Weaving the Rug and Finishing the Ends
Days two through four: weave a firm heading, keep the edges straight and the width true through the field, join new bundles invisibly, weave the closing heading, and finish the ends: a hem, a knotted fringe, or a braided edge in the Swedish manner. Then the yarn math for scaling up to a full-size rug.
- 3 min
- 5 steps
- 2 questions
- Lesson 147 of 204
In this lesson
- Heading
- Weaving the field
- Finish the ends
- Scale up
- Try it
Picking up where you left off.
Heading
Leave enough unwoven warp for your chosen fringe. Weave a few picks of scrap yarn or rag strips to spread the warp evenly, then a firm weft-rep heading: a band of plain weave in strong wool, beaten hard, that locks the warp before the pattern starts. If you plan a hemmed end, weave the heading long enough to fold: about 2.5 times the finished hem width 1.
Weaving the field
- Check the width every few centimeters with a ruler. Rug weft pulls in easily; leave every bundle in an arc across the shed before beating.
- Beat hard for a dense, weft-faced fabric that hides the warp completely. Use a rug fork to pack small areas.
- Join new bundles by overlapping the old and new ends in the same shed for an inch or so, ends left on the back side (the side facing you), clipped to about a centimeter.
- Selvedges. Keep the edge warps doubled and turn the weft around them firmly but without pulling them in.
- Follow the graph and step diagonals evenly.
Playback is optional. If the player is unavailable, open the video at its source.
Finish the ends
Weave a closing heading to match the first, then cut the rug off. Swedish weavers finish rug ends in a few ways 1:
- Hem: fold the weft-rep band twice to the back and sew it down by hand.
- Knotted fringe: tie the warp ends in groups of 2 to 4 with square knots close against the heading.
- Oriental braid: worked across the edge three warp ends at a time over a single thread, with ends of 10 cm or more sewn into the back.
One weaver’s rölakan on linen warp was finished with two rows of Philippine edge and the warp ends braided and knotted 2. Parkdal’s own “classic” edge, which North House teaches, isn’t described in print 3; a Philippine edge or oriental braid is the closest documented match.
Steam-press the finished rug face down under a damp cloth to relax it, and let it dry flat.
Quick check
The weft-rep band is folded twice and sewn by hand.
Quick check
Square knots lie flat and hold the last weft in place.
Scale up
The class rug is a sampler for a full-size piece 3. Use your sample to correct the rule-of-thumb numbers: measure its area, weigh the weft it used, and work out your own grams per square meter. Kristdala Vävstuga’s table gives about 2 kg per square meter for rölakan as a starting point 4; a 3-by-5-foot rug (about 1.4 square meters) needs roughly 2.8 kg of weft, spread across enough colors for the blends you liked.
Try it
Lay your finished sample on the floor where a full rug would go and live with it for a week. Note which blends you still like; those are the colors to buy in quantity.
Lesson complete
Nice work.
Sources for this lesson
- 1Montering/avslutning på mattor. Hemslöjdsguiden. verifiedRug end finishes: a woven weft-rep hem folded twice and hand-sewn (hem woven about 2.5 times the desired width); warp knotted in groups of 2-4 with square knots; a fabric or band edging; an oriental braid over a single thread working three warp ends at a time, ends of 10+ cm sewn to the back.
- 2Evelyn Oldroyd. Rolakan. Evelyn Oldroyd (blog). 2009. verifiedA single-interlock rolakan on 10/6 Swedish line linen warp, after Collingwood, finished with two rows of Philippine edge and the warp ends braided and knotted.
- 3Rölakan Rug Weaving. North House Folk School. verifiedFour days, instructor Christine Novotny (CAN Goods, Grand Marais); intermediate, must know how to warp a floor loom; tuition $455, materials about $90-100. Students weave a small sample carpet to practice skills for scaling up: graphing a design, blending colors in the weft to achieve dynamic hues, and finishing edges in a classic fashion; the style comes from Swedish rug weaver Ulla Parkdal.
- 4Lathund: inslagsåtgång för mattor. Kristdala Vävstuga (blog). 2013. verifiedRule-of-thumb table for rug weft: rölakan set at 18 ends per 10 cm (about 4.6 epi) uses about 2.0 kg of weft per square meter. No rule replaces a sample.
Further reading
- Christine Novotny. Rölakan Rug Weaving in Sweden. Norwegian Textile Letter. 2023. verifiedOctober 20, 2023. Ulla Parkdal (born 1939) weaves in the Stockholm archipelago. The pattern is laid in entirely by hand, not with a shuttle; weft-faced plain weave on a linen warp, with wool rug yarn (mattgarn) held together in bundles of five strands of varying colors, e.g., one red, two orange, one coral, one mauve; changing the ratio in each area gives shifting color instead of stripes.