THREE STRIPES – Shades of blue rug

 

A rug with three different colour blocks side by side

Weave all the colours into to the rug following the style of Kirsi’s rag rug or use only one colour but different shades of it, as in this Shades of blue rug .

It is easy to get rid of all carpet rag leftovers, including the shortest t-shirt yarns and tube yarns. And if there will be some of the warp left at the end, you can weave a soft rug with miscellaneous yarns. Combine knitting and crochet yarns into one thick weft yarn. In this warp you can recycle all kind of yarns and materials!

WEAVING INSTRUCTIONS

There are three different colour sections side by side on the rug surface, and it is woven with three shuttles: The weft thrown with shuttle 1 comes up in one section of the rug surface, the weft thrown with shuttle 2 on the second section and the weft shot with shuttle 3 on the third section of the rug surface. Throw the shuttles from opposing sides, the directions of the shuttling are in the treadling instructions. 3 shots of the weft increase the fabric as one weft row. On the opposite side the wefts interlace, and colours mix.

With this tie-up the weft thrown in the shed with the first pattern treadle on left comes up on the surface of the rug on the right edge, the weft thrown with the second treadle comes up in the middle of the rug and the weft thrown with the third treadle comes up on the left edge of the rug.

Insert the weft at an angle large enough and draw the weft into curves. The weave is inflexible, and it may cause troubles if the width of the cloth is reduced too much. If necessary, test if it is possible to adjust the length of the temple slightly narrower. Be careful, making the width of the cloth too narrow may cause broken warp ends near the fell of the cloth and damage to the reed.

NB The rug ends unravel easily if not supported! Weave few centimetres with an extra weft to support at both ends of the rug. Weave the intervals between the rugs (left for fringes) using warp sticks or heavy carboard strips.

The rug is woven with three shuttles. Each of the three adjacent pattern sections have an own shuttle, of which weft shows up in its own section but dives underneath and interlace there with other wefts of two pattern sections.

Weft colours are mixed in pattern section on the reverse side of the rug. Shuttles are thrown alternately from contrary sides same way as in the ordinary Finnish rag rugs. The shed is opened by pressing two treadles at the same time.

Insert the weft at an angle and draw down into a series of curves across the warp to prevent excess draw in. This blue pattern is designed to vary in different shades of one colour. This gives you an opportunity to use unevenly dyed rug yarns. Also, the strength of the weft yarns can vary.

If in some check the weft is not strong enough to cover the other wefts, only the texture and hue of the colour change at that point.

Shades of blue rug

Finished size 77 x 177 cm

The blue rug is woven with t-shirt yarns and tube yarns to achieve different kinds of effects and tones in the colour checks. We took two outmost ends away from the threading on the left edge to have wefts in similar action on both selvages.

Weaving instructions

Weave the rug with different shades of one colour. Leave around 17 cm for the cross fringe. Weave some scrap weft into the warp on both ends of the rug to support. Start and end the rug with 6 throws of the warp yarn. Weave stripes 9 cm high with three different colours. Weave some of the colour checks twice as high as normally. Occasionally divide the check in two halves, start with one colour and change to another at the middle of the check. Change the colours always at the end of the repeat (finish with three last pick and start with three first pick of the repeat). Use different kind of materials and colour shades evenly over the entire length of the rug.

Make a note of where each colour and material change are made while weaving. By following this note you can decide what colours and materials to use in next checks to give a smooth look on the rug.

Finishing

Knot the first warp threads 2 + 2 with a tight weaver´s knot. As you tie the knots, undo the scrap yarn. Knot a lattice fringe according to the instructions on page 29 or just finish with overhand knots.

 

Weave with different shades of one colour. This pattern is perfect for uneven and irregularly dyed rug yarns!

Amount of weft yarn needed

– Eko Tube Yarn, recycled cotton, Lankava
(flat, 10 mm wide) 1 kg = approx. 270 m marine blue 610 g and denim blue 530 g.

– Lilli Tube Yarn, recycled cotton, Lankava
(round, 7 mm wide) 1 kg = approx. 220 m marine blue 560 g.

– T-shirt Yarn, dyed
smoky blue 680 g, blue 780 g ja dark blue, thicker quality 370 g.

3,53 kg in total