Sock rug and artsy necklace

 I spent yesterday afternoon at the Adirondack Folk School, where I took a class called 'Weave a Sock Rug'.  Just three hours later, I walked out with this rug that I had made! 

 The instructors made it easy for us - the looms are pre-warped for class use.  We picked the loom we preferred.  The loom I selected was strung with a blue/black combo. 

 Down by my side in the photo above you can see bags with ropes made from the ribbed tops of colorful cotton socks.  The instructor purchases the pre-cut socks from a sock company, and then loops them together into ropes.   The regular weaving instructor is leaving to winter in Florida, so the woman on the right was there apprenticing with her, and will be taking over the weaving classes.  Both were terrific.

Below is what I saw on my loom as I was weaving. 

Another woman, using exactly the same color sock ropes as me, wove on a loom warped with white.  Our results looks so different from each other!

One woman, weaving on a loom strung with green and pale yellow, selected a limited color palette to go with her home decorated with terracotta and a southwestern decor.  This is her rug below.

Here, of course, is my (almost) finished rug.  I say 'almost' because I still have some more knot tying and trimming that I want to do to my fringe.

 Here's what the rug woven with the white warp looks like.

 And here's mine on my studio floor at home.  It really amazes me how the warp changes it.  Her white warp brought out the cool blues and greens, and my blue/black warp brought out the warm reds and jewel tones.  I'm quite happy with it!

 Here's a closer-up look a the nubby irregular weave. 
I like the randomness and irregularity. 

 By the way, I talked to the instructor about easy ways to do this without a big expensive loom, and she suggested hammering nails into an old picture frame and using them to warp the loom.  And of course you can make rag rugs out of just about anything, or cut across old t-shirts to form giant rings that you can link together into ropes as was done with the sock parts. I've always loved weaving with kids, and I think they would enjoy making something bigger using rags rather than yarn.  The possibilies are pretty open-ended, I think!

 

On the way home, with hubby out of town, I made a pit stop for some shoe shopping before a planned trip to the gym.  When I left the store at closing time, shoe bags in tow, I found a flat tire on my car.  EEK.  I knew no garage would be open, and made a panicked call for advice to hubs who was at his gate at a Washington DC airport, coming home.  He told me to just lock up the car and we'd pick it up the next day.  I thought I'd have to call a taxi, which would have been pricey since I wasn't exactly close to home, but when I ran into the shoe store as they were locking their doors (I wanted to make sure that my car wouldn't be towed), the woman I spoke to looked familiar.  Turns out that she was the mom of a girl who one of my son's friends in high school!  Small world!  She nicely offered to drive me home with my rug and my shoes.  Thank you!!!!

When I finally got home, I decided to finish a necklace that I had strung a month or so ago, and which had been sitting on the coffee table since then (much to my husband's annoyance, I'm sure; he's much neater than I am), waiting for me to put a clasp on it.  The clasp is now on, the necklace is complete, and a coordinating pair of earrings is in the works!!