Rugs are the foundation to a beautiful room and they’re meant to last a lifetime. They’re for me, together with blankets, the most important heirloom pieces in a home.
Naturally, it might take several months to finish one on your own. But – which project could be more satisfying than making a beautiful rug?
For me, the answer is clear: rugs are my favourite craft items. Over the last years, I tried out 7 ways to make a rug. I want to share these different techniques with you today.
Of course, you’ll need more or less specific materials and tools for different forms of rugmaking, but they can all be done at home by yourself.
Perhaps, I’ll inspire you to create your own rug soon?
Introduction
While there are many types of beautiful rugs in general, they can mainly be divided into two major categories depending on their surface:
- Flat rugs: For example woven rugs, tapestries rugs or crochet rugs. These rugs have an even, flat surface because the yarn is worked and hold horizontally.
- Pile rugs: For example, tufted rugs, punch needle rugs, latch hooked rugs and knotted rugs. For these rugs, the yarn is worked, at least in parts, vertically and the ends stick out, creating a “pile”.
A. Flat rugs
Let’s start with flat rugs:
A flat rug is a rug that is constructed without including any knots at all. Instead, the parallel running fibres of the rug and those that run along the width make up the whole surface.
Flat rugs are generally made on a loom. They are particularly durable and hold up well in high foot traffic areas.
Mostly flat rugs are woven, but I added crochet rugs in this category, though naturally they’re constructed quite different.
1. Handwoven rug
As described in my article about “Krokbragdweaving” (traditional Scandinavian weave structure), handwoven rugs are one of the reasons I learned weaving some years ago.
The most important piece of equipment for a handwoven rug is a floor loom. The choice of pattern and rug size will determine which kind of loom you’ll need. In addition, some technical weaving skills are necessary, same as above, depending a lot on your pattern choice. But in all cases, you must know at least how to warp a loom and some basic weaving and finishing skills.
+ advantages
- VERY sturdy, long-lasting rugmaking technique.
- One of the faster techniques. Not as fast as tufting, but faster than tapestry, latch hooking or knotting. I weave the rug below in 25h, a week of work.
+ on the downside
- Materials and tools! You need many, different materials
- Technical knowledge and skills necessary to weave a good rug
- Restricted design possibilities. You can’t do for example abstract forms, as in tapestry weaving or tufting
2. Tapestry rug
These rugs are naturally “woven” too. But tapestry is a specific catégorie of weaving meant to create images/ singular forms rather than repetitive patterns. (Explained more deeply in my article: Modern Tapestry: Between art and craft)
The differences between a woven and a tapestry rug are mainly two things:
-you work in general on a vertical loom, without treadles and shafts (photo below)
-you work more “freeform” patterns, geometric shapes, images etc., not a continuous pattern over the whole width of the rug
+ advantages
- VERY sturdy, long-lasting rugmaking technique.
- Easier technical access. Though to make a good tapestry rug you’ll need technical skills as well, I think it’s easier to learn than weaving on a floor loom
- Materials and tools are easier to handle and access, you can begin even on a simple, big frame loom you made yourself
- Great freedom of design as you can weave any shape imaginable
+ on the downside
- Very time-consuming
- Need a lot of patience in order to do it properly
3. Crochet or knitted rug
Perhaps the easiest way to make a rug. You don’t need fancy materials or tools: a crochet hook, thick yarn and some basic crochet skills are enough to start right away.
You can use whatever yarn you want, but I would recommend either some heavy wool-acrylic mix, heavy cotton yarn or some T-Shirt yarn, you can even make yourself.
On the right, a circle rug made by me several years ago, below a photo of a beautiful rug pattern from Hilja Designs.
+ advantages
- The material and tools are inexpensive and easily available
- Easy to learn technique
+ on the downside,
- A crochet rug is less sturdy and long-living than for example a knotted or woven one
- Limited design possibilities
B. Pile rugs
Simply put, a rug’s pile refers to the density of fibers—flat (short pile) or shaggy (long). It goes in hand with pile height, which is the thickness of a rug measured from the surface of a rug to its backing.
4. Tufted rug
A rugmaking technique I discovered two years ago is “tufting”.
It’s normally an industrial rugmaking technique but was simplified some years ago. It’s now used by several independent artists all over the world and it’s getting more and more popular, especially on the American continent,
You work with a tufting gun. It’s a kind of pistol, that pushes loops of yarn through a backing material without creating knots. The loops are then often sheared to create a smooth cut-pile surface. You work from the backside of your rug.
It’s especially Tim Eads and his affordable tufting gun shipped worldwide who introduced me to this growing community of tufting artists. I bought my own tufting gun on his website and watched all his videos at least once!
+ advantages
- Since less work is involved than in the construction of a hand-knotted rug for example, a tufted rug can be produced relatively quickly.
- With tufting you’ve complete freedom of design, that’s fascinating to me. You can do every abstract pattern you want, no technical limit is bothering you as for example with weaving
- the soft, piled surface is intriguing to touch and to feel under your feet
- a lot of fun!
+ on the downside
- As the tufting gun pushes the yarn only through the backing there’s no real fixation of the yarn itself. This means you need to glue the back of your rug to stabilize the piece. Furthermore often a backing is added to embellish the backside. All this means extra work, it’s ecological doubtful for me but especially it means
- That a tufted rug is less sturdy and long-living than for example a knotted or woven one – an aspect that’s really bothering me lately.
- You need quite expensive material, especially the tufting gun
- I find the technique, even though the basics are quite easy, difficult to work. I have still a lot of holes, the tension is difficult to maintain, the surface undulates
6. Punch Needle rug
Punch Needling is similar to tufting, apart from the fact that’s done by hand with a punch needle and that yarn loops stay generally intact. But, similarly to tufting, you push loops of yarn through the rug’s backing material. Afterwards, you can left the loops alone, creating a knobby embroidered look or instead shear them like for a tufted rug. Or – you can do both in the same piece in order to add some interesting visual effect.
+ advantages
- The material is less expensive and easily available in contrary to tufting materials
- You have the same complete freedom of design as for tufting. You can do every abstract pattern you want, no technical limit is bothering you as for example with weaving
+ on the downside
- Same problem as for tufting: as you push the yarn only through the backing without a real fixation, you need to glue the back of your rug to stabilize the piece and add eventually a backing to embellish the backside. All this means extra work, it’s ecological doubtful and it means
- That a punch needle rug is less sturdy and long-living than for example a knotted or woven one.
- Much slower than tufting
5. Latch hooked rug
Latch hooking is a technique to create a rug by pulling loops of yarn through a stiff woven base. It’s done using a hinged hook ( a kind of crochet hook but with a latch to close) and short, pre-cut pieces of yarn. The base is in general a kind of “Stramin”, a woven, rigid grid.
(I wrote about this technique more in detail in this article. Have a look if you’re looking for more explications)
+ advantages
- VERY sturdy, long-lasting rugmaking technique. I still have rugs from my grandmother that looks new
- You have great freedom of design You can do every abstract pattern you want, you need only to take in account the grid of the Stramin.
- You don’t need much material and the technique is very easy
+ on the downside
- Very slow technique
- The precut yarn isn’t available everywhere, but you can produce it yourself without any problem
7. Knotted rug
This is the most labour-intensive rug-making technique. Weavers tie individual knots to the warp yarns that make up the length of the rug. These knots form the surface, or pile, of the rug and create an ultra-strong structure that won’t loosen or wear. Hand-knotted rugs actually get better with age.
Most traditional hand-knotted rugs are woven of wool, favoured for its durability and softness underfoot. Wool is naturally strong and is stain- and water-repellent.
Knotted rugs are made in general using a vertical loom. The loom is outfitted with vertical strings, known as the “warp.” The weaver creates the rug alternating a knotted row with two woven rows (“weft”) to stabilize the knots.
In a knotted carpet, warp and weft strings are “hidden”, only the knotted loops (held in place by the weft strings) are visible and form the pattern of the rug.
Knotting is the only technique between the 7 ways to create a rug I haven’t done on a larger scale by myself. I did a little cushion cover that no longer exists. Nevertheless, I love this technique very much, it’s very “meditative” once you found the right gesture. It’s on my “To-do-list 2021” to make at least one hand-knotted rug!
+ advantages
- VERY sturdy, long-lasting rugmaking technique. Perhaps the best rugmaking technique in relation to quality and longevity
- You have great freedom of design. You can do every pattern you want
- You don’t need much material and the technique is easy to learn
+ on the downside
- Very, very slow technique. Best quality – against most time-consuming… things that seem to go hand in hand…
This is all so interesting! I created a tapestry in college but the backside left a lot to be desired! And I did a hooked rug as a child and loved it. My son wanted us to try the punch rugs. You gave me a lot to consider! This is great! And I LOVE your rugs you made!
Thanks Bethany!! That’s so kind!! As I said: I love rugs of all kind! Some more to come for sure, haven’t yet done the knotted one!!