Mat or Rug?

I've been making little mats since the Summer of 2020 with Liz Gipson's Summer Weave-Along: Mini Rugs. I highly recommend her classes. I used my 10" Cricket Rigid Heddle loom and a cotton warp for the first batch. All the rugs are about 8"x10". Cotton warp, various stash wool weft.

This is one of my favorites. All plain weave.

Then I put a linen warp on the loom and had lots of tension problems. Once linen gets stretched out it does not bounce back. The RH loom only moves half the warp ends up and down to create the shed for the weft. I decided to save the cross and transfer the warp to a multi harness loom where all the warp ends get moved. I had much better success. 

Linen warp sett at 6 ends per inch. Bulky Noro weft. Plain weave on a Macomber loom. 8"x10".

I've been asked what it's for. It could be used under a vase. It could be a place to throw your keys. It could be a table center decoration. Anything you want really! The rugs are fun to weave and make great gifts.

Sunrise or Sunset? This little mat or mini rug looks like one or the other depending on how you look at it.

Studio 49 Retreat 2017 Challenge part 5 Finale

The final end to this Polwarth fiber challenge. Lots of pictures below...

Two scarf ends that needed sewing together to make a loop.

I wanted to have a flat seamless invisible join instead of an overlapped hem. I chose to cross opposite ends and loop back to the same side.

Detail of crossed warp end with needle weaving end into fabric.

 Almost done.

Ends all crossed and ready to pull each loop closed flush against the fabric.

The join turned out a little more wonky than I thought it would. It's not as invisible as intended. Instead of pulling two ends in opposite directions at the same time, I should have pulled one side flush then the other side separately. Ah well, lesson learned.

I wasn't confident the crossed ends would be secure, so very lightly, I needle felted the seam.

Then I got to the fun part...beading the fringe.

I chose three tubes of the larger glass beads, put 3 little beads on each strand and started twisting. A bigger glass bead finished off the ends.

After hand washing and air dry, WALLAH! A finished challenge project.

I had lots of little cut ends left over from the warp. I couldn't bear to throw them away. The solution: a pom pom for a keepsake. Which I finished with beads as well.

Finally, I leave today to show off these items at the Studio 49 Retreat.

Studio 49 Retreat 2017 Challenge part 4

I finally wound my hand spun Polwarth yarn onto my 10" Cricket loom and started weaving. Post for part 3 here.

Scarf in progress on the loom. The thick grey line is the BFL hand spun yarn for the weft fringe.

A close up before I took it off the loom. Nice pleasing Fibonacci color sequence eh?!?

Off the loom ready for finishing and beading. I used every bit of the white Polwarth hand spun I had (part 2 post here).

My selection of glass beads to play with.

It only took me a week to weave the scarf. Duh! Now I just need to make time to do all the finishing. Sew in the yarn tails, connect the ends in to a loop, twist and add beads to the weft fringe, and finally wet finish. Doesn't seem like much but I know it'll take me longer than I think.

Lastly, here is a picture from my sister of the yarn I spun for her (see this part 1 post) and the beads she plans to knit into her piece. I can hardly wait to see her finished cowl.

The retreat is next weekend. Gotta finish!