Showing posts with label LibbyLuLa Rug making. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LibbyLuLa Rug making. Show all posts

Friday, March 21, 2014

The Evolution of a Crafter



How did LibbyLuLa come about?

  1. Sheets, I had kept old sheets. I felt bad throwing them into the garbage. It seemed so wasteful.. I kept them.
  2. Why? I am a craft person and my parents grew up in the depression. My Mom used recite this poem: 
Use it up
Wear it Out
Make it do
Or do without

     3. I made up a counted cross stitch of this poem for my Mom for her birthday one year. It is on my   
Youtube page, and other sites. 
     
     4. Looking at this Crosstitch one day I thought, 'How could I use up my old jeans...old sheets...It led to my making purses. Knitting or crocheting home made jean yarn and putting old jean linings into the purse for all that we carry in our purses.
    
     5. I made quite a few of these purses but they were very time consuming. So I searched for other ways to use up my cache of sheets, jeans etc.

     6. Meanwhile my husband was selling on line and suggested I start a store. A friend suggested Etsy was a good match for my personality! So an Etsy shop it was. We made and sold things I would like for our house for others to purchase. Then I found twining.
     
     7. Mmmm, I have my grandmothers old weaving tool. I searched for what it was and found out it's a rigid hettle. But my dad said it took two people, that tool and a doorknob to make her rugs! With no other tools, no rug loom I used the laptop to search for other ways to weave without a floor loom. Wha-la...I found twining. My husband, with his fine woodworking back round, figured a way to make a loom for me that made a nice size rug! 

     8. We figured out how to twine and after a awhile I wanted to make other sized twining projects without more looms to store and he came up with an adjustable loom. And it is so cool. One loom: so many sizes. I used up all old my sheets, jeans, my families sheets and jeans and well you get the picture. 

    9. Now I thought there have to be others with stashes of old material that could use them to make rugs for themselves and others! So I nervously made in detailed videos on youtube to show how anyone could do this. Many wanted a loom so I nudged my husband to make more. Now we sell them on Etsy! How my mom would have loved this whole 'story'!    

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Hi,

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginnings of spring!
I love my yard full of daffodils!




I had the pleasure of the company of my Grand-Niece yesterday. 
She loved watching Uncle Nick cutting out some barns and silos on his big loud machines. We made several trips down the 'dungeon stairs' to watch him!
Then she watched Aunt Janet mixing paints and painting the barns and other things Uncle Nick had made. 
She really wanted to watch me make a rug. 
I had just finished a rug for myself out of all my little black dresses and skinny black slacks that no longer fit this no longer skinny old body! LOL






The point is, I didn't have a warp started on the loom and warping the loom was too tedious for her to watch. 
So I decided to do a blog of pictures of a twined rug from empty loom, warping and twining and removing the rug to adding the fringes.

Step one:
I find the materials I want to use to make the rug.
Then I tear strips of the material and make balls of these to use for the weft (the rows going back and forth across the rug) which is twined in front of and behind the warp.



I usually pick a material I don't want to see in the final rug as the warp because in a twined rug the warp is covered front and back. The warp is only seen at the ends of the rug in small loops. I usually fringe my rugs in a coordinating or matching color through these loops so very little of it is seen.
That done I begin my warping the loom.

That will be my next blog.
Tearing strips  and warping the loom.

Thank you for joining me.

If you want to see any pictures of anything we do OR have a suggestion for something we can do feel free to comment here or convo us on Etsy: 

Or 
contact me on Facebook!
My link is at the top of the page. I love trying to do new things!


'Til next time, have a great day!