a Hudson Bay Point American Braided Rug D.I.Y

 

                                     hudson bay point blankets image from here

                           
                                                     my first braided rug



i’ve been talking it up for an age, and now finally, ahem, igot my planned hudson bay point blanket style american braided rug underway.
the first step, forming the ‘t’ and lacing the first row without the lacingbeing seen are the trickiest for a beginner, hence the procrastination. theslow start was also due to my discovery, through trial and error, that theslim-braid braided rugs are actually braided from bunches of wool yarn and arenigh on impossible to braid from just-too-bulky wool blankets. though i have a planto felt some wool rugs so they can’t unravel and try braiding thin strips ofthat, that is a plan for later in the year when I have more time to experimenton my hands. for now i just need a project i can work on in an ad-hoc fashion,when the demands of newborndom allow.

my first plan was to make this, second braided rug with the traditional hudson bay point blanket stripesof red, dark blue, yellow and green on beige, to lie in front of my loungefire. however, as you may know, that fireplace has had to come down and thisrug may just not suit whatever new configuration of art and treasures we createaround the new mantel.  but not put off,and given my thrifted pink welsh blankets are just not going towork in my fantasy shared girls bedroom as the longed for second child is a boy, i've decided that once he’soutgrown co-sleeping and needs a bed and a room of his own, it will have a hudson baypoint blanket theme.

the hudson bay point blanket design is a a well known classicin the USA,but here, not so much. aside from my aesthetic attraction to it,austere-but-with-colour being my thing, it’s crafted history appeals too. theywere originally made in Yorkshire, myoriginal home-sweet-home, from New Zealand wool, my now and foreverhome-sweet-home!

i still have to find a navy or black wool blanket to use forthe dark stripe, having just missed a bargain one on trademe due toinattention at auction end, gah! and i don't think my very yellow looking beige is sufficiently yellow either. a green one shouldn't be too hard to find, and i have time, there's a lot of beige-braiding to go under the bridge before we get to the colouring in!
the benefit of the single stripe colour isthat i won’t need a huge blanket, or more than one in the same colour. in factif i braid the dark/navy stripe as the inside stripe i estimate a singleblanket will suffice for each ring. these rugs are veryblanket hungry i can tell you. 

i've also bought someheirloom-last-a-hundred-years-or-more rug lacing cord. it's a waxed linen twine, all the way from america. i'd love to find something similar in New Zealand so if you know of anything like this do let me know. on my first braided rug I used a $2 shop terylene twinewhich I’m sure will last a good while, especially on that rug in it’s low (bare)foottraffic spot at the side of my bed. but now I have got the hang of the rug braiding and lacing process, and this is for mykid, and will take many months to make i really want it to endure.

my braided rug tutor, the only person in New Zealand i knowof who made these with any proficiency, has now retired to a houseboat insouthern england, so i decided I’d photograph and write a how-to-guide as i goalong with this one, in case there is a big gap between rugs in the future. so although i won't blog this rug again until it’s finished, i will at that stage, perhaps in 6 months or so, put my guide up as a rather amateur but non theless good for beginning/beginners guide to making an american braided rug.
so, ifyou fancy having a go, start collecting blankets up now. seriously, they’re muchharder, if not impossible to op-shop for a reasonable price in winter. to give you an idea of the amount you might need, my first rug, which measures approx. 85 x 125 cms used two blue blankets-onequeen one single; a large beige blanket, and a double grey blanket, if i remember correctly.

i'm also musing on what i will do with the iconic nz woolen mills labels i snip off these blankets.  i love millicent crowe's new zealand wool blanket label paintings very much (and i must mention that i'm also a fan of her series of illustrations based on what she doesn't buy from op-shops!) but not being of a painterly bent myself i am instead thinking of some form of bunting...of course!