There was mention on the Rigid heddlers of making mug rugs for holiday gifts and using the WAL as a color-and-weave opportunity.

Time to decide, what is the next WAL.  I like the idea of mug rugs for gifts.  My mom would love some. 

Anyone else want to share their thoughts and ideas?  I would prefer it be a 2-shaft/rigid heddle project since that's the only loom that is free in my house.  Besides, I'm enjoying exploring new things on it.

BTW, here is an interesting structure, krokbragd, for possible mug rugs:  yarninmypocket.typepad.com/yarn_in_my_pocket/2009/11/93-kracking-krokbragd-grommit.html

What do you think?

Claudia

Comments

Caroline (not verified)

That would just as easily be set up with a string heddle for the 3rd shed, similar to the Bronson set up. Its also nice and simple to set up for those of us who need to learn how to use our second heddle.

I'm doing simple mug rugs at the moment with sari silk, and letting the silks do the talking, but this would make a nice contrast to them! When were you thinking of getting this up and running?

claudia (not verified)

Ohhh, pictures, please, please please.  I have some Sari silk I wasn't sure what to do with it.

I would greatly appreciate some help with this.  Do you have a draft or have you posted it in your projects?  How wide is the warp, how long, what is your sett?  Just the usual 10 questions.  Help get us started.  We need a leader like you with great experience and ideas.

Thanks,

Claudia

Caroline (not verified)

Flattery gets you everywhere, hehe! I'm not greatly experienced for a start, but I'm willing to give most things a go and experiment.

I'm just doing a plain tapestry weave with the sari silk, on the knitters loom with 7.5 heddle. I spin my own silks to get a very organic yarn, and I use them as singles - the knots and hairy bits are more than enough to add interest! Its a similar texture to the feathers, lashes and ostrich fashion yarns, and about as fine at times. The sett I am using is far to fine for Himalayan spun sari silk, as that is a lot thicker than my handspun.

This was a bit experimental to get the right set, but I have double warped  26 threads @ 7.5, and I can use my quite fine sari silk on that and it works out nicely. I was going to try the Journey Loom Receiving bowl as well, but my yarn is much too fine  and the bowl would be absolutely tiny, more like a shell, but I may go back and do that anyway as tiny is good. I have also tried with the sari ribbon yarn, which is basically using rags of 1 - 3 cms width, only made out of sari silk not cotton, and found that to get a nice sett that showed off the silk I had to weave 5 warps as one. I also had to remove any brocade as that was too stiff to weave comfortably on this scale. That makes a nice small rug, that is quite thick, and hand-washable. These will all have a fringe made from the cotton warp threads. They are still on the loom at the moment and covered so no photos, and the projects will not be listed until finished.

There's nothing mysterious about what I do. I sell sari silks for spinning, so always have a good supply at hand to spin my own, and while I don't have regular Himalayan sari yarn, I do have some banana yarn and started a backstrap project with that.  Its the WEFT FROM HELL! Lovely, but stiff and hard to turn at the selvedge - and of course quite tightly overspun, but I think that can be made a feature of the yarn instead of a disadvantage - when I work out the pluses of using it as weft, lol!

Caroline (not verified)

Mug rugs with with my own handspun sari silks, still on the loom:

Its just regular tapestry weave; you don't need anything more if working with a yarn like this, and the yarn is just as it comes straight off the wheel. This one is a little longer than the others, but I'm generally aiming for about 4 x 5 inches, plus fringe. And yes, the colours are just as gorgeous as the photo suggests!

To use commercial sari silk you would need a much wider sett (this is 7.5 dpi) and would probably need to remove some of the twist before using the silk.

claudia (not verified)

That's great, very colorful and fun.  What yarn are you using for warp?  Is it your own handspun, too?

Claudia

Caroline (not verified)

Its commercial cotton 20/2s, used double, on my 7.5 dpi rigid heddle. It makes a nice firm fabric without being too thick, and of course its washable. The sari yarn is a bit thick and thin, because there are knots in the silk, but I prefer to leave them in to create texture. I use the very tangled but soft sari silk for this yarn. I could use the straighter less tangled silks, but they spin up into a much harder yarn and the effect would be quite different. It would probably also be a thicker yarn.

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