I've Got It Pegged!

Now in its 25th year, the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival recently hosted 700 events over 6 days. Central to the festival is the burgh of Dufftown, the malt whisky capital of the world!

Dufftown is also home to local yarn store, 3 Bags Wool, the venue for craft events in the festival programme. As Dufftown is only a 45 minute drive away (and a very scenic drive at that) I signed up for one of the craft workshops last Saturday afternoon.

3 Bags Wool is a very well stocked yarn emporium with balls of wool for every pocket lining the walls from floor to ceiling.

Shop owner and textile artist, Sarah Fraser, has taken full advantage of the shop's quirky layout to display her beautiful needle felted landscapes. Kits are available so you can make your own and Sarah runs a wide range of craft workshops throughout the year at her in-store 'Wool Skool'.

Amongst all the wool, I also spotted this super-cute needle felted mouse nestled on a hand-kit sample sweater, a gorgeous floral handbag and a completely bonkers sheep!

As well as housing a fantastic range of supplies for knitters, crocheters and felters, 3 Bags Wool sells a less well known product for textile crafts called thrums. Thrums are the narrow selvedges from woven fabrics and are usually discarded by the nearby Scottish mills but Sarah has turned their use into an art form. You can't beat a bit of beautiful upcycling!

She showed us a range of rugs she'd woven from thrums to get an idea of what we were about to make.

The workshop I'd joined was peg loom weaving with thrums to make a sitting mat, basically a mini rug which could be completed in the two hour session!

After choosing some colours we set about warping up our peg looms. I was using a chunky blue wool which was wound around the pegs 36 times then cut into 18 lengths.

The pegs were threaded with the lengths of wool before being reinserted into the loom.

Then the weaving could begin. I'd chosen a jolly blue and yellow thrum which reminded us all of Doddie Weir's tartan. The weaving itself was very therapeutic.

When the woven fabric reached the top of the pegs, they could be removed from the loom and the wool length pulled through. A big knot was tied in the wool at the opposite end so I didn't pull it all the way out. That would have been a total disaster! Sarah was on hand throughout, guiding us gently through the weaving process, and encouraging us even when we thought we'd gone wrong.

Freshly brewed coffee and frangipane cake provided a welcome break mid session.

Once the weaving was finished, the woolly lengths were knotted to their neighbour at each end of the mat and neatly trimmed to finish them off. I teased out the woolly lengths of mine to make a fringe.

With our mats complete, we were able to admire each other's work.