A friend has started a small business, Konstant Kaos, making the most adorable little shoes for kids, plus very cool money purses, pouches and such. So, as happens, a helpful relative of the older generation started picking up fabric from op shops for her.

A LOT of fabric.

Most of it was totally unsuitable for the items my friend is making, but when she said she had some fabric to get rid I offered to take it off her hands and see if any was suitable to rag rug weaving before putting the rest back in the op shop system.

She was right: ‘unsuitable’ was the kindest description. There is so much synthetic in there I could have run a power station from the static. Thick fabric that makes you sweat just looking at it. And thin nylony stuff that I suspect would be like weaving with oily curtains.

But there were some pieces worth experimenting on. Blue corduroy, navy and beigey brown cotton, and some stretchy knit stuff including a wierd herringbone check print. I’m sure I’ve seen instructions on weaving with old t-shirts, so I figure knit material must be okay.

There was also a white 100% cotton Sheridan sheet. Fine for rag rug weaving, but almost a shame to be cutting it up.

These aren’t the only recent fabric aquisitions, too. After seeing another weaver’s work using velour as weft, I’ve been keeping my eye out for some. I found some red velour in Kelli’s garage sale, along with some velour-ish black material.

Should make a very gothy something. Not sure what yet. Shawl? Couch rug?

So there’s a pile of fabric growing in the corner of the room, and it isn’t lost on me the irony that I savagely culled my enormous post-sewing obsession stash last year. I feel like I should cut it all up into strips straight away, to make sure there’s absolutely no chance I’ll be tempted to put any aside to sew something out of ‘one day’ when I miraculously lose my dislike of sewing.

Actually, I don’t think there’s any danger of that. I’m more in danger of digging out the fabric stash to see if anything in it could be cut up to make rag rugs with. And I only kept the ‘good’ stuff.

(Of course, the ultimate irony is that weaving produces fabric, but let’s not go there…)