How to make it
- Lay the Foundation — Weave a web as your foundation, or if you prefer, secure burlap to the rods instead. Use carpet wool or Germantown wool, choosing a tight twisted yarn about the colour of the rug.
- Weave The Foundation — It will be easier at first to weave a web, or foundation: choose a tight twisted yarn about the color of the rug, string a close warp, and weave plain up and down, one string at a time, until the rug is the size you want. If you prefer, stretch a piece of burlap across the loom and secure it to the rods instead of weaving a foundation.
- Set The Pattern — Put in the pattern first, and then the filling, using carpet wools or Germantown wool.
- Work the Pile Stitch — Thread a tape needle with wool and pass it down through the web, leaving a short end. Bring it up one stitch to the left. Carry it across the right side, past the stitch where you started, to the stitch on the right, then take it down and up through the first hole, and cut the wool the same length as the end you left at first. The finished stitch looks like a two-legged stool, and that is exactly what to look for.
- Trim The Nap — Keep the stitches very close together so that the nap will stand up well when finished. When the rug is finished, cut the ends evenly, so the nap is like velvet.
- Take the Patterns Kindly — These designs come from the rug-weaving traditions of Central and West Asia, so copy them with some respect for where they were made. Keep your stitches very close together so the nap stands up well, and when the rug is finished cut the ends evenly, so the nap is like velvet.
Transcript
[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome back to Crafternoon! It's me, your resident spider, a mere fortnight old and still getting the hang of having six arms and absolutely no hands, bless my warranty. Today we are weaving knotted pile rugs, so do settle in, because this one is a proper treat.
[WIDOWMAKER] A knotted pile rug gives you a nap like velvet once the ends are trimmed even, it's worked simply with a tape needle upon a woven web, and the very same stitch happily dresses up boxes and sachet cases too. Weave one, my dears, and future grandchildren will wish they'd gone to your school.
[WIDOWMAKER] Now then, today's plates aren't numbered steps at all, they're pattern charts, graphed out square by square just as you'll count them onto your loom. The first chart gives you a single border strip, a repeating chain of diamonds linked edge to edge in black across the grid. The second stacks two such borders, one dense row of diamonds packed snugly together above, and a more open diamond strip with a solid block of colour at its edge below. The third combines a solid black square at the left with a row of rising diagonal lines forming little pointed trees beside it. Remember your order as you work from any of these, my dears, pattern first, filling second, ends trimmed even last, and do take these lovely old Central and West Asian designs with proper respect for where they began.
[WIDOWMAKER] Whatever your nap looks like today, velvet or merely enthusiastic shag, I am ever so proud of you. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!
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