Onto fawn Masham I laid brown BFL pencil roving. I tried out some white roving too but decided I preferred the rug just in brown. The image below shows it once I’ve finished the laying out.

I’m so pleased with how this has turned out, it was definitely worth taking the time on the laying out and being so careful during the wet and set stage.

This is now destined for the living room (when it’s dry). I wonder what  people will make tomorrow.

Then of course we had to begin working on them. After wetting the fibres, we rubbed to set the design then began the rolling. We rolled with hands, with feet and with ropes. After this we beat the rug with stones and my special tamper tool,which my husband had to repair after day one thanks to Demolition Debs, just kidding Debs. Not content with that we also walked on it to compress it.

So it was lots of work, lots of water, lots of good company and lot and lots of sunshine. Here’s how they all turned out.

They are fantastic and you wouldn’t believe that two of the creators are novice felt makers. We also wrote a communal toast to our rugs.

May it tickle my toes gently

May it bring sunshiney memories

May mother and daughter share it happily

May the cat love it not scratch it

May it fit by the side of the bed

May it last many years

Margaret has been kind enough to send me the following feedback and picture. ” My rug has been safely delivered to the Relax-U massage room. My friend Lynne was delighted, the colours were perfect and she loved the design. We are going to put a plaque on the wall to describe what wools it is made of, and we thought a felt rug was very appropriate for a massage room as both involve heat and movement. Lynne gave me a free massage as she was so pleased, and it did indeed tickle my toes gently – it is so soft. Haven’t had so much fun giving a present in ages – or been so exhausted producing it!”

Some of the pictures are courtesy of Jennifer who also had this to say “Thank you for a wonderful weekend. I learnt a lot as usual and also really enjoyed myself.” Our novice felt makers survived and were also happy, “Thank you for an absolutely brilliant weekend. I really enjoyed it (I know Debs did too), and we learnt an awful lot, both being absolute beginners. My hubby (and the neighbours) are very impressed with my rug which was hung outside in the garden to continue drying when I got home. I’m sure we’ll be back for more”

Thanks for a great weekend ladies

carded fibres

Laying the pattern on side 1

Laying the pattern on side 2

Wetting out

The emphasis was on experiencing communal rug making and the use of traditional techniques to achieve it. The first job was to card the Shetland fibres using drum carders. There was very little time to design the pattern so each person chose a shape from a recent course module and it was cut out from pre-felts. They worked very quickly and soon moved onto the wet and set stage where soapy water is added and the whole rug is rubbed to attach the pre-felts to the fibres and start the felting process.

Rolling by hand

Stretching back to shape

Rolling whilst standing

Initially we rolled using hands and forearms plus beating along the length of the roll with our hands. To stretch a rug back into shape you can’t just get hold of the edge and pull. The rug is so heavy that if you pull the edge it just stretches the edge out of shape, instead you need to work it from the centre out. As always, it was then a nice change to roll with our legs for a while.

No rest but at least a sit down

Easier still with ropes

A walk in the sun

Tamp and stamp

Nice to sit down and roll but if you push it away too hard with your legs it can be difficult to get it back again! Ropes are also great but best if you have two left handers or two right handers. One of each and the rug will start to skew sideways. You can see my homemade tamper tool in action along with lots of walking to compress the fibres.

Bash, tamp, stamp

Squeezing out water

Final reshape

As well as the tamping tool we used mallets to compress the fibres whilst continuing to stamp. To squeeze the water out it’s easiest to roll the rug up and stand on it. Final reshape and leave to dry. This will go onto my resources page as a permanent how to guide and if you’d like to make your own felt rug I’m running a workshop on the weekend of 26/27 June. Two days tuition, homemade cake and a felt rug for just £95. To book, drop me an email.