Rya rug

Wikipedia is inconclusive in its coverage of rya rugs, or long-pile rugs, or floss rugs. According to Swedish sources, the technique was used already in Ancient Egypt. But it is true that they are popular in Sweden, and I have always wondered how they were made. Some days ago I decided to find out. I was inspired by a post in my dollhouse group that I couldn't find afterwards. I was a bit down in mood and thought that an elaborate piece of craft would do me good. It did. I went online to find descriptions and stumbled over this video (in Swedish), which struck me because it was done by a young man, and he was making his first ever rug. I felt I was in good company.

I had embroidery canvas that I had bought some years ago with vague intentions, which came handy. So I started, with a ball of yarn and a darning needle.

Rya technique is fascinating, and actually this is more or less how Oriental rugs are made, only the pile is of course much shorter. It took me three evenings to finish this small square. For a first try, I think it looks fine.

The other side gives a better idea of the technique:

You make a loop and then you make a knot, and another loop and another knot, until you have made a row. Then you cut through the loops. It takes a long time, but I wasn't in a hurry.

Apparently, these rugs were first used as blankets, imitating animal skins, with the pile down. Decorative rugs have the pile up, and you can make various patterns with yarn. I really enjoyed making this rug, so I will definitely make more. 

Here it is in its environment:

Rag rug

The past few days my miniature group has been making rag rugs with a most amazing technique. This is what makes it fun belonging to a group: somebody discovers something interesting, and then everybody tries and shares. So I have tried too. First, you need some yarn. Let me tell you: embroidery yarn is best. I have tried with knitting yarn, and it was too fluffy. Then you need a piece of cloth. I took a bit of an old sheet. You also need a bit of wax paper so that the rug doesn't get stuck to the surface.

You cut small bits of yarn and glue it onto the cloth, one by one. I used an ordinary glue stick. Textile glue is possibly better, but I didn't have any. Yes, it it terribly messy and takes a lot of time. About two hours for this one. Very restful.

When you have fisnihed, and the glue has dried, trim the long edges and fringe the short edges. The fringe makes all the difference: how it really looks like a rag rug.

Here you can see it in its room - which I haven't shown yet, so make sure you come back to see more of it.