Mary Ostler

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I have finally bought most of the wool I need for my project. I still have a bunch more to buy, but I want to spread the cost of the wool out over a few pay checks. I will be dying the wool four colors, and the fifth color i will be leaving the wool [...]

I have the cartoon, I have a loom, I have the right amount of hedles (my order arrived a couple of days ago). Now I have to figure out how much material I will need to complete the rug, and how much of each color I will need to hand dye. Determining how much was [...]

My fingers feel like the are going to snap like a twig, but I managed to finish the rug cartoon in the last week. Thats it…

The project has been at a bit of a stand still as off late. The main hold up was the loom. I have been pulling out my hair trying to find either an image or a decent description of a near eastern rug loom in period. The closest I could find were a few images [...]

Well the verdict on this weekend is in, and it was 4 kinds of goodness. Friday & Saturday I got to hangout with Agnes and some of the aprenti. It was a two day work on A&S stuff gabfest. I got a start on the final carpet cartoon, the wooden board games in the barony’s collection have [...]

I got to go to Daffodil Tourney this year. I’ll be posting soon about the annual Seagirtian event, but I thought I do a quick post on my entry into the A&S tourney. The contest was “items inspired in some way by the theme “daffodil”. Since I only decided to go to the event the [...]

I was asked how the cartoon was coming. The answer… Slowly! I will be starting a whole new cartoon soon, as this first one was just to work out some pattern issues. The first problem being the lack of a middle section in the original painting., Thanks to a suggestion from Mistress Agnes, I have [...]

While researching  the Turkish Carpet Project, I found an interesting sub section of the carpet weavers. Turkmen Tent bands are straps that go around the outside of Yurt like dwellings. They are partially knotted just like Turkish carpets but with backgrounds of plain weave. The majority are symmetrical knots but…heres the kicker… The knots happen on the open upper [...]

I have been puzzeling over what the center elelment on the Holbein carpet should be. I think the problem I have had is I have no idea what the size I have to fill is. That means I have to start the cartoon. This may not end up being the final cartoon as I have [...]

Did some more experimenting with the Turkish rug project. I was having trouble trying to get the same number of knots on the warp compared to the weft. I decided to tie the knot around doubled up warp threads. It worked very well as for the first time I have matching knot counts. I also [...]