Last year, I completed the challenge set forth by The Livestock Conservancy called Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em (SE2SE). I purchased and spun wool from people who raise sheep listed on the rare and endangered list. The goal is to support those who are raising these sheep and conserving their genetic diversity.
I used some of the yarn to weave this small rug and these five “walking around bags”. There are previous posts if you are interested in these.
This large rug is my last Shave Em’ to Save Em” (SE2SE) project. I used up all the rest of my yarn except for a short length that I kept for reference.
I first wove the five bags and then this small rug. It is the first rug that I ever wove. I learned a lot and made several changes before making the large rug, my second.
The first change I made was the sett of the carpet warp. For the small rug I chose 8 epi with an 8-dent reed. This left some warp showing no matter how hard I whacked the weft into place. For the second rug, I spaced the warp farther apart to 5 epi with a 5-dent reed. This change worked well. The wool packed much tighter. The warp threads barely show at all. When I weighed the rugs I discovered that the small, original rug weighted 2 oz. per square foot while the larger one weighted 3 oz per square foot. That is an increase of 50% in the density of the weft. It feels thicker and more solid.
The brown yarn at the center of the pictures is Karakul. You can definitely see the different that spacing the warp makes. The weft packed much tighter and the warp barely shows. This is great for hiding those little threading errors. 🙂
A second change that I made was to use a different type of shuttle. For the small rug I used a boat shuttle. This meant that I had to wind the yarn onto the bobbin with at least a little bit of tension to keep it from tangling. Because some of the wool breeds are pretty stretchy, I think there was some spring-back that cause the small rug to pucker a bit. Some stripes puckered more than others. For this rug, I used a stick shuttle.
I was careful to wind the stick shuttles loosely and let the yarn relax before I beat it into place. I used a temple while weaving both rugs. There is much less puckering on the large rug.
The stripes in the new rug are wider. I only used a bobbin-full at a time with the small rug, so there were 30 small stripes. With the second, larger rug, I used all that was left of each breed. I did keep a small (about 24″) sample of each breed for later reference. Some of the breeds are quite wonderful to spin and weave and I will use them again.
The rug is perfect for the space in front of the bed in the guest room. The breeds from left to right are; Gulf Coast Native, Black Welsh Mountain, Tunis, Leicester Longwool, South Down, Navajo Churro, Santa Cruz Island, Karakul, Clun Forest, Romeldale CVM, Shetland, Hog Island, Florida Cracker, Jacob, and Lincoln Longwool.
At each end I wove a 2″ hem of 3/2 cotton. The hem is machine sewed. After reading about wet finishing rugs, I decided not to wet it. I will clean it when it gets dirty. The warp is Maysville Carpet Warp. I wonder if the rug will outlast me.
I hope you like the woven rug and the other SE2SE projects. As always, your helpful and polite comments are welcome.
Knitting, Weaving, Writing 