The New Edition of Crocheted & Fabric Tapestry Rugs

If you’ve been following the website, you’ve seen the announcement that the new edition of Crocheted & Fabric Tapestry Rugs (C&FT) is coming out soon. I’d had hopes that it would have been ready by October, but… February is good too! This one is volume 3 of the "handbook" series and so there is a lot more latitude to add wads of new information. It’s more than double in size.

Probably the feature that I am most excited about is including the information about making crocheted rugs from any type of material. That means for the first time, you’ll be able to adapt crocheting or fabric tapestry to whatever you want to work with—including yarn! For the textile explorer, this book will open completely new fields for texture, shape and design.

All of the classic information is still there, with the step-by-steps for beginners, so it isn’t like the book is just for experienced crocheters. In fact, during the past 24 years since I first wrote about crocheting rag rugs, I’ve found that the more crochet experience a person has, the more trouble they seem to have learning to work with fabric strip. Yarns and fabrics crochet differently, so an experienced crocheter often has to un-learn yarn habits to be able to make rag rugs. There is even a section in the new edition entitled "If You Already Know How to Crochet, Read This First. I Mean It!" LOL

The new edition should be through production in about mid-February. I kept thinking about how mad I’d be if I’d bought the older edition, and then found out a month later that a book twice the size had just come out for about the same price. I’d feel cheated. So, we figured the best thing to do would be just to take the old edition out of print now. (The small book 9-014 "Crocheted Rag Rugs for the Beginner") will still be available in the meantime for anyone who wants to get started and just can wait for the new edition.

FLATTENING AN OLD BRAIDED RUG

Too often, we hear from people who have discovered, inherited or rescued an old braided rug that just won’t lay flat. The problem is usually in the center of the rug which bulges up while the edges lay reasonably well. The owner’s first worry is that the rug needs to be taken apart and re-laced completely, but usually that isn’t the case.

The center bulges in old rugs are most often caused by folding the rug for storage which puts a lot of stress on the thread or lacing that is holding the rug together. The threads are the weakest part of the rug, and they stretch, so when the rug is unfolded, a bulge appears. If the rug was folded in quarters, the center bulges. If the rug was folded in half and then rolled up, the bulge appears all along the folded area—either across the rug or from end to end.

As long as the rug is otherwise sound, it can be reflattened and cleaned at the same time. (If it is coming apart at the rounds, repair them first.) You’ll need a large, flat, waterproof surface to work on because the rug will need to get completely wet all of the way through. A shady spot outdoors is the easiest since you can use a hose (sunshine will fade wet wool). Saturate the rug completely with water and gently scrub the surface with a sponge or a cloth and a wool-safe liquid soap. Then rinse with lots and lots of water. Turn the rug over and repeat the process on the other side.

When handling a wet rug, never pick it up by an edge. A wet rug is so heavy that it can break the threads that hold it together. Instead, handle the rug as a unit—bunched up or rolled up. With large rugs, it can take two or three people to handle them wet.

After washing and rinsing both sides, make sure the rug is evenly spread and as flat as it will go. While it is thoroughly wet, you will be able to pat any high areas down flat. Then leave the rug to dry for a day. Turn the rug over, spread it again and let it dry some more. You want the rug to be completely dry before using it, so you may need to turn it more than once. When it is very nearly dry, it can be hung over a wide railing (not a clothesline) to finish drying.

To transport the rug, roll it up—don’t fold it. And, of course store the rug rolled up so it doesn’t stretch out again!

Why this blog?

After all of these years, why am I starting a blog? On the website are lots of letters with answers about rug questions, but there always seems to be more that come in. By just answering the writer, no one else gets to learn the answer to the question. The "interesting" ones I have kept in a file hoping someday to get the answers posted on the web. Well, that file now has 6,437 letters in it that I can’t begin to organize in any meaningful way.

So, I’m going to start a blog to catch up with some rug questions. Beyond that, there are also topics that I’ve considered in the past that really don’t fit in the category of rug making at all. From old time kid’s crafts, to life here in the mountains of Idaho, including some of my own past-times, there are just so many things that I think other rug makers might just be interested in. So here goes.
Welcome to my Rambling around the Rugmakers Homestead!