Peg Loom: The First Rug

 

It has been a productive Spring Break for me.  I finished my first rug on the peg loom.  

It is soothing to work on this loom...the repetition, the patterns, the texture of the wool...all pull me into a sort of trance.  The natural oils in the wool soften the skin on my hands as it slips through my fingers.

 

I purchased two types of wool for this.  The white is an Ashland Bay Faulkland Wool Top, and the grey is a Norwegian Wool Top.  The Faulkland is super smooth, like silk, and is made of long, straight fibers about 5 inches in length.  The Norwegian is scruffy with a rougher texture, the fibers being about 3 inches long and slightly curly.

 

My pattern was simple.  I started with white only...then grey and white stripes...then white with grey dots...then a few rows of white...one row of grey...and then I repeated in reverse until I came to the other end.  I ended up not having enough white, so I had to take about 5 rows of white off the front end, and weave them in at the back end.  Because of this, the rug didn't turn out as long as I would have liked it to be.  I wanted an additional 5 or 6 inches on each end.  Now that I know how far 1 oz. of yarn will go, I will be more prepared for the next rug.  I used nearly 48 oz. of wool in all.  I wonder how many sheep that would be?

 

To finish off the edges neatly, and to help disguise the fact that the rug is shorter than planned, I used some of the Norwegian wool to make tassels.  The over-all size of the rug is about 2 ft. wide by 3 1/2 ft. long.

We already have one cat that approves.  

A camouflaged cat loaf..."Ah Ha!" she says,"No one can see me here!"