I was very close to having to cancel this workshop on the weekend, because in the days leading up to it I came down with laryngitis. My voice came back by Friday afternoon, so I decided to go ahead with it.

The workshop was held at Studio 126 in Chinatown, and I had a small group of people in attendance which was the perfect size for the space. This is the first time I taught people how to make t-shirt yarn and braided rugs, so I wasn’t entirely sure how things would go, or how much space each person would need.

We spent the first hour and a half making t-shirt yarn. I introducing them to the joys of cutting fabric with a rotary cutter, which makes it so much easier. Everyone made a few balls of yarn before we switched over to getting started on braiding rugs.

One participant decided to include an upcycled pillow case in her rug, which didn’t seem to work as well as t-shirt fabric because it is less stretchy. I’d been thinking about testing out other types of fabric, but I think stretchy fabrics probably work best.

The final photo is where everyone left off by the end of class. It’s a good start, and I hope each participant will eventually share their rug with me when they are finished.