I’ve long had a predilection for fabric. That is buying fabric that I love, when I have no real use for it. Granted I do that with wool as well, but odds are I get around to knitting something with what I buy. But I rarely sew. I’m not good enough to design my own clothes (they’d look homemade) though I’m good at halloween costumes.

So I own a variety of fabric. And I recently was at a Joann’s where they were shutting down the store, and I bought more (how not? it was soooo cheap).

Then at weaving class I was muttering about making a rug next time around (after finishing yet another set of dishtowels) and I managed to get in line for a 60″ loom and won, and then my brain, ticking along, realized I could cut up the fabric and make rugs.

It felt like one of those moments where you go: oh that’s why I’ve been buying fabric that I like for the last 20 years.

Long story, shorter, this September I’ll start on my first rag rug. I’ve bought a simplicity fabric cutter to make my life a little easier, and have picked out my warp colors. I’ll be doing a gradation in the warp to give some variety.

I’m using this upholstery fabric (may be a dumb idea we’ll see):

And these are my warp colors:

I’m not doing a dark brown, but the linen, because I’m also making linen curtains for the same room that use a matching linen shade in the main body of the curtain. See the Linen Curtain post for those. I’m using 12 sett and am attempting to make a 4.5ft by 8 ft rug. We’ll see how much fabric I have. I’ll post update photos.