With a revived interest in working with the fiber off our alpacas I’ve spent the past weekend washing and drying alpaca fiber. Here’s a photo of the latest batch of fiber to come out of the washing machine. I have it drying on a coffee table covered with towels in my basement. In about 10 hours it is dry and ready to be picked and carded.
Click Here for instructions on how to wash your alpaca fiber at home.
I’ve got it! It took me a week of annoying my husband stretching cord all throughout the house but I finally got the hand of making rope. The projects I have been working on this week are all for sale. See our Shop for what is available.
Next thing on the list is to dig through all my alpaca 2nd and 3rds in the basement and start spinning them into cord to be made into rope.
Since the weather has not been the greatest for riding my horses I find myself spending these winter months doing little projects while I dream of spring.
I might be in “English” leather country but I’m a cowgirl at heart and love the feel of a mecate or rope reins in my hands. The weight and lay of a good rope cannot be beat in my book and I decided to make one for myself.
Since I raise alpacas it seemed only fitting to make my new reins out of alpaca. Each cord I used to braid with is made up of 8 strands spun fiber (or yarn) this part requires a rope machine. Each cord is made up of 8 strands; 2 strands per hook; a total of 4 hooks. Using a rope machine, these strands are kept under even tension and twisted counter clockwise up to 15% shrinkage (differs for each type of fiber)) and then counter spun clockwise around one another creating a rope cord. I made 6 of these cords and a 7th to use as a core.
Since I’m still new to rope making I haven’t yet mastered the art of twisting cords around a core into rope. So I opted to do a 6 plait round braid around the core, back braided scissor snaps on each end and left the fringe on to a little character.
Hope you enjoy the photos. First 2 are of the reins the last one is of a lead rope I made to show my alpacas with. See our Shop for what is available.
Fiber Arts Friday as moved to it’s new home with WonderWhyGal! Check her out!
Video is from Back At The Ranch please give them a visit.
Shows great detail of spinning horse hair and twisting it into rope.
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Welcome Fiber Arts Friday Fans with WonderyWhyGal
Rag rugs are a blast to make and do not require any fancy techniques like crocheting. The rugs are fairly quick to make and you can see the results of your efforts take shape in just a few rows. This technique is not limited to rugs, you can also make other items like a rag placemat, dog bed, cat bed, bedspread, basket, or anything else you can think of. These rugs can be great kids projects too since it involves fun things like ripping of fabric.
Making a Rug Tool:
Rag rugs are often called Toothbrush rugs because of the type of tool used to make them. Folks used to cut the head off an old toothbrush and file it down to a point while using the pre-drilled hole (for hanging your tooth brush) as a place to attach the fabric to. Today, there are fancy prefabricated tools you can use or you can still make your own. Technically a rug tool is just a really big needle.
I’m cheap so I chose to make my rug tool out of scraps I found in the basement. My needle is made out of scrap copper wire and electrical tape. It might not be pretty but who cares, it’s free.
Making Fabric Strips:
For my rug project I decided to repurpose some old flannel sheets. I cut a little slits along one edge of the sheet every ½ inch or so. Now comes the fun part! Grab that little fabric tag and rip! The flannel sheets tore very evenly right down to the end without the need to cut each strip out by hand. If you have a cat hanging around this process is very fascinating and you might have to fight for some of your strips back.
How To Connect Fabric Strips:
Now that you have all of these strips hanging around you need to be able to put them together. Many suggestions have you sewing the strips together, which is great, if you have that kind of time to waste. Easiest method I found is to cut a small slit in the ends of each strip and slipknot them together. Thread one strip through the slit you made in the other and then feed the tail of the 1st strip through the slit you made in the end. Pull tight and voila you have connected the 2 strips together.
Starting Your 1st Row:
These directions are for a rectangular rug. I will cover oval rugs and circle rugs on another post. Start your rug at the connecting slipknot where your 2 fabric strips meet. 1 of these strips will be the “core” the other will be used to tie the knots. I’m right handed so find it easier to hold my strips in my left hand and use my rug tool in my right. In the photos the light colored fabric is the “core” and the red is what I’ll be tying knots with.
– First cross the red over the white so it looks like the number “4”
– Feed the tail of the red behind the white and through the loop hole in the “4”
– Pull the red all the way through and make your first knot. Keep this first row fairly taught but not so tight that you won’t be able to get your tool through again later
– Make sure your “core” fabric stays straight and doesn’t get curled up into your knots
– Continue knotting until you achieve the width of the rug that you want
– Row 1 can be a bit of a pain. You may find it easier to use a safety pin to secure it to something. I usually like to stand up and place the first knot on a hook and knot my first row from there.
Starting Row 2 – ?
Again, these directions are for a rectangular rug. This is the easier of the rug patterns to make and does not require any extra stitches per row. The length of your first row is the width of your rug. How many rows you add on from this point determines the length of your rug.
– When you’re ready to start your next row, fold your “core” fabric over so it is now playing alongside your row of knots.
– With your rug tool stab the center of the last knot you had just made
– Make sure you still go behind the “core” fabric before you come through the loop
Changing colors:
Solid color rugs are no fun of course you want to change colors. When you get to a point you want a new color just cut the fabric off, cut a new slit in the end that is part of your rug and tie in your new color.
Video of all the steps described above! In HD!
For those of you who follow me on Twitter I’ve been talking about a Christmas gift I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. Well with the holiday finally over I’m finally able to indulge all of you with what I’ve been working on; A Rag Rug.
Rag Rugs, also known as Tooth Brush Rugs, Knotted Rugs, or Cottage Rugs are a 100% recycled that anyone and I do mean anyone can make. If you are like me and have ADHD this project is just for you since you can see results from your labor very quickly. You can also choose to stop at most any time making something as small as a placemat or continue on for large area rugs.
You can use most any linen for these rugs. In the case of this Christmas rug I chose to use old flannel sheets. Since this was my first rug I did not document the process I used to make it. I do plan on documenting my next one. I’ll show you everything from how to make the strips, how to chain them together and the technique needed start and end your rug.
Until then, please enjoy some photos of the Christmas Rug. I hope my brother, his wife and most likely their puppy enjoy it thoroughly.
A good starting point for making these is at http://www.ragrugcafe.com/ but found many missing instructions. She does do a very nice job in her videos showing you the general technique. I’ll do my best to show you in several future posts how I went about making my rag rug.