For the last part of the course we learnt how to knit with fabric and how to use a peg loom.
The peg loom was quite a nifty little bit of kit and you can buy one for amazon for £20 if your heart should desire. I will go through quickly how to use a peg loom because it is quite fiddly to set up but very simple once you get going.
First of all you need to make a long length of fabric strip. To do this you cut lots of 1” strips about 18” long. We used 18 inches because the tutor told us to and because we were using 9 hole peg looms. I don’t think it would really matter how long the strips were but we used two colours so by doing the strips 18” long we got approximately two rows out of one colour before the fabric changed which did look better. Once all of our strips were cut we had to thread them together like a daisy chain to make one big long strand of fabric which we could wind into a ball.
We then had to set up our peg loom. To do this we cut lengths of string and threaded them through the holes in the pegs with the threader each peg loom conveniently comes with. We then loosely tied the threads into three groups so that our weaving wouldn’t fall off the end. You then basically weave your fabric strip in and out of the pegs on the loom. When you reach the end of the pegs you pull out your peg push your weaving down and reinsert the peg into the hole. You do this for all 9 pegs and then you have a blank peg loom ready to start weaving again.
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| Nanny weaving away |
I threaded the peg loom 9 times in total to make my rather fat pot stand (we shall call it a pot stand because that is the only possible use for it I can think of!) Once you have finished you then untie your loose knots and tie each alternate string together and pull tightly. The tutor told us to pull reeeeeally tight but I think if I did it again I wouldn’t bother as I think it looks better abit looser and would be more table mat size (Far more useful!)
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| Finished sample/pot stand |
The next technique we learnt was knitting, although I can’t knit so I crocheted mine. First of all we had to make a ball of fabric to knit/crochet with. To do this we folded a square of fabric in half and then cutup in 1 cm strips but not right to the end, we stopped about 1 inch in so that the fabric was all still connected. We then had to snip each alternate fabric strip so that we had one really long, continuous strip of fabric.
We then started knitting and crocheting with it and that was really it. I dont seem to have a picture of my crocheting 🙁 but it looked as you would imagine.
We both had a great time. My Nan is very adept at most crafts so trying to find something we both didn’t already know how to do was pretty tough, which was why we settled on random rag rug making. I would definitely recommend it though. It was fun, we laughed a lot. It was lovely to spend time away with my Nan, she is the best!
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