Guest Post - Weaving Krokbragd with Fabric Strips

I have something fun to share today, a guest post from a fellow weaver, Mary Trimmer.

I receive many delightful emails from readers of this blog and my books. It is always exciting to hear from weavers who have utilized my books and classes! In September, I received a lovely email from Mary Trimmer. She presented an interesting idea to weave a krokbragd rug with fabric strips. I had not thought about that possibility. Well, Mary not only thought about it, but she also did it! I am sharing her ideas, findings, and weaving photos with her permission. I know you will be inspired.

It started with this email:

I’ve methodically gathered materials about Krokbragd (most notably your two books!) - and after I studied them, I took your course via Sweet Georgia. Then I cleared my calendar (I’m also retired from healthcare!) and two weeks later, I had woven two ‘presentable’ pieces of Krokbragd (2-ply wool; one with 8/4 warp, the other with 12/6 Seine twine). Although I have many ideas for projects from your books, I can’t stop thinking about weaving a Krokbragd rug using fabric strips. I found one pattern from an old Handwoven (Nov/Dec 1993) - but it doesn’t include any helpful hints re technique. Have you ever woven Krokbragd with fabric strips? Any advice re managing the strips at the edges? Should the strips be cut on the bias or with the grain? I have soooo many questions!!!
My thanks for any guidance or suggested resources…
Peace.
Mary

I answered Mary with these thoughts:

What a great idea to weave a krokbragd rag/fabric strip rug. I have never woven a rag rug, so I don’t have any tips. Several thoughts come to mind. Like wool colors, the choice of fabric colors will affect how well your krokbragd design appears. Also, you may need to experiment with the sett and the correct width of fabric strips to use. I think the fabric type would also affect the sett, wool vs. cotton fabric. As a starting point, I would find some examples of weft-faced rag rugs and use their setts and fabric widths.

Good luck with your journey. I would love to see your finished rug!

Debby

Well Mary, took that encouragement and ran with it.

Hello, Debby - and thanks so much for your quick response!
Based on your helpful thoughts, I’ve done more research re weft-faced rugs and have pulled out my own project file on rag rugs as well as Tom Knisely’s book. So I’m going to take the plunge!
I’m going to re-sley my 12/6 warp and dig through my fabric to see if I have appropriate cotton (ie, fairly ‘solid’ colors) that I can use for my learning project. As much as I want to try wool strips, I’ve used only cotton strips for rugs - so sticking with cotton removes one variable from my learning project.
I’m not at all sure how I’m going to manage the different colored strips; right now I can’t imagine ‘carrying’ them! So I know I just have to get started…I always learn best when I’m at one of my looms.
And I’ll certainly let you know when I have some learnings and pictures to share.
Again, my thanks…
Peace.
Mary
PS - I’ve attached pics of my first two Krokbragd learning projects so you can see how effective your books and class are! The piece with traditional motifs was my first… and the other piece is now complete except for hemstitching. You may recognize the lozenge design from a Sweet Georgia video!

After seeing Mary’s beautiful weaving, I promptly wrote back that I was certain she could accomplish her goal of weaving krokbragd with fabric strips. As you can see below, SHE SURE DID!

It’s been almost a month since our email exchange re: Krokbragd weaving with fabric strips. As you may remember, my original question was if using fabric strips to weave Krokbragd, should the strips be cut on the bias or with the grain of the fabric.
The answer is… fabric strips for Krokbragd need to be cut on the bias to adequately cover the warp.
The first pic below includes four woven samples.

Starting at the bottom of the picture…
(a) Weft: 1.25” blue/red cotton flannel strips cut with the grain of the fabric. As you can see, there’s a lot of warp (‘lice’!) peeking through!
(b) Weft: 1” tan cotton batik strips cut with the grain of the fabric. It’s harder to see because of the color and pattern of the fabric, but there’s still a lot of uncovered warp.
(c) Weft: 0.75” coral cotton print strips cut with the grain of the fabric. I was soooo sure that this was going to work… and you can see it did not.
I hesitated to cut even narrower ‘with the grain’ strips - so I shifted to trying bias cloth strips.
(d) Weft: I found a package of ‘vintage’ navy blue 100% cotton bias tape and pressed open the folds - so it was a long 7/8” wide bias strip. After throwing/beating just the first pick, it was clear that bias was the answer. Eureka!!! The bias-tape-bias-strip easily conformed to the ‘wavy’/crooked nature of Krokbragd and required much less vigorous beating!
Armed with the knowledge that bias strips were the answer, I cut a yard of quilting-weight red cotton into bias strips of various widths and added them to my ‘sample’ piece. As you can see (below), there were still occasional warp ‘lice’ showing through, but remembering what you wrote in one of your books, I was pretty confident that they would disappear when the piece was no longer under tension and also with wet-finishing. And that’s exactly what happened.

So, Debby, this is a very long answer to the original question of ‘bias’ or ‘with the grain’ for cloth strips for Krokbragd… it’s unquestionably bias!
Because I think it’s very labor-intense to cut/join yards and yards of bias strips, and because weaving them into Krokbragd produces quite a heavy/thick fabric, I’m not sure I’ll ever weave an entire rug using this approach. One of the characteristics of traditional Krokbragd weaving that I find so attractive is its ‘precise’ appearance - and I think that ‘precision’ is lost when using cloth strips. So I’ll be returning to 2- or 3-ply wool for my future Krokbragd projects. But I’ve learned a lot - and even unknowingly created a useful casserole-size ‘hot pad’ when I moved on from sampling to weaving what I call a ‘learning project’…

Mary’s notes on her fabric strip Krokbragd Hot Pad:

The warp was 8/4 cotton (doubled), with 4 ends for each of the floating selvedges and with a sett of 4. (It was actually the same warp that I used for my sampling of various types and widths of cloth strips for the weft.)
The weft for my learning project was quilting cotton from the local Hobby Lobby. I cut each color into 1-1/4” bias strips and sewed them together into one long strip.
I had to beat the cotton strips quite vigorously - very much like beating cotton strips for a rag rug. In contrast, when weaving Krokbragd with 2-ply wool, I would describe my beat as ‘firm’, but definitely not vigorous.
I quickly learned that the cloth strips woven using the Krokbragd structure had to be managed very differently from strips woven into a traditional rag rug. ‘Twisting’ the cloth strips at the selvedge to create orderly ‘loops’ along the edges (as for a rag rug) created extreme bulk - so I reverted to smoothly ‘wrapping’ the cloth strips around the floating selvedge. When beaten, it created a rather nice edge… it reminds me of ‘ruching’ on garments.

Bravo Mary! Well done, and thank you for your willingness to share with us.

I also asked Mary to tell us a little about herself. In her words:

I live in North Carolina… Gastonia, just west of Charlotte. We’ve lived here for 15 years - and I love that Gastonia has a deep weaving history since it was once a thriving mill town.
After I got my degree in mathematics, I went to nursing school. I worked in various hospitals in several states… initially as an RN and ultimately as a hospital CEO. I retired from healthcare 15 years ago - and that’s when we moved to North Carolina where I worked for the Sisters of Mercy until I retired - again! - 6 years ago.
I’ve been weaving for 9 years. My sister who also lives in North Carolina had been weaving for a few years and convinced me that I’d enjoy it. My first project was a small runner woven on her Schacht Pup, using wool ‘sock yarn’ for weft… and I was hooked! I’m fortunate to own several looms - and I often have projects on all of them! I have an early Schacht floor loom, a Schacht Mighty Wolf, a Schacht Baby Wolf and a Schacht Pup (my ‘travel’ loom!). I’m fortunate, too, that my husband actively supports my weaving and has designed/built several weaving aids/accessories for me - like lights mounted on my looms and my cone ‘trees’!
I am a life-long knitter… my grandmother taught me how to knit when I was 10 years old. And although I still knit special items for family, the arthritis in my hands limits how much I can knit in an evening… so weaving has become an even more important activity! I also enjoy needlepoint… especially bargello patterns.

Again Mary, thank you!