Rugs and all that

I am knackered. I have been working like mad to finish this rug for Lewis. It has been on the go for at least six months or so. As with so many things it was started with a rush of enthusiasm and then abandoned amongst the wool stash in favour of more interesting projects. Since we are driving up again today I was determined to save myself the postage money (which could be considerable, it is quite heavy). Thursday I started when I got in from work, and worked until gone 10, to the accompaniment of 'The Da Vinci Code', 'Sex Lies and Video Tapes', 'Stand By Me' and 'Tristan and Isolde'. (I had to wait up anyway as Jacob was out celebrating with his work mates and needed picking up.) Then Friday evening to the accompaniment of 'Life of Brian' and 'Monty Python and the The Holy Grail', by which time the actual rugging was done. Then Saturday evening I did the backing, which is a very long tedious job, adding thick tape all around the edge on the back to keep it in shape and make it lie flat. We had chocolate cake and watched crappy telly. So, it is made with Gedifra 'Easy Wear', which is a very chunky wool/acrylic mix yarn, found in the sale room at Shipson Needlecraft which is our nearest and dearest yarn emporium. (If you live in the area or are passing through *do* visit, their thread selection nearly drives me to take up embroidery it is so fantastic.)

This is only my second foray into rug making. A couple of summers ago I went with Julie and Jill to a workshop with Heather in the wilds of North Yorkshire. It was excellent fun. We stayed B&B, which I had never done before, and then spent the day in her fabulous workroom, experimenting with different things and talking about her work. Very inspirational. I came home and made this one:
It is done with strips of velvet (the coloured part) outlined in black wool (from an old jumper) and the white background was left over silk from my wedding dress and then the edging background (you can't really see in this picture that it is different, but I ran out of the silk) is cream fleece fabric. I found the design on the interweb and hand drew it, which explains why it is a little wonky in places. Mostly rag rugging is done with fabric, but in essence it is a 'recycling' craft and can be done with whatever you have to hand. The back lines on Lewis' rug above were made from two old sliced up t-shirts.

Have to go now, want to get away by 9am and it is already 8.30.