Finally! That project I talked about forever ago, it’s happening!
It’s taken
me quite a while to card out enough roving for the backing to the rug, but I’m
ready to go. I selected fibers of varying lengths from two fleeces (corriedale
crosses) that I got a few months ago. There is a mixture of brown and white
with vary shades in the brown. I wanted a very natural, rough look to the
finished rug. I (very carefully and with much frustration) stood all the raw
fleece pieces tip end down, trying to vary the lengths and colors and trying to
create a natural wave of length like in a whole fleece (shorter pieces on the
ends). Then several layers of the washed roving in perpendicular angles to
each other. The final layed-out piece was nearly 8 inches tall.
I very
carefully ladled hot, soap water onto the piece and slowly smashed it flat on
top of the bubble wrap. I then covered it with more bubble wrap and lightly
rubbed it until the piece was starting to felt.
Once the rug
started to hold together on the back I rolled it up with a rubber shelf liner
around it to help hold it together and started to roll. First I just sat and
rolled it with my feet, but that wasn’t great and I didn’t have enough
patients.
So I turned
to the dryer. Tumble dry low, no heat. As it turns out, my roll was just wide
enough to fit in the dryer and tumble around. I added a small towel to make
sure it was knocked free from the sides while it tumbled and let it go. For the
most part it stayed rolling and worked out quite nicely.
It took a
few hours to dry out well, I think it was a good bit faster because the centrifugal
force of the dryer. The final piece is about the size of a bath matt and I love
it. I think it will end up as a cozy cushion for my office chair.
-M
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