Shetland Wool Week: Day 20: Advanced Taatit Rug Workshop

Fri 28 Sept 

Last year I took the Taat chat at the Bod with Carol Christiansen (1) and a Taatit Rug workshop with Kathy Coull and Father Christmas remembered  where I had put the Taatit book I purchased.(2) I really like looking at the book and rereading it and enjoyed finishing my sample at home. However, as I was finishing it I was wondering how the correct way of finishing this would be for a larger piece. So, when I saw that Kathy was running an advanced course this year I was keen to sign up. I was even more interested when I saw that a large Taatit Rug was entered for the National Exhibition for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers in Glasgow this summer. Unfortunately I did not get to see the exhibition so I couldn’t examine this piece in person. I thought the back looked rather different to my sample but perhaps that was due to the angle of display. 

I had some thoughts about design and what would be possible for me in terms of completing a much larger piece. I was keen to weave my own background this time. I thought a wall hanging would be more realistic that a bed cover, just in terms of getting it finished in my lifetime as I know I have other textile interests and it will never be my only project on the go - although I do find it addictive. I had also thought about a colour range and had a stimulus photo of a midsummer sunset at Westing beach which I took a few years ago. I had  also collected some  photos of architecture from elsewhere as well as I hoped I could make the rug  a contemporary look but to include traditional elements of symbolism as well. The other question for me is that I like the pile and the woven side equally so how could  I best display it to show both- or whether this was in fact possible. 

So I had lots I wanted to discuss with Kathy. I knew the workshop would be small as we were meeting in Kathy’s bijou space in the Lodberries. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was when due to unfortunate circumstances I would be the only one at the workshop. How good would that be? 

Needless to say I had a great time, I looked In detail at the large piece based on Fair Isle and it’s lighthouse that Kathy is completing, which took us into design and practical modifications of the pattern. We also discussed edgings etc and all the other questions I had from completing my sample piece last year. We worked through ways  of forming a circle that would appear as a circle and getting sloping lines to ‘work’ as planned. 

A sloping line sounded easy but still needed full concentration

Kathy  had woven me a large sample piece for the background from her own sheep on Fair Isle. Time went fast and even though there were only the two of us we still ran over! (3) 

I had arranged to meet M for lunch in the Dowry, our first lunch here. This (Thai soaked salmon and mini noodles) was very tasty. We then drove back down to Hoswick and today was the day I would finish weaving my sample  on the Warp Weighted Loom. I would delay taking it off the loom until tomorrow. 

Weaving on the loom just before it was cut off

Ruth Gough was finishing a class and it was good to catch up with her. The class took me back several years (15 or so) when we lived in Cheshire and I did several spinning classes  with Ruth and know that my spinning is so ‘scientific’ due to her methods. (4) 

Anne Eunson who was also finishing a class so there was another opportunity for a catch up. I was not going out tonight so could spare the time to look at the delightful weaving of some of the college students that was being displayed in the upper room of the workspace at Hoswick . 

BA student’s weaving 

Then it was time to go back to base and collapse.

This is the Suffolk ram which has been in the field  through all weathers each time we have stayed at the campsite. 

Today marked the end of the 2018 Shetland Wool Week workshops for me and I already had a list of ones I am hoping to sign up for in 2019. 

1.  Carol Christiansen has been interviewed discussing  Taatit Rugs for a Fruity Knitting Podcast - number 66

2. I have written about Taatit rugs on posts of 2Jan2018 and 23July2018

3. Kathy Coull has a website at www.kathycoull.com 

4. I smiled recently when I watched a tutor teaching fancy spinning. I asked about how the tutor ensured that the yarn was balanced, only to be told that fancy spinning yarns could not be balanced. It is things like this that make me smile with gratitude that I was taught to spin by Ruth. Another recent nonsense (imo) is the need to ‘thwack’ some yarn after spinning. It is possible to be taught to spin yarn without the need for this if you have a teacher who really understands how spinning works. 

The completed mini Taatit Rug

A Taatit Rug is a Shetland Pile Bedcover. These were made between (approximately)  the 18th and 20th centuries. 

Those of you that follow this blog will know that last year at Wool Week (2017) I chose to attend  a talk by Carol Christianson (Taat Chat at Da Bod) about the history of Taatit Rugs in Shetland. I also attended a class on making a mini Taatit Rug by Kathy Coull. The post about these is 2Jan18. 

During the year and intermittently I have made progress on the sample, but the breakthrough to its progress came when I decided to take out quite a bit of what I had done. Our lounge has one of my favourite Shetland photos (Norwick Beach, Unst) that we have had made into a canvas and I realised that if I changed what I had sewn into the rug I could:

   Use some of my hand dyed and hand spun yarn

   Coordinate it to the room

   Turn it into a wall hanging so that I could enjoy it rather than it being in my completed project  boxes, notice the ‘s’ ! 

Like most projects that linger rather there was a motivating factor. I have signed up for the Advanced Taatit Rug workshop for this year and felt I needed to finish my first project. I have also got a little list of ‘things I wish I knew more about’ ready for this year’s workshop. 

Once I got going on what was now ‘my  mini Taatit Rug’ and not just the workshop sample I found it addictive. It is great to see how the colours interact and how too much of one can swamp the effect. 

So this is it - my contemporary Taatit Rug - along with the stimulus picture. 

This is the pile side and would be the side nearest to the occupant of the bed. 

The reverse side is just as much my favourite and in fact would be the side that was on show on the bed. 

However, the houses these were used in were often small and from the number of windows quite dark too and I don’t expect many people got a tour of the sleeping area. 

After my next class I hope to be able to weave my own backing ground  too. 

This lovely Taatit Rug was made for a couples wedding (traditionally each side of the family made half the rug). The couple, along with 7 children  and the Taatit Rug emigrated to New Zealand in 1874. 

The rug was donated to the Museum in 2014 by the couple’s great granddaughter. It is a beautiful  item to see and to read the story of it. (apologies for the reflection in the picture). If you get to the Museum in Lerwick it is well worth looking for this. 

Notes

1. If you want to buy one book about Taatit Rugs I highly recommend Taatit Rugs by Carol Christiansen. 
2. There is a wonderful little museum guide ‘ Guide to Shetland Museum Textile Collection’ £5 (when I bought it). 36 pages of joy and temptation. The booklet has a double page spread, including pictures, about Taatit Rugs. 
3. The Bod is a restored fishing station is at Gremista, on the outskirts of Lerwick. It houses a wonderful collection of textiles and usually has volunteers demonstrating (mainly spinning and knitting) as well as hosting special exhibitions and having a shop of tempting locally made textile items . It is a must to visit in textile terms. Do check their website for opening times and allow yourself plenty of time for the visit. The volunteers are very knowledgeable and time can ‘just fly by’. 

Shetland Wool Week 13 : Taatit Rugs : Mon 25 Sept

I had been looking forward to finding out more about Taatit Rugs for at least a year and hadn’t been able to fit it in with my other classes, so before booking began I decided that this year it would be a priority. The problem is when I see the programme I have too many priorities, but I stuck to my aims and so today I had booked the talk on Taatit Rugs in the morning and a workshop on making them in the afternoon. 

However, first I was going to try and get the elusive DVD : Shetland Knitting Tips and Tricks by Hazel Tindall and Elizabeth Johnston. We had parked at the Quay by 9.20 and I headed to the Shetland Times Bookshop.(1) They HAD a copy so I immediately picked that up and then, as always, looked at the shelves and wondered what else I ‘needed’. I spotted a useful looking weaving book (2) and  suggested to Michael that this would be a useful Christmas present, left him to pay and thought I still had time to pop into Jamieson’s before going to the Bod, where the talk was to be. 

However, as always I got chatting in the street to a lady who commented on my hat - my version of the Bousta Beanie. (I made it much smaller, knitted the main part of it on the knitting machine and used some of my Ground Elder dyed yarns left over from the cardigan.) Needless  to say this led to a conversation about natural dyeing. 

 My Bousta Beanie (3)

The lady was from Yugoslavia but had lived in this country, near Oxford, for the last 26 years. She said when talking to me that she was suddenly reminded of Yugoslavia when she was young and was surrounded by this sort of thing. She had come to Shetland with her husband as they just wanted to come. She had no idea that Wool Week was on. She thought she might have an even better few days here than she had thought and was pleased that they had not yet booked the return ferry. I walked with her to Tourist information and sent her in with some words on a scrap of paper - including Unst, Bod, Shetland Museum. I just managed to pop into Jamieson’s but more time was needed there.

Michael took me to the Bod and as the weather was not the best said he would pick me up so that we could get to Hay’s Dock for our booked lunch without a rush.... he knows I usually get chatting after a class. I had a two hour gap between Taatit Rug activities. 

Taat Chat at Da Bod - Carol Christiansen

A Taatit Rug is a Shetland Pile Bedcover. The bedcover is woven and thick threads (taats) are then added to this. The rug is made in wool and any colours, not from the natural colours of fleece, are due to natural dyes. Carol (Curator and Community Museums Officer at the Museum and Archives) carried out an extensive study of those available in Shetland, and their stories wherever possible. This was mainly due to a grant from the Esme Fairbairn  Collection Fund in 2013. It was lovely to hear Carol talk about the construction of the rugs, the symbolism in their design and the place of these in Shetland Heritage from the late 1700s. She brought examples with her from the museum  collection and we were able to examine how they were made and get some idea of how important they were. Needless to say the talk was too short for me,  for I could have examined each rug for much longer. Fortunately I was going to make a mini one in the afternoon and there is a wonderful book with more detail which also includes a comprehensive catalogue of the 87 in the Museum Collection. If  you ever get a chance to hear this ‘chat’ I would recommend it and also the book. (4)

So I was late to leave and we were glad we had booked lunch, otherwise we would have been unlucky. We both had fish and chips and that was delicious. I did manage a quick walk round the Hub which this year again was held in the  Museum. There was a brilliant photography  exhibition of some of those connected with wool in the Hub room. It was lovely to realise  that I knew the majority of the people that had been photographed. 

Making a mini Taatit Rug - Kathy Coull 

I then walked along to the Lodberries (which will mean something if you are a Jimmy Perrez fan) and was the last of the 4 to arrive at Kathy Coull’s small but beautiful Studio where we were doing the workshop. Kathy had been at the talk in the morning so she knew exactly what we had been told and so did not repeat this. However, she was more than willing to answer our questions that had arisen over lunch. Kathy lives mainly on Fair Isle where she runs a  B and B and courses, eg in spinning. She also has this workshop space in Lerwick. Again we had a package prepared for the workshop- of possible designs to use and also a square to do a sample on (which we would return) and an approx 12” square of ‘Grund’ for the base fabric for the rug. A suitable tapestry type needle was included and as much yarn as we needed in a choice of colours. The ‘grund’ had been a serious investment of Kathy’s time. The yarn was from her own Fair Isle Sheep, which I believe she has mill spun, then she had woven the square as they would have been woven traditionally. I hoped to do the grund justice by my insertion of the taats. This insertion is done entirely with a needle, no hook of any kind is involved. It took a bit to get my head round the insertion of the taats- this of course was what the small trial piece was for. It is a labour intensive process- especially when you think of the total process that was involved traditionally starting with fleece. 

This is an image of the group. Kathy is working on a Taatit Rug on the right middle of the photo. On the wall in front of her you can see one of her contemporary Taatit pieces as a wall hanging. 

Whilst some of the group did their own creative weaving, I decided to work to one of the patterns. I hoped to be able to translate from pattern to Taatit  Rug. I know in future this is how I work ie from a pattern to the item, whereas it is possible to just gather the threads and go. It was a very nice workshop and I will definitely be continuing with this technique, including weaving my own grund. 

This shows the front and back of where I was up to at the end of the workshop. What another great day this had been. 

        

(1) The DVD - actually two DVDs (50 tips from Shetland Knitters) - are a superb set. I learnt things I didn’t even know that I didn’t know...and I have been knitting since before going to school. Highly recommended from this very experienced pair of knitters and designers who really understand knitting and have a wealth of experience in their genes. I am so enjoying my set. 

(2) The Book was ‘Next steps in weaving : Pattie Graver’  and it is a great book for me. I think I am going to discipline myself to work through it as the author suggests. 

(3) Personally  I preferred the Croft house and Shwook hats- I think because I like the extra detail in the crown and the profusion of colours. Next time I knit a wool week hat I will reflect on how I can adapt it to take my preferences into account. It is always so lovely to see hundreds of variations of the hat during the week.

(4) Taatit Rugs by Carol Christiansen : Shetland Heritage Publications