Making a Braided Rug....Getting Started

The ride out to Leesburg for the class was beautiful! It had snowed earlier in the week, but the temps on Sunday were supposed to get into the 60's! I managed to capture this "horse-scape" just outside the fair grounds. It was all melted by the time I left for the afternoon.

The Feb 1 class was spent in fiber preparation and braiding. The instructors supplied us with a fabulous kit that included a clamp for braiding, some clothes pins, a needle for sewing the rug together, a sponge with a felting needle, a measuring tape, a large laundry bag for washing/felting my braid, and some waxed linen thread.



Once I selected the colors for my rug (shown in my last post), I was ready for the next step. I created little bundles of doubled roving in 12-18" lengths and laid them out on the table.



Next, I started braiding and adding color combos as I went along. I braided much more tightly than some others, so my rug will have smaller braids once it's complete and will be a more dense rug. The density should make it wear like iron! These photos show my progress with just the center portion of the rug braided.

We all had a lot of fun chatting while we worked on our braids - there were about 20 of us in the class. Braiding produced lots of little hairs and fibers making quite a mess! The stray bits of fiber were gathered up and can be felted into a ball to make a pin cushion or cat toy - waste not, want not!

A full room and fun group!











About half of us finished braiding during the class and were able to leave the braids with the instructors for felting. I didn't finish braiding during class, but I did make some great progress! I took my roving home to finish braiding. After that, all I needed to do in preparation for the next class was to felt my braid.




I really enjoyed watching how the colors I chose "blossomed" into a gorgeous rug!