Rugs, and yummy things

Butter tarts are supposed to be a very Canadian thing.   It's said that they can be traced to the late 1600's here, especially in Quebec, where they were made with maple sugar and possibly syrup.   The first written recipe though is dated 1900.   They can be plain, with raisins or walnuts.   They are quite unique in flavour being both buttery and sweet.  It uses just a few ingredients and is infinitely variable as it is a forgiving recipe. Yesterday,  I made butter tarts.  Although I do like a good, runny butter tart, I end up dripping them everywhere, so these aren't runny.  They are buttery and nicely sweet, but not cloyingly so. 

1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 2 eggs, 2 tbsn milk, 1 tsp vanilla.   Mix and divide evenly between 12 tart pastry shells.  Bake for 25 mins and 350 F.    I wish I had had some raisins in the pantry, because that would have made them perfect.    It doesn't look like a lot of filling, but you only need 1 1 1/2 tbsn - 2 tbsn in each shell.   They expand quite dramatically.

I made bread from a recipe that is supposed to be historical.  However it's a no knead bread, using a combination of flours that I'd not seen used in that way before and it was soft and fluffy like a commercial sandwich bread for those lunchbox type sandwiches.  As well, it was a bit bland.   I really prefer a bread with some body to it and flavour.    Most of it got eaten although with as soft as it was, it became difficult to slice after day 1.   The chooks liked the last bit.

I finished weaving the rugs.   To get the last one done, I wove until there were only 4 inches of warp behind the shafts.  I was manually lifting shafts help open the shed, in order to get the last inch done.    Still, the rug was a bit shorter than I would have normally woven.  However, I'd been looking for a new bathroom rug for a while but haven't found one it a colour or style I liked, so the old one is now gone and the small rug is in front of the shower.  Win!

The rugs are all hemmed and ready to be used.  The two with the multi coloured strips are bright and cheerful.  The red and grey rug is a little more defined and sedate.

Percy's Rug

 Percy and Christiana gave me two shopping bags of old t-shirts to use for weaving rugs.  Usually I cut my rug strips into continuous lengths.  This gives large sections of a particular colour and because you can trim and overlap the ends, you get a fairly uniform texture.

  This time though, I cut the strips into loops.  I stretched the loops and then looped them together randomly.  This creates little textured knobs where the loops are joined, but also gives an interesting colour variety.  I decided to try this for two reasons.  One, I wanted to try something new and two, I didn't have a backup selection of shirts in those colours, so regulated stripes was a little bit risky for symmetrical results.

I've decided that I really like this technique.  The rug was fun to weave.   The loops are easy to interlock, you stick one loop inside the other and then loop it back inside itself and pull.  The only issue was of course the helper kitties who saw grand opportunities to play with lengths of t-shirt loops.  

I started out by trimming and overlapping when one shuttle ended and I started a new one.  However I realized it was much easier to just pop the new shuttle through the ending loop and then slide it through the looped end of the new length.  A quick tug and the lengths were joined seamlessly.

I wasn't sure how many loops I'd need.   One t-shirt didn't work because I don't think it was cotton.  When you stretch the t-shirt material, it lengthens and curls in on itself, making a great weaving yarn.   This shirt material didn't do that.  However, the rest were perfect.  I had enough, with a couple of t-shirts left over to use in another project.

I have to say that weaving is a good task right now because it requires some concentration and thought.   It is weird and stressful times out there these days and focusing on an encompassing project is not a bad thing.  

The Rugs are ready for the Floor

 The rugs are done!  Yay!  I finished weaving the last one today.  I cut them off the loom and raced to the sewing machine.  I needed to secure the warp between each rug before cutting them apart.  I used a zig-zag stitch to secure the threads, making the stitch width a bit smaller than the default size.  This holds the stitches securely.  I could have done it twice, but all the threads seemed to be safely stitched down, so I didn't bother.

I don't like fringes on rugs.  They wear out quickly, dogs and cats like to do unnatural things to them, like chew or play with them, and they rarely look neat and tidy in my opinion.  Fringes are fast to tie, so that is a bonus.  However, I weave in 3-4 inches of tabby at the end of each rug and fold a hem on either end.  I fold the raw edge in, then fold again.  I use my sewing machine to stitch them down, rather than sewing my hand.  It's not only easier and faster, but I think it's more secure.  I want my rugs to be machine washable, pet safe and tidy looking.   Hems give me that.

All the rugs are 26 in wide.  The first one in the photo is 53 in. long, the second one is 51 in. long, and the third just squeaked in with an acceptable 41in long.  I used ever last scrap of fabric for that last rug.

The red tent made this pumpkin coloured yarn look really bright

Other than that, I've been doing a lot of spinning.  I've spun up some merino, a lot of BFL, 4 skeins of that rug yarn, and this orange superwash merino that I spun as a demo.   I was doing a spinning demo at a local fair and it was a lovely, albeit incredibly and unexpectedly warm day.   The fair is small, and definitely geared to families.  They had a huge homecraft display, including photos, school entries, agricultural items as well as preserves, baking, quilts and other crafts.  I even got to see a pig do the dog agility course, not very well, but it was hot and you could sort of see why he tried to go around the jumps rather than over them!  The craft display tent was full of extremely talented people.  The embroidery guild had some amazing pieces, including a little 3inch tall goldwork squirrel, which was perfectly executed.   I got to sit beside the rug hooking guild, who had the nicest people there.  It was a lot of fun.

Rag Rug Update

Rug two with a jersey yarn weft

I put a warp for 3 rugs on the loom.  Only 3 because the Fanny isn't a rug loom and that is all that I am comfortable with on the front beam.  It's a simple tabby warp in 2 colours.  The Sett is 12, using 4/8 cotton.

For rug number one, I used a cotton sheet which was white with blue stripes for the weft.   For rug number 2, I used a brown jersey sheet.  It was only a twin size and I wasn't sure I'd have enough, so I used a bit of leftover blue jersey sheet from a previous project and some very large tan t-shirts I'd purchased on sale.

Rug three using a mottled coloured medium blue sheet for weft

I started rug number three this morning.  I'm using a  blue sheet, which has largish squares printed on it, with a mottled medium blue colour.
The squares on it are not noticeable when it's cut into strips, so that they are outlined in dark blue doesn't seem to really matter, with a specific pattern, unlike the blue and white stripes.

I simply sliced the white and blue striped sheet into pieces the width of the sheet, trimmed each end to a point, inserted each strip by hand and overlapped the trimmed ends to reduce blue.  The result is a fairly smooth rug surface.

Rug one, using a white and blue striped sheet for weft.

The jersey sheet was also cut into strips, but I put a tiny slit into each end.  I threaded 2nd  piece through the tiny hole of strip one, and then fed the end of that strip 2, back into it's hole, tightening it to create a strong join for the 2 strips.   It leaves a small bump where the join is though.

For rug three, I sewed the sheet sides together to make a tube and have been cutting long, continuous strips which I've been folding in half before winding on a rug or rug shuttle.  There are a few little bumps where the sewn ends are, mainly because I didn't trim off the selvedges.

All three techniques make nice rugs.  I am not sure that one is any faster than another.  I do know that I really like weaving rugs with jersey though.  Jersey is t-shirt knit fabric.   After you cut it into strips, across the grain, you pull them to stretch them out.  The edges roll in on themselves, making a lovely non-stretch, round yarn.