Posted by Sharon on Monday, 29 June 2009, at 10:50 a.m.:
In Reply to: weaving rag rugs posted by cathy on Sunday, 28 June 2009, at 11:23 p.m.:
Cathy,
I think that would be fairly common. I don't weave a lot of rugs, but even though you are using cotton/poly you are talking about quite a bit of length and all that lenght is under high tension. When you take the tension off the loom you lost 12 inches and when you washed you lost another 10". That is because the warp fibers actually "BENT" or curved under and over the rags (which are really large in comparison to the warp) and so that is why you lost sooo much length. Your finished project is just under 80% smaller than your on the loom. so you have about a 20% shrinkage warp wise. I am assuming you did not loose nearly as much width wise. Sorry it is so much smaller than you anticipated, but for future reference add at least 20% to the length on the loom under tension is you want the finished rug to be the targeted length. I am weaving with polar fleece strips and my shrinkage is about 25% length wise and less that 10% width wise. Good luck and happy weaving,
Sharon