What a day! Up early to do a few jobs around home then left early to get to the Dorr Mill Store in Guild, NH for a braided rug class with Sandy Luckury at 10 AM. Despite the rain, wet roads, and a quick stop at the credit union, I made it to Guild with time for a brief personal “rest stop” and glance around the store before class began. Sandy L., class member Sandy, Camille, and I were the only braiders there today.
There is so much to learn about Barbara Fisher’s braided rug method. In a previous class two weeks ago I had learned to braid and worked two 15-inch braids with sample wool to be used for “butting” practice eventually. At that time I purchased three yards of gorgeous wool–deep red, navy, and a gray herringbone–to go along with some wonderful gold that Aunt Freda had given me a few weeks ago. Sandy had instructed me to start the braid with the colors that I wanted for the center of the rug then contact her with the number of repeats per 12 inches. Because this wool is blanket weight there were only 7 repeats and the braids were a full inch wide rather than the regular 9 repeats and three-quarter inch braids with the standard braiding wool.
The first thing Sandy L had me do was to prepare a color plan for the rug by snipping many very small pieces of the five fabrics and putting them together in sets of three which correspond with each round of the pattern. Rather than do a hit-or-miss rug I am doing a patterned rug that will be approximately 2 feet by 3 feet.
I had planned to make stair treads for our beautiful new stairs but Bob rejected that idea. Probably a great blessing as it would have cost a great deal of money and even more work to make treads for each stair in the addition. Thank you, Bob!
Next on the list of things to learn was how to figure out the amount of wool yardage to purchase for any given rug using a template Sandy had created. I believe I have plenty of fabric for this first rug.
By the time I had filled in that chart and used the calculator for the math, it was 11:30. Since I planned to leave at noon, rather than stay until 1 PM, which Sandy would have allowed, Sandy L got me finishing the braid for the center round, going around both corners and then adding the extra preparing for the butting.
When the center round was ready, the clock had just about run out of time but there was one more thing Sandy L needed me to do: figure out the placement of each “strand” of color for each braid. She had a handy chart to fill out, so now, at home, I can actually get all the braids prepared before I go back. If I get that done, I can go on to the next part of the instruction. Because Megan is coming to visit with her family for the next two Wednesdays and the following week Bob and I are at the Temple, it will not be until the last Wednesday in September that I can go again. I sincerely hope I can get a lot of the braiding done by then, BUT….with so much cleaning needed to prepare for company (Megan’s family plus Kate Shaffer and the spinning workshop in October) I do not know how far I will get.