Sometimes it takes me a year from deciding to do something to actually doing it.
Making a whole ‘living’ rug has been on my to do list for a year or more now!
Most of that was just psyching myself up to read and follow instructions (not my special skill).
And then I had to wait for the perfect combination of weather, time, motivation and energy which as a working home ed mama wasn’t an easy combo to achieve.
But this weekend it finally happened. Full video here.
This was my first ever attempt at rug making and it was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in a long time.
It was exhausting, hilarious and massively rewarding.
And to know that this Jacob sheep fleece has been turned into something that will live in our home and provide comfort, warmth and aesthetic appeal for years to come is just magic.
Farmers need us to value their fleeces and buy them and make things with them.
We need to bring back a market for homegrown natural fibres.
For my first attempt to help me along with the process I bought a rug making kit from Benbridge Woolworks and I cannot recommend highly enough. They provided the fleece, the backing wool, instructions and told me what I needed to have on hand to make the rug.
This rug took me two hours to make (and would have taken just a bit longer if I’d had to make my own carded backing wool) and will take less time in the future as I won’t be trying to follow along instructions at the same time!
I love that you’re here reading about things that people have forgotten about. It means a lot. I know it’s a bit niche here but if you’re enjoying it I’d love to have you as part of the crew. Sign up for free or paid if you want to support this working mama to keep on making and farming. So appreciated x
Making this rug used our minds, our bodies (I can tell you rolling it 300 times was the most exercise I’ve done in a while), created an afternoon of learning and fun for my daughter and brought the family together.
We needed my husband to hang it on the line (height!), my mother-in-law to project manage the washing and drying process and my daughter to support in the whole making process. Something we would have missed out on had we bought one from a shop.
Next step is to turn the four Jacob fleeces I bought from Cranley Barn Farm into rugs for our Hideaway Wood / Cranley Barn collabo. Watch this space!
1 Jacob sheep fleece
1 set of instructions
2 and a half hours
300 rolls
A lot of sweat
1 bottle of washing up liquid
2 pints of water
Lots of rubbing
A huge amount of laughing
A few moments of lost patience
Some doubts
40 degree wool wash with 800 spins
A few days on the line
And we have a living rug for our home. Something to cherish for a lifetime.
As a family we spent a lot of time and money on natural, local, ideally organic, high welfare food.
I’ve turned from someone with an eating disorder who would cry about the stress of meal planning into someone who now makes the majority of our family’s meals from scratch. It’s taken hours and hours of work and I now enjoy making food. Something I never understood before.
The shift was creating a relationship with the ingredients. I was veggie/vegan for 17 years and I was totally detached from the food chain. The shift to seeking out local, high welfare, regenerative or organic produce changed how I felt about food and meals. I now cook and eat almost anything joyfully because I know exactly where it’s come from and what’s in it.
The next step for me is to do this with fabrics and fibres.
I have been slowly shifting from buying plastic/acrylic/polyester (hard when you’re skint) to buying only natural fibres.
Having 28 alpacas and links to farms producing fleeces. It makes absolute sense for me to learn to make our rugs, blankets and clothing from scratch. It’s going to be a process of many, many years. But it’s a goal I feel very excited about.
Carly x
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