It would be nice to hear the stories of old rag rugs. When I see an old rug, I would like to ask it who wove you, when, and where. Did the weaver plan the colors and cut the strips in the light of a summer evening or in the winter dusk? Often, all that remains is the rug, and there is no information about the weaver or the story of the rug.
The story of this rug is known
I saw this old rug when visiting my friend in Luumäki. There was a long, long carpet on the porch, and its patterns caught my attention. The rug was a rag rug, with a bright appearance and beautiful patterned stripes. The stripes were cleverly woven with two colors, and in every other stripe, the colors were reversed. The weaver of the rug is likely the old mistress of the Korpiranta estate, affectionately called “mammaska” / “Gram” The rug was probably woven in the 1950s.
The pattern has now been saved for the weavers
I photographed the rug and took a pattern of the weave. The weave is a four-shaft pattern, like in most traditional Finnish rug designs. We wove a new Korpiranta rug 3810 according to the original composition but with lighter rag strips. As the pattern weft we used a twisted thick yarn, similar to the original rug.
The basic pattern of the stripe forms diagonal squares, and on the other side of the rug, there are individual star patterns that overlap. A diamond-patterned Korpiranta Diamond 3811 rug is woven with this basic design.
3810 Korpiranta rag rug
3811 Korpiranta Diamond
You’ll find the patterns from issue Winter 2/2023.