Peg-loom weaving a rug

I have a peg loom. Of course I have a peg loom. My MWOS (Man With Own Shed) has woodworking tools, and bits of dowel are easy to saw up, so I got a peg loom quite early on in my spinning and weaving journey. (I get spinning and weaving tools in the order that he feels like making them, as opposed to the order I need or can use them. Not that I'm complaining.)

I also have crazy amounts of badly washed and therefore badly felted longwool to use up. It sounds like time for a rug.


I tried making a rug some months ago, out of a Zwartbles I was keen to see the back of. The only trouble is, Zwartbles is very reluctant to felt, and as the staple length was about 3", a bit of felting was necessary to keep it all in one piece. It was lovely and fluffy, but it didn't stay in one piece, so it's now insulating the worm bin.

This time, I have taken some advice from my favourite Viking crafter, Linda. Her advice is: pack the wefts together good and tight, then chuck it all in the washing maching on a 40 degree delicates cycle. This I did. It shrunk to about half size, but has formed a pleasant fleecy mat, good for sitting on.

It's not a fireside rug though, which I what I was hoping for. So I put another warp on the peg loom, having made a proper warp chain, on the warping board, for the first time.

Home made warping board.

I co-opted my daughter to pull the locks into strips of roving, while I wove them round the pegs. That makes the operation quick (and fun, because we watched cartoons together while we worked). I can fill the pegs up and empty them twice in a sitting. I figure that, if I fill the pegs up 12 to 16 times, then don't pack the weft together quite so hard before felting, I might get a rug-sized....er, rug. It'll be only about a week's work, which seems crazy fast compared to knitting.

Romney locks on a homespun longwool warp

 

 

So far the warp seems to be holding up to the strain. It's Leicester long wool, two-plied. I think my MWAS must have spun it, judging from all the knots in it (I rarely knot yarn). It was rather under-plied, so I ran it through my wheel again on the slowest whorl, just to be on the safe side. MWAS uses a wheel that he made himself, a Dodec, and while he claims to get on with it just fine, it doesn't really lend itself to precise calculations of twist.

The Dodec II, called the Reydec for musical reasons.

I'll post later with pictures of the finished rug. If it turns out to be a rug. Fingers crossed!