The Braided Rug Go-Round
(Page 5 of 6)
November/December 1971
By Nancy Bubel
For the first six to ten rounds— at the corners only —the stitches on the body of the rug must be closer together than those on the braid you're attaching. That is, lace through a loop on the outer braid and through the next loop on the rug body . . . then skip a loop on the outer braid and lace the following one to the very next loop on the body of the rug.
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In this way, you "hold back" the attaching braid so that it stays flat and doesn't bunch up the rug. Later, as the project gets bigger and the turns less sharp, you won't need to hold back the outside braid as frequently as during the first few rounds. The process quickly becomes second nature.
A round rug, of course, is all corners so there's no need to compute the length of a starting braid. Just snail the braid around and around as you hold it flat and continually correct for the increasing diameter by making the "skip" stitches every few inches in the beginning, and only each foot or so as the rug grows.
If it ever appears that your round or oval rug won't lie flat, you lose nothing but time by unlacing the piece and starting again from shortly in front of the point where it begins to buckle. Even the thread can be used again. I've had to rip out my work several times and, while it's painful, the results are worth it.
There's probably no way to end an oval or round rug invisibly, but that doesn't really matter. After all, they are handmade things, with all the sturdy imperfections that that implies. A braided rug is genuine, never pretending to be what it's not.
Some braiders taper the three strips to be as narrow as possible at the end so the braid's butt will lie more smoothly against the edge of the rug. Whether or not you do this, sew the raw edges of the braid with over-and-under stitches and then sew the braid to as much of a point as possible and stitch it firmly to the body of the rug.
Square rugs are interesting and, to get the shape, just square off the corners when you start lacing the rug together.
Runners are another possibility and a long one makes a very nice stair carpeting. Just be sure to measure carefully before you cut each braid . . . and then add a yard of leeway. And don't forget to allow for the fitting of the rug around the lip of each stair tread (bitter experience speaking here).
You'll have none of those easing-around-the-corners problems when you lace a runner together from several long, straight braids. If the braids' vary in thickness, though, the finished piece may have an odd and not altogether functional curve to it. We've found that beginning with the center braid and lacing additional ones alternately to each side (rather than working from one edge to the other) helps to eliminate this tendency.
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