Felted Kitchen Rug

 
 

I'm intrigued and fascinated by the rugs of Turkish felter, Mehmet Girgic.

My John C Campbell Folk School teacher had taken a class with him and described the huge pile of fiber required and the hours of kicking the rolled rug from one side of the room to the other.

Highly aerobic!!

I didn't want to get that much exercise, however, so I decided to try one of a more diminutive size...for my kitchen floor.

I needle-felted together ropes of nice roving and odd bits of wool fiber that I bought on the cheap. This part was tedious and helped to point me toward the purchase of my new baby drum carder, Cardatrice.

I then needle-felted colored wool to the surface, using pencil roving for the words.

We are big cooks in this house, and although H-1 jokes that I have abdicated my 'cooking throne' for the 'life of felting' lately, I decided to state the obvious in my rug's sentiment.

When it was dry, I worried that the places where the colors met might separate with use, so I hand-stitched a piece of orange commercial felt to the back of the rug for strength.