Folk School

Boundweave and What to Buy

Lynn Stracka Schuster's Sievers School class designs and weaves a small boundweave rug in krokbragd and rosepath. What boundweave is, krokbragd in Norwegian coverlets, a 24-by-36-inch rug with its warp and weft math worked from Schuster's own rosepath rug, rug warp and rug wool with suppliers, the loom and tools, and a plan for the week.

  • 4 min
  • 6 steps
  • 2 questions
  • Lesson 157 of 204

In this lesson

  1. Boundweave
  2. Krokbragd and rosepath
  3. The rug and its numbers
  4. Yarn and where to buy it
  5. Try it

What you need

Have itMaterialSpecQtyWhere to get it
Rug warp 8/4 linen rug warp (546 yd/lb) or 4-ply cotton rug warp (about 560 yd/lb) About 290 yd: 114 ends x 2 1/2 yd Vävstuga Weaving School (store)
Rug wool weftSchuster’s rosepath rug used about 0.84 yd of rug wool per square inch woven. 3-ply rug wool, about 260 yd/lb, in 4-6 colors including one dark ground color About 920 yd (3 1/2 lb): about 15 4-oz skeins, half of them the ground color Halcyon Yarn
Alternative weft optional Garnhuset 1.3/1 single rug wool, sold for krokbragd and rosepath rugs Sample first to measure yardage Vävstuga Weaving School (store)
Header yarn Warp yarn or a cotton of similar weight About 30 yd Leftover warp
Krokbragd Patterns (book) optional Debby Greenlaw, 325 pages of color patterns 1 Debby Greenlaw

Tools

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The plan

  1. Monday afternoon

    Color and proportion

    • Twist single strands of every candidate color together to judge value and contrast
    • Sketch the rug’s proportions and the rhythm of pattern bands and solid bands

  2. Tuesday

    Warp and sample

    • Warp 114 ends in rosepath at 4 epi with two floating selvedges
    • Sample krokbragd (shafts 2 and 4 together) and bound rosepath
    • Measure picks per inch and draw-in

  3. Wednesday

    Design and begin

    • Draw the final design on graph paper; figure yarn per color
    • Weave the header; start the rug

  4. Thursday-Friday

    Weave

    • Weave the rug, measuring under tension
    • Manage selvedges, splices, and draw-in

  5. Saturday morning

    Finish

    • Cut off; knot or hem the warp ends
    • Steam; trim tails

This module reconstructs the Sievers School of Fiber Arts class Boundweave Rugs on Washington Island, Wisconsin, taught by Lynn Stracka Schuster, who has taught at Sievers since 1981. The class covers “color selection and placement,” drafting “for 3-harness krokbragd and 4-harness rosepath,” and designing your own rug on graph paper with colored pencils, then weaving it. Yarn costs $195 to $270 from the Sievers shop, and small rugs are recommended; students must warp a multi-shaft loom confidently and read a draft 1. The class plan isn’t published; this follows the sources cited, with the rug’s numbers marked as estimates.

Boundweave

Boundweave is a weft-faced weave on a twill threading: the warp is set far apart and the weft packs down to hide it completely, so all the color is in the weft. Because the warp is so open, boundweave needs a much wider sett than plain weave 2. Schuster has woven boundweave rugs since 1993 and sets them at 4 ends per inch 3.

Krokbragd and rosepath

Krokbragd, “crooked pattern,” is the Norwegian coverlet weave. Krokbragd coverlets were dense and warm, called tjukk-åkle, thick coverlets, in parts of Gudbrandsdal; Vesterheim holds over 150 historic coverlets 4. One, from Haugesund in Rogaland, has single-point krokbragd at the edges and double-point in the center 5; another, from 1830 to 1870, combines krokbragd with rosepath in boundweave, woven in two strips and sewn together 6. Flesberg in Buskerud had its own bound-weave threading 7.

Rosepath is the Swedish four-shaft twill threading that the same boundweave method turns into flames, diamonds, and pictures. Lesson 2 shows how one rosepath warp weaves both.

A long weft-faced wool coverlet hanging from a black rod: a dark brown ground crossed by repeated bands of small geometric pattern in gold, deep pink, and green, with narrow dotted stripes between the bands, and warp fringe at the bottom.
A Norwegian boundweave coverlet (åkle) from Flesberg: banded patterns of the krokbragd family. Credit: Kjetil Bjørnsrud · CC BY 2.5 · Source

Quick check

What does krokbragd mean?

The rug and its numbers

Schuster’s published Rosepath Rug has 154 ends with two floating selvedges, 4-ply rug warp at 560 yards per pound, and 3-ply rug wool at 266 yards per pound; it is set at 4 ends per inch and beaten to 28 picks per inch, 38 1/2 inches wide in the reed and finished 33 by 48 1/2. It lost 14 percent in width and 8 percent in length, and used 1,705 yards of weft in eight colors 8. That works out to about 0.84 yards of rug wool per square inch woven.

For a first, smaller rug about 24 by 36 inches finished, scaled from those numbers (estimates):

  • Width in the reed: about 28 inches, allowing for 14 percent draw-in: 112 ends plus 2 floating selvedges.
  • Warp length: 2 1/2 yards, about the length of Schuster’s warp, so about 290 yards of warp.
  • Woven length: about 39 inches before shrinkage, plus headers.
  • Weft: 28 × 39 inches × 0.84 ≈ 920 yards, about 3 1/2 pounds of 260-yard-per-pound rug wool. That fits the Sievers yarn range.

Quick check

What sett does Schuster use for her boundweave rugs?

Yarn and where to buy it

  • Warp: Bockens 8/4 linen rug warp, 546 yards per pound 9.
  • Weft: Halcyon Classic Rug Wool, 260 yards per pound in 65-yard, 4-ounce skeins at $17.95, sold for weft-faced setts of 3 to 5 ends per inch 10. About 15 skeins, half of them in your ground color.
  • Alternative weft: Garnhuset 1.3/1 rug wool from Vävstuga, a single-ply wool sold for krokbragd and rosepath rugs 11. It’s a different weight; sample to measure yardage.
  • Patterns: Debby Greenlaw’s Krokbragd Patterns has 325 pages of color sequences 12.

Try it

Before ordering, wind a 1-inch-wide card with your candidate colors, side by side in the proportions you picture: half dark ground, the rest in accents. If the card looks muddy, change the values, not the hues.

Lesson complete

Nice work.

1day streak
0/1today's goal
–correct

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Threading, Sheds, and Color Order

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Sources for this lesson
  1. 1
    Boundweave Rugs. Sievers School of Fiber Arts. verifiedLynn Stracka Schuster, class 33, Sept 28-Oct 3, 2026, Monday 2 pm to Saturday 11 am, Washington Island WI; $620, notebook $10, yarn $195-270 from the Sievers shop, small rugs recommended. Color selection and placement, drafting for 3-harness krokbragd and 4-harness rosepath, designing your own rug on graph paper with colored pencils, weaving it. Intermediate/advanced: must warp a multi-harness loom confidently and read a draft.
  2. 2
    Madelyn van der Hoogt. Determining Warp Sett for Boundweave. Handwoven. 2017. verifiedBoundweave needs a much more open sett than plain weave; carpet warp or 8/2 linen. Krokbragd is a 3-shaft point-twill boundweave in which every third pick (lift 1-3) is plain weave. 'If one shaft is down for a pick, the weft color shows over the threads on that shaft.'
  3. 3
    Lynn Stracka Schuster. The Beauty of Boundweave. Handwoven. 2025. verifiedHas woven boundweave rugs since 1993; 'I sett my rugs at 4 ends per inch'; judges colors by twisting single strands of all the shades together; balances wide pattern bands with narrow solid ones, 'moments of solitude and moments of sociability.'
  4. 4
    Robbie LaFleur. What is Norwegian Weaving?. Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and Norwegian Textile Letter. 2020. verifiedNorwegian rya pile faced down on beds; the boat rya (båtrye) was essential in open North Sea boats, could use a farm's whole season of wool, and weighed over 20 lb; the smooth side often twill stripes or squares. Krokbragd, 'crooked pattern', coverlets dense and warm, called tjukk-åkle in parts of Gudbrandsdal; Vesterheim has over 150 historic coverlets.
  5. 5
    Coverlet (1997.089.001). Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. verifiedHaugesund, Rogaland, 1875-1900, wool and cotton, 71 x 46 in; single-point krokbragd at the edges and double-point in the center.
  6. 6
    Coverlet (LC1700). Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. verified1830-1870, linen warp and wool weft, 67 x 50 in, two strips sewn together, krokbragd technique with rosepath in boundweave.
  7. 7
    Katherine Dickerson. Flesberg Bound Weave System (retro reprint). Norwegian Textile Letter. 2006. verifiedKrokbragd has every even end on shaft 2 and shows three-block patterns on the face, two-block on the back. The Flesberg variant threads 1,3,2,1,2,3 at 8-10 epi on black 12/6 cotton (historically linen, hemp, or wool) with soft 2-ply wool weft; Buskerud, 1850-1920.
  8. 8
    Lynn Stracka Schuster. Rosepath Rug (weaving pattern). Long Thread Media. verified4 shafts, 154 ends with 2 floating selvedges; 4-ply rug warp at 560 yd/lb, 385 yd; 3-ply rug wool at 266 yd/lb, eight colors totaling 1,705 yd; 4 epi, 28 ppi, 38 1/2 in in the reed, finished 33 x 48 1/2 in; take-up and shrinkage 14% in width, 8% in length.
  9. 9
    Bockens 8/4 Linen Rug Warp, Unbleached. Vävstuga Weaving School (store). verified8/4 linen rug warp, 546 yd/lb.
  10. 10
    Halcyon Yarn Classic Rug Wool. Halcyon Yarn. verified260 yd/lb, 65 yd per 4-oz skein, $17.95; weft-faced sett 3-5 epi.
  11. 11
    Garnhuset 1.3/1 Rug Wool; Bockens Linen Rug Warp. Vävstuga Weaving School (store). verifiedGarnhuset 1.3/1 rug wool, 142 yd per 100 g, $16 (replaces discontinued Borgs 1.25/1 mattgarn). 6/1 singles wool 600 m per 100 g, $16. Bockens unbleached linen rug warp, $58 per 500 g tube: 8/2 1,257 yd; 8/3 765 yd; 8/4 601 yd; 8/5 492 yd (store.vavstuga.com/product/yarn-bock-lin-rug-8-5-unbl.html). Prices 2026.
  12. 12
    Debby Greenlaw. Krokbragd Patterns. Debby Greenlaw. 2021. verified325 pages of krokbragd color patterns; $48 at Vävstuga.

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