Guest Author - Eva Owsian

If you haven’t done so already, please see How to make a shag rag rug loom. We are now ready to set it up and start knotting. Since you want your creation to last, I highly recommend using any brand of cotton carpet warp. You can use either fabric cut into 1 inch wide strips by 4 inches long, wool yarn, or basically anything that you can make a rug out of. To determine the length necessary for your rug, double the desired height of shag. For example if you want a 2 inch high shag pile rug, you will need material cut 4 inches long. I don’t really recommend going any wider than 1 inch for fabric but again please experiment. And yes you can tear the fabric for this type of rug making.






Place one spool on each of the 2 back bolts. Grab one strand and wrap it clock wise twice around the cup hook, repeat for the other spool. By wrapping it around the cup hook, this gives you a nice tension for knotting. Now match the two ends and tie a knot.






Slightly pull on the carpet warp , pulling it toward the knob. Now place the carpet warp loop over the knob. Now we are ready to start knotting. Place fabric strip right side up across the top of the two strands of carpet warp. Fold the ends downward, and match them up, now push the ends up in between the two strands of carpet warp. Grab onto the ends and pull toward the wood knob. That’s all there is to it. You repeat until you have a length, pull up off of the knob, put the finished knots behind the knob and knot more until you have approx 2 feet. With an upholstery needle and thread (both are available at Walmart, you will start at the very end and coil strip into a circle and whipstitch together on the underside of the knotted strip.

It is easier to manage if you knot 2 feet and then stop and whipstitch them into your desired shape. This is a very versatile way of making rugs because you can make ovals, squares, circles, rectangles and custom shapes by just sewing them together.