Last post, I talked about my desire to repair or re-weave an old Navajo rug I have owned for years. I actually purchased it on Ebay for a pittance, because of the “hole” or broken warp threads. There was also no other information about the rug–no provenance–name of weaver, region of purchase, age of rug, etc.
I began by gathering the materials I would need: a tapestry needle, strong cotton thread (similar to the original warp threads), scissors, and some hand spun, hand-dyed (Mormon tea) wool which was gifted to me by a lovely lady in Colorado a few years back.
The idea I had was to double the cotton thread for strength and weave in and out of the wool weft, which had been “released” when the warp threads were broken. Here is an example (left below) of how I wove the needle over and under the wool weft yarn. There were other yarn fragments under what is seen in the photo. Once the warp threads were replaced, I wove a bit of the Mormon tea dyed hand spun wool to cover a few stitches. On the right, the repaired rug.
Fellow blogger, Liz A (imgoingotexas.blogspot.com) had recommended an on-line site–walkinginbeauty.com–which I discovered offers Navajo weaving items, classes, re-weaving and rug identification services. I decided to repair my rug on my own, but the site deserves a look. BTW, all of their Navajo weaving classes for 2017 look to be full. Maybe there’s a wait-list?
naturedye 