Shades of Autumn...

Yesterday, after what feels like forever, I wove a rug. It is a gorgeous autumn coloured recycled t-shirt rug. I love it, and I am very happy to be weaving again.

handwoven recycled t-shirt rug

The Big Coast to Coast Canadian Rug!

I belong to a street team on Etsy called the Trans Canada Etsy Team. A couple of months ago at a virtual meeting, we were talking about Canada Day and what we could do as a team to celebrate it. I am very quiet at meetings, large groups scare me, even virtually. I didn't say anything.

 The next morning as I was lazing in a hot soaky bath, I wondered what I could do for the team. There was talk about offering a discount shops wide, I will admit now, I have a problem with discounting my work. It feels to me to cheapen it, my rugs are works of art. I had an idea, what if every member participating sent me a cut up t-shirt. I posted it on our forum thread and the idea flew, right across the country. How exciting for me to weave a rug that everyone had their hand in. Also exciting that I had these ladies do the work for me, not quite as much cutting for me! It was so exciting checking the mail everyday and getting packets from across the country. I loved watching the colours coming in, at first the were all similar and then they weren't. Once all the tees were here, I used t-shirts from my stash and blended colour to make the rug work. Here is the rug, which is part of the Canada Day Road Trip and Giveaway  .                                                           

Trans Canada Road Trip Giveaway rug!

the cut up t-shirts

the loom is warped, ready to go

me & my loom

weaving has begun

I actually unwove the rug when it was almost finished, and then wove it again, so this pattern is not in the finished rug

finished rug, still on the loom 

finished rug! yay, it's a beauty!

Follow the Canada Day Road Trip link above and check out the participating shops so you can have a chance to win one of the fabulous prizes!

A Rug Has a New Home!

A new customer messaged to say he had posted a photo of his new rug on Flickr. It looks as though I made it for that spot, it fits there perfectly. I am pleased, it is so nice to see where my rugs "live".

felted wool rug!

Thanks Charlie, you made my day!

Black and Grey Handwoven Felted Wool Rug

I just finished weaving a custom rug, with black and grey felted wool sweaters.  I do not accept many custom orders as I do not have the choice of colours. I get what I get. I will accept an order if I have the right colour of sweaters on hand. Of course if a person is willing to wait, I can order bales and hope for the right colours.

black and grey felted wool sweater rug

Rug Weaving!

Yesterday we got more bad news, Marks Uncle from the Island had a heart attack, making it the third family member in one week. From what we have heard he was also transferred to Sudbury and is in ICU. We are hoping he will be okay, and that it stops now with the three of them.

I just finished a custom rug order. I screwed it up terribly. I took it off the loom and forgot to account for loom shrinkage. It is much shorter than what was asked for, but the very gracious customer bought it anyway!

handwoven felted wool rag rug

I am out of practice but have learned a hard lesson... stressful day for me.

Big Denim Rug

I finally finished the big denim rug I started in September. The rug that gave me tennis elbow, cutting the 42 pairs of jeans that went into it. It is 48" x 56".  Almost square!

I tried something different this time, I placed a teddy bear with my shoes in my photos, to help show size. I do get a lot of messages asking what brand my shoes are, or someone actually asked if she could buy my shoes. She didn't even say she liked my rug...

I will not be listing this rug on Etsy yet as it is heavy and I have to figure out shipping.

Recycled Wool Sweaters and a Felted Wool Sweater Rug

Last week I received the three 75 lb. bales of recycled wool sweaters I ordered from my supplier. Greyhound no longer stops here, so we had to drive to the next town over to pick them up.

Mark is very cautiously cutting the metal strapping. The bales are under a lot of pressure. It sounds as though a gun goes off when the strapping is cut. Then the bale expands and expands, revealing all the wonderous wool textile inside.

I am however finding it harder and harder to find pure wool. There is more and more  superwash wool.. I know, I know, this makes me rant.... I very much dislike superwash wool.  The way it feels when it is wet makes me wonder if it has any of the wonderful qualities of wool left in it. It feels just like acrylic...

I do have bags and bags of sweaters that I could not felt. 

My first rug woven from my new bales, beautiful purples, blues and greens!

Recycled Textile, Handwoven Wool Rug

This was a red Hot morning for me!! I had one of my felted wool sweater rugs featured in this front page treasury. I am not sure who curated it, but am very grateful to whoever did!!

Always a pleasure, always a thrill!! Thank you!

Big Denim Rug

After two weeks of prepping, I have started my first denim rug on this upright loom. I used a frame loom previously. To date I have cut up about 35 pairs of jeans for this rug, and so far I have used about 28 of them. I will have to cut more before I am done.

My loom malfunctioned twice as I was getting ready to start weaving. Mark has found a solution for the problem, and so far it is  holding up!!

The rug is 49" wide and hopefully 6' or 7' or 8'  long. I will see as I progress. I had a hard time winding the warp on due to all the seams in the jeans. I am excited now... another few days or so and I will have it finished, off the loom and all the ends woven back in.

Handwoven Felted Recycled Wool Sweater Rug

I just finished weaving the last of my stash of wool sweaters. I will not order more sweater bales until I can work my way through the 200 pounds of denim and corduroy I have stored throughout the house. I love the denim and corduroy rugs, but they are so much harder to work with. In a sense I am dreading it.. wool is so much softer to work with.

I also have boxes and boxes of plastic in Thomas' room, and he may be coming home next week. I  wove a little sampler last night, too thin for a rug, I have more experimenting to do. I also tried to sew this piece of woven plastic, and my sewing machine refused to do the job... It just jammed up, the plastic must be too sticky to  move through.

Love all the colours, shades and tones in this soft, cozy comfy rug!

The Original Rug for my Article.

This is the first rug I wove for my step by step article. Before I knew enough to save copies of my original photos. 

I was going to post this yesterday but life happened and distracted me, my poor old Tukker.

I love this rug, it really reminds me of a plaid shirt, I cannot  quite figure out which, but it does remind me loosely of a tartan.

Plastic Rug

This is the progress I have made on this little experimental rug. Not much! I didn't even touch it yesterday, but will get back to it today. For as hard as it is to work with this shrink wrap, it is kind of cool, the woven bits. 

A Very Long Week

I have been writing a step by step article on my felted wool rugs, for Craft magazine. I have never done anything like this before, so I did not know to make copies of my photos and save high quality copies. I sent off the article, with the smaller sized photos attached, in pdf. I was then asked to send the high rez photos. Yikes, I didn't have any, so I had to weave whole new rug, take new photos, and here we are. I have just loaded the photos of this rug, into the computer. Tomorrow when I have fresh eyes and mind, will choose and crop the photos I need for the article. What a stressful couple of days, and a lot of work!

I actually like this rug better for the article, it is brighter and more springlike. The other rug, is gorgeous too, but more like a tartan. I will have to get some photos of it and post it.

 

I just listed this rug, on my Etsy shop! It is a gorgeous little rug, greens, blues, grey and beige.

Rug Weaving!

I have been busy in the past week or so weaving, or prepping to weave rugs. I feel inspired for some reason! This rug, below, is very pretty. It has a beautiful range of greens through to blues to mauve to yellow. Very spring like! 

I have a lot of ideas, so I will be trying to weave rugs with some different materials, to see what works. I am excited about it! Our local grocer has started to save me different packing material, so I will be trying plastic before the week is through. I am not quite sure how to finish a plastic rug though. I will have to play around with it. I am not sure if fused plastic becomes brittle of it it is still pliable.

I will see!

Handwoven Wool Rug and Swap O Rama Rama, Fashion Show and Auction

I was contacted about a month ago by a group of students from the Crocker Middle School in Hillsborough, California. They are planning a Swap O Rama Rama, Fashion Show and Auction, on Earth Day, to raise money to support the Coyote Point Museum.

"At our event students will swap used clothes, work with talented designers and artists to recycle the used clothes into wearable art, and then showcase their creations at a fashion show. After the fashion show, prizes will be awarded and a silent auction held. This letter is to ask you to please donate a prize for the fashion show or an item for the auction. We scoured the internet for people who are recycling materials into incredible items. We love that your rugs include recycled materials, and shows people how incredibly cool recycling and conserving can be!"

I have decided after a little research that I will support their cause and donate a rug to them. I am just in the process of getting a package ready to mail out tomorrow. This is the rug I am sending. I did have a hard time deciding which rug to donate. I decided on this one because the students are in middle school, grades 7 and 8. I thought these bright colours were more appropriate for their age group. 

 It really is a gorgeous rug, and a fine example of recycling used clothing!

Needle Felted Beads and a Felted Wool Rug

I was away from home earlier this week, had a bout of cabin fever as well as an appointment in the city. Always nice to get into a little civilization, lunch out with my sister and niece, and then shopping!! I went to a friends knitting and weaving shop and bought  some new felting needles, some coloured roving and a few felting books. I love earthy tones but what a treat to use some colour. 

After a little playing around I finally figured out how to make a round felt bead(ball). I made quite a few in between my dinner prep on my last day at my sisters. Pure fun!!

Last night I was playing around with different ideas on how to use these little felt beads. This is what I came up with, the same idea as with my pebble necklaces. Funky little blasts of colour!! I quite like it!!

This is the last felted wool sweater rug I wove last week. Kind of the same colours as the runner I wove earlier, but this one has more grey in it. I used some of the leftovers from the runner. I must say I did get some gorgeous colours in this load of sweaters.

Red Wool Rug and Crunchy Wasabi Salmon

This is the first rug I have wove this year. The first rug from my newest bales of sweaters. It is a range of reds and rusts, mostly reds. It is really quite beautiful, if I can say so myself! Gorgeous cushy, so soft underfoot.

A close up of the rug, many shades and variations of red, so soft an thick!

For dinner tonight I cooked a very simple, and easy salmon dish. I served it with blanched snap peas, and brown rice. Here is the recipe!

Crunchy Wasabi Crusted Salmon

(or any kind of fish you would like)

4 (3/4 to 1" thick) skinless salmon fillets (6 oz. each)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsps. wasabi paste (from a tube)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 to 1 1/4 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

Prep:

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 400 F. Line a shallow baking pan with tin foil. Grease lightly.

Pat fillets dry, then arrange in baking pan. Sprinkle salt all over fillets. Stir together wasabi paste and mayonnaise in a bowl, then spread tops of fillets with half of mayonnaise and sprinkle with half of panko. Turn fillets over and spread with remaining mayonnaise, the sprinkle with remaining panko crumbs.

Bake until fish is just cooked through, 12 to 16 minutes, then broil 4 to 6 inches from heat until crumbs on top are golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. 

Serves 4, or two if you are very hungry! Enjoy!!!

Monday!

Blustery cold winter day, snow blowing everywhere. I am not looking forward to going out. 

To my surprise when I looked out the kitchen window this morning, I saw a lake freighter heading east. Brrr!! The shipping season must be almost be at its end.

I am getting ready to list a felted wool rug in my Etsy shop. I wove it before Christmas and just took photos of it outside yesterday. Good thing I did the photos yesterday as everything is once again snow covered out back.