In 2011, when visiting the Woolshed in Orkney – a wonderful craft croft focused on North Ronaldsay wool – Denise showed me her peg loom. Her elderly mother was able to use this loom to make beautiful rugs from roving – carded unspun wool. Denise explained how we could make a loom ourselves, and adapt the size to the desired rug. This would be an excellent method to weave a 6ft x7ft (180 x 220cm) rug for our living room.
The next summer we bought five Shetland fleeces at the Wool brokers in Lerwick. Oliver Henry took me down to the fleece sorting store, where he sorts all fleeces by quality and colour. Oliver helped me select 2 light grey, 2 dark grey, 1 moorit fleece, looking out for fleeces with a large crimp with a little hair as possible. Together the five small fleeces weighed seven kilos, filling three bin bags.
Making the peg loom rug
At home, the fleeces were soaked – in batches – in salted water in our bath tub. This loosens any organic material stuck in the fleeces and help desolve the lanolin. I then loosely filled old pillow cases with the wet wool and washed them in the washing machine at 40 degrees with a regular amount of detergent and omitting the spin cycle. The wool was then spread out and dried on a drying rack. I stored the dried wool in banana boxes until we started carding – the most laborious stage involving input from the whole family. We first picked the wool – loosening plucks and removing any remaining dirt – and then used a drum carder to produce roles of roving.
I made the pin loom from a 2.5m length of timber, and 11.5m meters of dowel for the 115 pegs. I’ll write a separate blog at some point describing peg loom weaving and the construction of the loom.
Making the peg loom rug
At home, the fleeces were soaked – in batches – in salted water in our bath tub. This loosens any organic material stuck in the fleeces and help desolve the lanolin. I then loosely filled old pillow cases with the wet wool and washed them in the washing machine at 40 degrees with a regular amount of detergent and omitting the spin cycle. The wool was then spread out and dried on a drying rack. I stored the dried wool in banana boxes until we started carding – the most laborious stage involving input from the whole family. We first picked the wool – loosening plucks and removing any remaining dirt – and then used a drum carder to produce roles of roving.
I made the pin loom from a 2.5m length of timber, and 11.5m meters of dowel for the 115 pegs. I’ll write a separate blog at some point describing peg loom weaving and the construction of the loom.
The actual weaving was a joint effort with my daughter Hilde during the Christmas holidays. It was admittedly more challenging than I imagined. We used clamps to keep fixed loom to our kitchen table. The 7 ft width meant Hilde and I had to weave together, or use a wheely office chair to move along the loom. However, the main challenge was keeping the warp threads from tangling, and we weren’t always successful… But the rug was looking so great that we stuck to it and by the end of the holiday the rug was finished.
Five years later the rug it is still looking great! Daily use has compressed the roving. But this actually improves the look and has not affected the softness − demonstrated by my daughters preference for lying on the rug.
Time and cost
The fleeces cost £35, the warp thread £10 and the wood to make the peg loom £32. By far the greatest investment in the rug was the time to prepare the wool and the actual weaving. Both steps took about 48 hours over 3 months.