Rag Rug with a History

Weavers have stash - sometimes lots of it which may include treasures for the future. The rug above was woven from the stash of a weaver, now gone for more than 20 years. Marcy Elliott was in search of rags for a kitchen rug.  Dee, always ready to help a weaving friend in need, said "I think I have something for you"  Dee had been holding on to cotton yardage strips from the weaving estate sale of Ruth Harrop for many, many years and decided this was the time to pass them on. 

These are the yardage strips for Marcy's rug.

This was Marcy's first rag rug and she used 8/4 carpet warp sett at 12 epi.  She found that not all of the strips were the same width, and she struggled a bit with overlapping her strips, thinking that the bumps might not wear well.  None of us at the meeting felt that the bumps detracted at all from the finished rug and that this will be a fine addition to Marcy's kitchen.

This project leads me to suggest that weaving up all of our stash may not be such a great idea.  We need to leave some of our treasures to  future weavers who may find new inspiration in what we have left behind.