TODAY'S FEATURED ARTICLE

 MAKING YOUR OWN NEEDLE ART RUG

PART 1

By AJ Barnett

There are probably as many ways to make a rug as there are creative people to come up with the ideas!   The most common types, however, are:  crocheted, woven, tapestry needle, punch needle, hooked rugs, braided rugs, and needlepoint rugs.  The methods show here will work best with the hooked, punch needle, or needlepoint rugs.

THE MATERIALS YOU'LL NEED:

Canvas. You will need a canvas. (Tapestry needle work is a specialty and you'll need special needles and canvas/fabric for it.) . In these instructions we'll work with needlepoint canvas, because this method can be used for hooked, punch needle, and needlepoint and can be modified to do a tapestry piece by someone familiar with tapestry work and processes.  A 5-count mesh canvas is a good choice for a rug. A smaller size can be used but the work will not go as fast. I also prefer interlocking canvas or even duo canvas for large pieces, especially rugs, so there’s less chance of the piece warping as I work it. If you want to reproduce the design for a matching pillow or other project, you can choose a smaller mesh, i.e. 8, 10, or 14-count. (For my beginners, Count in needle point mesh means the number of threads per inch on the canvas and this may or may not roughly equate the number of stitches per inch. There are different kinds and strengths of canvases.

 Needlepoint needle.  A number 13 or 14 needle would work best with 5-count canvas. Remember the needle needs to have an eye big enough to easily thread the size yarn you’ve chosen.

Yarn.  Rug yarn is the best to use -- it is durable, springy, and most rug yarns today hold their color and surface well over time. I recommend a high quality pure wool since it will wear the best and produce the best finished result. Remember these rugs are often passed down from generation to generation, so the extra cost is well worth it unless you are a beginner or are making the rug for a child‘s room where easy care is essential. If that's the case, you may want to work with the less expensive acrylic for your first couple of pieces, but keep in mind they will not wear quite as well and are more subject to pilling and snagging.

How much yarn you need will  depend on several factors, such as the type, the brand, and the size and type of stitches used. Generally, this amounts to doing the math based on square inches of backing and number of yards per square inch of the yarn you’ll be using. You can refer to a needle art reference book for the "average coverage" of the different threads and yarns, but I always do a sample, using the canvas, the yarn or thread I intend to use ,and the needle I’ve chosen to make the piece. To learn how do this refer to my article on how to determine how much yarn or thread will be needed for a piece of needlework . (To have a free copy of this article sent to you, go to our Info and Sign up page.)

The above numbers will arrive at a total yardage for the entire piece, but will not take into consideration how much of each color you will need. This is a bit more difficult to compute. As those of you who’ve worked with commercial threads and yarns know, you are wise to try to buy all of the yarn of a particular color that you’ll need for the project at the same time and from the same dye lot. It’s very difficult to get a matching dye lot when you learn, too late, that you didn’t figure enough of a given color and try to go out and buy more. However, it’s easier to fudge on tiny parts of the pattern. Here a small variance in the color is not so noticeable. But DO try to have the same dye lot for each color in all of the pattern background and for the larger pattern parts, because in these areas even a small variance will show. There’s many a project that lies on a shelf somewhere unfinished because the amount of yarn to do the work was misjudged and matching yarn could not be found. So what to do? This is also covered  in the article referred to above.

Masking tape

Tacks -- use something that will hold, but is easy to remove, like map/bulletin board tacks .

 

PREPARING THE CANVAS

Determine what size rug you wish to make. If you’ve chosen a large size, it could be hard to find canvas wide enough, although there may be companies who will special order wider canvases. There are ways to needlepoint together smaller pieces into a larger rug size, but I recommend this for advanced or professional needle workers only. For beginners, I don’t recommend starting a very large project until you’ve done a few pieces and gained some confidence and practice with the entire process. Too often, I’ve seen discouraged beginners start something that ends up being shelved indefinitely, sometimes for years. Be kind to yourself and realistic about what you think you can reasonably expect to finish.

Once you’ve decided on the size you‘ll need to orient your canvas so take a good look at your canvas. Most experts recommend keeping the selvedge edges on the sides of the work so that the stitches will be in proper relation to the warp and weft of the canvas. (Be consistent with which side you put the selvedge edge on and do it that way all the time.) This will help to keep each stitch flat and smooth with wide coverage. If the selvedge edge is hard to find (it is   usually visible) you can find the grain of the canvas by pulling one vertical and one horizontal thread out of the canvas. One thread will be more crinkled than the other and the crinkled thread will be the warp (vertical) thread with the other being the weft or horizontal thread. Once you have the proper direction oriented on the canvas (long side is usually the vertical side) then cut a piece of canvas that is at least 2 inches wider on all sides than the desired rug size.

 Since you’ll be handling your canvas a lot during the process of working it, you’ll want to bind the edges of the canvas with masking tape.. Some needle workers like to machine stitch bias tape along the non-selvedge edges of the canvas to prevent raveling; I do this and also use the masking tape, especially for large pieces.

 Before proceeding, take a moment to make a brown paper blocking pattern for your rug to use after you’ve finished stitching your rug. Take your prepared canvas and lay it on a large piece of brown wrapping paper. You’ll probably need extra wide paper. You can usually find this at office and shipping supply businesses. If necessary you can tape two pieces together for the desired width. Lay your canvas on it and draw a line on the paper all around the outside edges of your canvas. Label this and put it away where you can find it later to use when you are ready to block your canvas.

 After you've done  making the blocking pattern described above, you may want to machine baste 1 inch wide canvas or duck cloth tape along all sides if you're going to mount it on a four sided frame to work or on both ends if you plan to mount it on a rolling bar type of needlework frame or stand.  This will enable to you more easily, evenly, and securely mount the canvas to your working frame.  This tape will be removed after you've finished your stitching and before you block the piece.  The tape can then be re-used for another project later. (Blocking the piece will be explained in the next article.)

 

TRANSFER THE DESIGN TO THE CANVAS

The next step is to transfer your chosen design onto the canvas. Some needle workers like to just begin and start filling in their designs as they go along. I don’t recommend this unless you are a very skilled and experienced needle work designer or worker since unforeseen difficulties will too easily arise with this method and it can get expensive and very labor intensive for the unwary. It’s always best to work out your design before you ever even touch your canvas.

After you’ve chosen a design and prepared it on a graphed/charted design sheet (if it isn’t already graphed and charted), then you’ll need to transfer it to your canvas. If you’re working with a smaller design, then you may need to re-chart it or enlarge it before transferring it to your canvas.  There are several ways to transfer a pattern onto canvas and you may already know how to do this.  A  future article will  soon be forthcoming to cover these methods in more detail.  If you’re working from a counted stitch pattern of some kind, you may be able to stitch the design directly onto the canvas simply by counting your stitches. Keep in mind in doing this that if you aren’t using the same count fabric or mesh, the pattern may not come out exactly the same in the larger (or smaller) size, i.e., there may be some distortions but these should, theoretically at least, be minimal.

An alternative to all of the above is to simply order a rug design pattern canvas from our catalogue. We’ve already chosen the appropriate canvas type and count with thread and needle recommendations and our canvas patterns are already edged and ready to work. All you will need to do is put the masking tape around the edges and start to work the design. And if you see one of our patterns that is not already available as a rug pattern and you’d like to have us enlarge it into a rug pattern, we will be glad to do this for you for a minimal fee.

WORK THE DESIGN PATTERN ONTO THE CANVAS

Using your chosen stitch types, begin to work the design pattern. Many needle artists prefer to work the pattern parts first and fill in the background last. Others work it a few inches at a time, using the same pattern first, background last, method until the entire piece is completed. There’s probably nearly as many ways to do it as there are needle workers, but I usually recommend the first method of pattern parts first, background last for the entire piece. Some workers prefer to work from top to bottom, others work bottom to top. Find which works best for you and be consistent throughout the piece.  If you haven’t already, you’ll develop your own “best method” of stitching the piece from start to finish and, as you know, practice and experience makes perfect - or nearly so, at least!

NOW JUST ENJOY DOING THE STITCHES and in the next article Part 2 - Making a Your Own Needle Art Rug, I'll explain how to block and finish your rug.   

Happy Stitching!   AJ