In considering textiles, we often think first about clothing. Our homes are also filled with textiles, including upholstery fabric, floor and window coverings, and the pillows and blankets on our couches and beds. These textiles all can be made from locally grown materials. While we’ve lost a lot of the industrial textile manufacturing capacity in Canada, many of these products can be made at home or at a cottage scale.
Canada is known for “strong” wool. Vancouver Island, in particular, doesn’t tend to have fine wool breed sheep – they aren’t right for our climate. But we do have many breeds that produce strong or coarse wool, and these fibres are particularly well suited for floor coverings. The Canadian Wool Council recently produced The Carpet Plan, a business case for promoting the commercial production of wool carpets and rugs from Canadian wool. It’s an interesting document, focusing on large scale production runs.
“Beauty and comfort aside, wool is also a very good practical choice for decorating interior spaces. It is highly flame-resistant, and… does not produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs). … it is an excellent sound insulating material… Wool textiles are easy to care for, requiring less frequent washing than textiles made from other materials. This increases their longevity, which makes wool a good choice for sustainability. Because wool is a protein-based natural fibre, it will naturally decompose in soil. And unlike synthetic fibres, wool does not contribute to microplastic pollution.” — From The Carpet Plan, Canadian Wool Council, 2022-2025 (PDF link)
We don’t currently have a fibre mill or weaving mill in our fibreshed. But we do have many talented folks with skills they can share. This year, we are hosting a local rug challenge. Our goal is to demonstrate the use of local fibre to produce quality rugs, made using any technique you like. Know the breed(s) and the farm or the Fibreshed vendor where you obtained your fibre/yarn. If you are weaving for this challenge, warp threads could be sourced from outside the Fibreshed as we recognize the difficulty of getting local linen, hemp, and cotton yarns, though local nettle and linen are possible here for the ambitious. Work as an individual or as a team. Share the story and photo of your rug as an email to us or in our Facebook group. We are planning an exhibition of local rugs at Fibrations in Victoria in August and at other venues around the island.
Here are some examples of local woven rugs and details of their construction to get your creative juices flowing:
Anne Richmond wove a thick and soft rug on her narrow Saori loom in two panels, later seamed together. The warp is hemp and the weft is a “barely spun” Salt Spring Island wool.
Bobbie Williams has been digging deep into rug research. Her three rugs above are made with handspun wool weft yarns woven in boundweave (2/2 twill) on a 4/12 linen warp, doubled and sett at 5epi. For her weft yarns, she works with both worsted spun and woolen spun yarns, plied with extra twist, in aran to bulky size. She’s experimenting with Vancouver Island strong wools such as Icelandic, Jacob, Black Welsh Mountain, North Country Cheviot, Cotswold, and Romney, and uses them in their natural colours and dyed with natural plant dyes.
Tracy Brennan (owner of the former Inca Dinca Do fibre mill) has had good success with corespun rug yarn, made from alpaca and mixed breeds of wool, in her plain weave and overshot rugs woven on wool or cotton warps. She says her favourite warp yarn is a mohair/wool blend, spun worsted in a DK weight. An interesting note: the corespun in the above rugs is made from alpaca seconds — the lesser quality fibres (shorter or coarser than prime) from the neck, chest and upper legs of the alpaca. Finding a use for this lesser quality fibre is tricky — many mills will not accept it, meaning it often ends up in the landfill or compost heap.
Suggested Vancouver Island sheep breeds for durable wool weft yarns: Black Welsh Mountain, Cotswold, Hampshire, Icelandic, Jacob, Navajo Churro, North Country Cheviot, Romney, Suffolk, Southdown, Valais, and crosses of such. Also try alpaca, llama, and mohair yarns. Search our Producers Directory to find local farms who are raising these breeds.
Watch for future articles that dive more deeply into warp and weft investigations! Thank you to our Fibreshed Community Group (Facebook) members for sharing their knowledge of rug weaving.