Braided Rug--post 1

The class

Mid-April, I took a rug weaving class from Ilka White. It was a two day class via Zoom. Each session was three hours. Thirteen people were in the class. At least five us were from the United States.The majority of people were from Australia. Australia is where Ilka lives. Learning what materials could work for a rug was eye opening. T-shirts, jeans, cotton shirts, wool scraps, table cloths and sheets were a few of the materials mentioned, They really eye opening factoid was that all these materials could end up in one rug! I chose sheets. The dark blue are old sheets from our bed. The lighter blue flannel sheet was a set that my daughter had on her bed growing up. She didn't want me to throw them out until I had made her something from the fabric.

Progress at the end of the first session

A couple decades later, I decided she might get a kick out of a rug! I learned about Ilka from fellow blogger, Linda, at Flourishing Palms, Linda had posted about several projects she had made using Ilka's techniques. I began following Ilka. When Ilka posted the online class, I registered.

Progress at the end of the second session

At the end of the first day, I wasn't happy with my piece. I removed the stitches and started again. I was happier with the look. On the second day, I asked for another demonstration on how to add strings to the piece. It took a long time for Ilka to get to that point as she addressed that question towards the end of the question session. I did add a piece; but, after picking up a couple bits of wisdom I should have learned on the first day, I didn't get make much progress.

When Ilka showed videos and sometimes while she demonstrated, I had so much buffering that it was difficult to follow the process. I struggled with weaving the end of the strip into the rug until I discovered that I had missed the part where she had snipped a button hole at the end of it. She used her crochet hook to enter the hole and pull the strip through the rug. 

At the end of third session--back to the beginning

On the third day and on my own, I tried to make use of the knowledge I thought I had garnered at the end of the second session. I realized, I had made an error early in the weaving process. I removed stitches until I was back at the beginning!

Results on the third beginning

Starting the fourth day, I felt confident that I could conquer the process. This time, I wove like a left hander. I am left handed. This is the largest portion I have been able to weave. I've started to add strips to the weaving with plans to add more. Ilka said rug weaving was meditative. Perhaps it is, once one gets into the zone of the process.

I hope to work on it a little each week. My goal is to use all of the flannel sheets. When the sheets are used, then that will be the size the rug needed to be! I likely won't post often about this project; but, may include a photo with my monthly recap/goal post.

Documenting taking the rug class was goal number one on my May list.