ask. Almost finished weaving, and another do-over happened.Cutting off! Time to celebrate!!Sculpted inlay appearance is achieved by graduated lengths of the rya strips and heights of the loops.
May your design inspiration come from unanticipated places.
