Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Summer & Winter: Polychrome Rug 1

Leigh's Polychrome RugI finished this little rug over the weekend. Annie Ham of The Netherlands, who led the Online Guild's Summer & Winter Weaving Workshop closed the month out with a handout of various treadling possibilities for summer & winter. The first was polychrome. After my polychrome sample dishtowel, I wanted to explore this a little further.

The idea to do a small rug came because April's meeting of the Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild will feature a rug themed show-and-tell, since April's program is on rug hooking.

Here are my rug's particulars:

Warp - 10/4 cotton rug warp
Sett - 12 epi
Pattern weft - 4 ply crochet/rug filler cotton, alternating 3 colors.
Tabby weft - 6/2 cotton
Threading - 2 block S&W with repeating 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 Fib stripes
Treadling - as drawn in
Finished size - 20 by 32 inches plus 3 inch fringe

Ordinarily I wouldn't choose to use these colors; I just used what I found in my stash. I had to experiment a little, but am happy with the result!

What makes polychrome a little different from traditional summer and winter treadling is rather than alternating pattern and tabby shots, two weft picks (of different colors) are thrown and then the tabby shot. The resulting effect is a lot of fun to weave. One's mind goes on and on with endless possibilities!

8 comments:

Kathy said...

Gosh, Girl! I get tired just trying to keep up with your blog, let alone all the beautiful weavings, knittings, spinnings you do!
Very inspirational!

Anonymous said...

Very pretty!

Sharon said...

Leigh, you astound me. Please please please tell you that you don't have a full-time job.

Janet said...

That rug looks wonderful Leigh. Makes me think - oh dear, if only I could put up my loom again and experiment with summer and winter as applied to rug weaving. However, knitting is gripping me now and living space without the loom in the living room is a joy. A big loom can be a tyrant.

Charleen said...

Beautiful, Leigh! I haven't gotten to the polychrome yet, but I'm enjoying trying all the diffent tie ups and weft combinations.

ra said...

beautiful rug Leigh.
Just came back to say hiya, thanks for your comment on my blog.

Marie said...

I'm not familiar with the rug filler, or I don't think I am. How thick is this? Is it similar to mop cotton? The rug is wonderful.

Cathy said...

Leigh - it's beautiful! I've been wanting to try summer and winter and you're certainly providing lots of incentive!