Louisa Enright's Blog

Turkey Tracks:  November 3, 2015

Tales of Braided Rugs

Some years back I bought some green cotton sheets and some used men’s shirts in order to make a braided rug of recycled materials.

I finally got to this project this fall.

Can I say that the resulting rug is without a doubt one of the ugliest things I’ve ever made.

It’s one of those projects the maker looks at and thinks “what was I thinking?”

I had the yellow sheet strips already on the loom–and I should have taken them off.  Or done a different color rug.  I had one men’s shirt with yellow in it, and I think that’s where the trouble began.

Worse, I should never have put more of the yellow into the rug.

The two dark strips sort of in the middle are some of the men’s shirts, and these should have been gradually worked into the rug alongside the green sheets.  More like what is going on along the right side, before the yellow.  Also, the men’s shirts provide great material for quilting, but one can’t get long strips out of a shirt–and that means a lot of knots in a rug.

Whatever–these rugs wash and wear like iron, and it will be fine at the kitchen door.  Right now it’s living in front of the sink while I work on a new green rug that is more like what I imagined.  AND, I must remember that I have recycled materials that might have been trashed otherwise.

Meanwhile, I visited a friend who is making the most gorgeous braided rugs.  Here’s one that sits in her kitchen.

How yummy is this rug?

Gorgeous, gorgeous.

Her husband made her a bigger loom than I have been using, and its size is great in her kitchen.  She’s now working on a very soft rug, with lots of mellow and warm colors.  I can’t wait to see it finished.

Meanwhile, here’s the rug I should have made in the first place–it’s coming along nicely.  I will finish it tonight.

And into the kitchen it will go.

The rug on the floor was made a few years back from old sheets and bits of fabric.  It and its sisters are washing and wearing like iron.