 Primitive Weave |  Fine Weave |
I’ve been avoiding this topic for some time hoping the situation would rectify itself but it hasn’t so it’s time to make an announcement.
Burlap. I no longer have any. The supplier that stocked all the Canadian shops and possibly some American ones has gone out of business, taking with it the manufacturer’s name based in Scotland. I’m assuming as much, considering it’s called a Scottish weave. You would think a bit of searching on the internet would yield a prospect but I’ve spent hours trying to find that source or one that might produce a like quality. We’ve been accustomed to the 75” wide primitive weave but I’d take whatever is available. I never liked that width anyway as they folded the burlap in half to make shorter rolls, so there was always a crease to work around. Dragging the marker in the channel, it would sometimes jump going over the bend making for a black mess.
During another evening of searching, I got lucky and found a supplier in India. It sure looked promising and I fired off an email and they replied to say, yes they ship to Canada. I asked for samples but nothing ever showed in the mail. I sent another email and didn’t get a reply. With the increasing costs of shipping, duties and tariffs, buying from that distance away would be costly, maybe price itself right out of the market. Who wants to pay a linen price for burlap? Maybe it’s time to let it go?
I know there are those who prefer burlap for others reasons; I’ve been in that camp myself but for sure it isn’t the smell, no one has ever said they buy it because it’s sprayed with a petroleum preservative and yum! My nose will agree, it reeks like diesel fuel when it first comes off the bolt. When I first started rug hooking I was so allergic to the smell it made my face burn like fire. I sat with a fan blowing across my head to push the chemical smell away from my nose; it was that or wear a mask that made my face hot and brought on breakouts. The fan was cold, especially in the winter but eventually it bothered me less and less because I learned to take a yard off the bolt and let it sit to off gas before I used it. The burlap straight off the bolt and the marker smell combined still bothers me today so I appreciate not having that job anymore.
The fuzz of the burlap has never bothered me although I hear complaints from others. You can trim it or leave it on to be walked off. It was really only a pain if you were using black as a background as that highlighted the fibers through the colour variance.
My reason for liking burlap was the stiffness of it. When hooked, my rugs were the same shape as the pattern dictated, no roundish corners, no pulling to the side. I found linen a bit stretchy and too soft. Now I will have to like it or lump it, along with everyone else so grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and move on....it’s over, the fat lady has sung. No more burlap.
I’ve emailed the supplier that closed shop and asked for their contact information, surely the company in Scotland would appreciate continued business for their product but I’ve not heard back. If anyone out there in rug hooking land knows of this Scottish connection I would love the option to stock it again if the price hasn’t gone through the roof. As a business owner, one who is conscientious about the service and supplies we offer, it devastates me to have to say, sorry we don’t have what you want.
So we are down to linen, which is not a bad thing. It’s like saying we no longer sell hamburger but still have plenty of Prime Rib.... not a real hardship. Most of my sales are patterns on linen; I get very few requests for burlap especially from the United States. We do have burlap patterns in stock though; ones drawn before the last yard was pulled from the bolt. If you wish a pattern on burlap we may have it made up and hung in the back room, just ask us to check.
And I should add having burlap wasn’t always happy time, maybe I should keep remembering the angst it caused, quite like forgetting the pain of childbirth and wanting another child. The last ten bolts or so came with flaws, some serious. The quality had dipped as there was a hole that occurred every two yards or so that we had to cut around and if we overlooked one, someone got upset with us, and rightly so, who wants to have to make repairs in a new rug!
In a couple of bolts the hole was close to the selvage edge which didn’t impact on the design because we have a generous allowance on our patterns. It was the ones in the center that caused the grief with the losses due to cutting around the waste. Hooking one of my Initially Yours patterns there was a hole that I had to fix, it was annoying but I fixed it and moved on.
So linen is the present and the future of rug hooking. There are other backings such as rug warp and Monk’s cloth but predominantly the choice is linen. I used to sell Monk’s cloth and Rug Warp, but that supplier went out of business a couple of years back and because there was very little request for it, I didn’t bother searching out another source.
Linen comes in various widths and colours. Bleached or natural. Both have extremely strong fibres, unlike burlap strands that break with a good tug. Linen is usually hairless now but some still have the fizzy bits. Linen will last longer, has the longevity for your heirloom rugs to be handed down for generations. Linen rugs can be washed if a stain occurs whereas burlap is never supposed to get wet after the steaming on the completion of the rug. Burlap will rot over time if the conditions are damp, nor does it like the sun so don’t leave your unhooked patterns or work-in-progress pieces exposed to sunlight near a window. Dried fibers will become brittle.
Burlap turns a golden yellow if exposed to the light. Even in my shop, the edges that are exposed to the fluorescent lighting turn a slightly darker colour. People who find the deal of a lifetime at a flea market, a beautiful pattern that’s as old as we are, or new and left exposed to damp and light should be concerned about hooking it. I’ve seen grown women cry as holes explode through their work as the pressure of the metal hook and the packed loops snap the fibers. Do yourself a favour and copy the design over to a new backing, it is the only time I condone copying a pattern.
Older burlap rugs won’t disintegrate before your eyes but they certainly won’t entertain the longevity one would hope for. Most of us like the thought of our handiwork being passed down to future generations; it confirms we were here, creative and ambitious! When dedicating hours to a project, this work of art and expression of your talent, the extra expense for a better backing will secure the investment you made in materials and time.
Linen is also softer on the hands and won’t cause chaffing where burlap has been notorious for its roughness and scratching the skin. Between the burlap and the gripper frames hooking can be a painful experience. I’ve bled on every rug I’ve ever hooked, signing it with my DNA. I call it, suffering for my art.
So that’s the scoop. I’ll leave the burlap pricing on the website in case the future holds a source of inventory but for now, linen is the backing we sell other than the patterns already made up in the back room. Our linen is top quality for those who appreciate working with fine materials. We have it in 60” and 64” widths, a multi-purpose that covers all cuts. We have it in bleached or natural; the bleached does cost a few dollars more for the extra processing but some like the whitish backing to see the marker lines better. The white or bleached linen is actually a bit stiffer than the natural due to the processing so it might suit the burlap lovers who appreciated that aspect of the backing.
Of course I could buy burlap, of inferior quality, but that is as iffy as a two dollar bill and I refuse to sell any products that I wouldn’t be caught dead working with. If I want to cover my shrubs in the winter, that’s about all it’s good for. Some burlaps have such small holes it’s painful to pull wool through and a lot of the fibers are weak, snap like twigs under foot. I’ve gone around to various fabric stores and did a little tug test when no one was looking and wasn’t happy with the results. I guess you get what you pay for, and cheap is no bargain. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth but this self-appointed princess likes working with quality!
Burlap. I no longer have any. The supplier that stocked all the Canadian shops and possibly some American ones has gone out of business, taking with it the manufacturer’s name based in Scotland. I’m assuming as much, considering it’s called a Scottish weave. You would think a bit of searching on the internet would yield a prospect but I’ve spent hours trying to find that source or one that might produce a like quality. We’ve been accustomed to the 75” wide primitive weave but I’d take whatever is available. I never liked that width anyway as they folded the burlap in half to make shorter rolls, so there was always a crease to work around. Dragging the marker in the channel, it would sometimes jump going over the bend making for a black mess.
During another evening of searching, I got lucky and found a supplier in India. It sure looked promising and I fired off an email and they replied to say, yes they ship to Canada. I asked for samples but nothing ever showed in the mail. I sent another email and didn’t get a reply. With the increasing costs of shipping, duties and tariffs, buying from that distance away would be costly, maybe price itself right out of the market. Who wants to pay a linen price for burlap? Maybe it’s time to let it go?
I know there are those who prefer burlap for others reasons; I’ve been in that camp myself but for sure it isn’t the smell, no one has ever said they buy it because it’s sprayed with a petroleum preservative and yum! My nose will agree, it reeks like diesel fuel when it first comes off the bolt. When I first started rug hooking I was so allergic to the smell it made my face burn like fire. I sat with a fan blowing across my head to push the chemical smell away from my nose; it was that or wear a mask that made my face hot and brought on breakouts. The fan was cold, especially in the winter but eventually it bothered me less and less because I learned to take a yard off the bolt and let it sit to off gas before I used it. The burlap straight off the bolt and the marker smell combined still bothers me today so I appreciate not having that job anymore.
The fuzz of the burlap has never bothered me although I hear complaints from others. You can trim it or leave it on to be walked off. It was really only a pain if you were using black as a background as that highlighted the fibers through the colour variance.
My reason for liking burlap was the stiffness of it. When hooked, my rugs were the same shape as the pattern dictated, no roundish corners, no pulling to the side. I found linen a bit stretchy and too soft. Now I will have to like it or lump it, along with everyone else so grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and move on....it’s over, the fat lady has sung. No more burlap.
I’ve emailed the supplier that closed shop and asked for their contact information, surely the company in Scotland would appreciate continued business for their product but I’ve not heard back. If anyone out there in rug hooking land knows of this Scottish connection I would love the option to stock it again if the price hasn’t gone through the roof. As a business owner, one who is conscientious about the service and supplies we offer, it devastates me to have to say, sorry we don’t have what you want.
So we are down to linen, which is not a bad thing. It’s like saying we no longer sell hamburger but still have plenty of Prime Rib.... not a real hardship. Most of my sales are patterns on linen; I get very few requests for burlap especially from the United States. We do have burlap patterns in stock though; ones drawn before the last yard was pulled from the bolt. If you wish a pattern on burlap we may have it made up and hung in the back room, just ask us to check.
And I should add having burlap wasn’t always happy time, maybe I should keep remembering the angst it caused, quite like forgetting the pain of childbirth and wanting another child. The last ten bolts or so came with flaws, some serious. The quality had dipped as there was a hole that occurred every two yards or so that we had to cut around and if we overlooked one, someone got upset with us, and rightly so, who wants to have to make repairs in a new rug!
In a couple of bolts the hole was close to the selvage edge which didn’t impact on the design because we have a generous allowance on our patterns. It was the ones in the center that caused the grief with the losses due to cutting around the waste. Hooking one of my Initially Yours patterns there was a hole that I had to fix, it was annoying but I fixed it and moved on.
So linen is the present and the future of rug hooking. There are other backings such as rug warp and Monk’s cloth but predominantly the choice is linen. I used to sell Monk’s cloth and Rug Warp, but that supplier went out of business a couple of years back and because there was very little request for it, I didn’t bother searching out another source.
Linen comes in various widths and colours. Bleached or natural. Both have extremely strong fibres, unlike burlap strands that break with a good tug. Linen is usually hairless now but some still have the fizzy bits. Linen will last longer, has the longevity for your heirloom rugs to be handed down for generations. Linen rugs can be washed if a stain occurs whereas burlap is never supposed to get wet after the steaming on the completion of the rug. Burlap will rot over time if the conditions are damp, nor does it like the sun so don’t leave your unhooked patterns or work-in-progress pieces exposed to sunlight near a window. Dried fibers will become brittle.
Burlap turns a golden yellow if exposed to the light. Even in my shop, the edges that are exposed to the fluorescent lighting turn a slightly darker colour. People who find the deal of a lifetime at a flea market, a beautiful pattern that’s as old as we are, or new and left exposed to damp and light should be concerned about hooking it. I’ve seen grown women cry as holes explode through their work as the pressure of the metal hook and the packed loops snap the fibers. Do yourself a favour and copy the design over to a new backing, it is the only time I condone copying a pattern.
Older burlap rugs won’t disintegrate before your eyes but they certainly won’t entertain the longevity one would hope for. Most of us like the thought of our handiwork being passed down to future generations; it confirms we were here, creative and ambitious! When dedicating hours to a project, this work of art and expression of your talent, the extra expense for a better backing will secure the investment you made in materials and time.
Linen is also softer on the hands and won’t cause chaffing where burlap has been notorious for its roughness and scratching the skin. Between the burlap and the gripper frames hooking can be a painful experience. I’ve bled on every rug I’ve ever hooked, signing it with my DNA. I call it, suffering for my art.
So that’s the scoop. I’ll leave the burlap pricing on the website in case the future holds a source of inventory but for now, linen is the backing we sell other than the patterns already made up in the back room. Our linen is top quality for those who appreciate working with fine materials. We have it in 60” and 64” widths, a multi-purpose that covers all cuts. We have it in bleached or natural; the bleached does cost a few dollars more for the extra processing but some like the whitish backing to see the marker lines better. The white or bleached linen is actually a bit stiffer than the natural due to the processing so it might suit the burlap lovers who appreciated that aspect of the backing.
Of course I could buy burlap, of inferior quality, but that is as iffy as a two dollar bill and I refuse to sell any products that I wouldn’t be caught dead working with. If I want to cover my shrubs in the winter, that’s about all it’s good for. Some burlaps have such small holes it’s painful to pull wool through and a lot of the fibers are weak, snap like twigs under foot. I’ve gone around to various fabric stores and did a little tug test when no one was looking and wasn’t happy with the results. I guess you get what you pay for, and cheap is no bargain. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth but this self-appointed princess likes working with quality!
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