How Can I Make a Swedish Carpet?

Create a design

• 1

  Cut a piece of carpet backing the size of the carpet you wish to make plus 3 inches for each side for the carpet hems. Omit hem margins if you're using traditional Rya carpet backing. Cut a piece of butcher paper the size of the carpet backing minus the hems.

• 2

  Find or create a design for the carpet. Use copyright-free design books or create your own design by drawing freehand or using a computer graphics program. Size the finished design to fit the piece of carpet backing.

• 3

  Transfer the design to the butcher paper. Outline the design with a fine-line black marker. Put the carpet backing face up on a tabletop. Place a sheet of dressmaker's carbon paper face down over the backing. Put the design over the carbon paper and use a dressmaker's tracing wheel to transfer the design to the carpet backing. Shift the carbon paper as necessary to transfer the complete design.

• 4

  Color in the design areas on the carpet backing with the colored markers to guide the placement of colored yarns. Remove the carpet backing and butcher paper. Set the butcher paper aside for reference as you work.

Preparing Materials

• 5

  Put the first area of the carpet backing you will be working on in an embroidery frame or needlepoint stretcher bars. Pull the material tight within the frame. Omit framing or stretching if you're using traditional Rya carpet backing.

• 6

  Select the colors of yarn you will need to execute the design. Cut yarn into uniform lengths of about 2 feet. Arrange the yarn by color and put it in shallow boxes. Put the boxes in your work area.

• 7

  Choose an appropriate color of yarn for the area you will be knotting. Thread a size 18 tapestry needle with the length of yarn. Combine several strands of wool together if desired. Combine multiple colors on one needle to make smoother transitions between different-color areas.

Knotting the Yarn

• 8

  Look at the weave of the carpet backing to identify the warp, or lengthwise threads, and the weft, or crossways threads. Insert the tip of the needle under one of the warp threads just above a weft thread. Bring the needle up on the opposite side of the warp thread, looping it over the warp and carrying it to the next warp thread to the right.

• 9

  Put the needle under this next warp thread and back toward the starting point. Pull the yarn through, leaving a tail at the beginning that is about the length of the pile you want on the carpet, usually under 1 1/4 inches, although some Rya rugs have a 3-inch pile. Use a ruler to make sure of the length. The knot should look like an upside-down U, with each side of the U passing under a warp thread and coming through the same open space between the two warps.

• 10

  Pull the stitch tight. Make a loop of yarn as tall as the tail end and hold it in place. Find the next warp thread to the right and pass the needle under it, pointing it back toward the first knot. Bring the needle up and over the warp thread, pointing it toward the next -- or fourth -- warp thread. Bring the needle over this warp thread and then under it, pointing it back toward the beginning of the row.

• 11

  Tighten up this knot, taking care not to shorten the loop you have formed between the two knots. Form another loop of the same size, go to the next warp thread to the right, and begin another knot. Proceed in this manner across the warp threads and just above the same weft thread until you run out of yarn or until the color changes.

• 12

  As you end a piece of yarn, leave enough yarn at the end to make a tail the same length as the beginning tail. Cut the tail to the correct length with scissors.

Forming the Pile

• 13

  Work the same row to the end of the embroidery frame. Take the scissors and cut each loop at its middle to form the pile.

• 14

  Work rows crosswise across the carpet, changing colors as needed. Cut the loops on each row as you finish it before working knots in the next row.

• 15

  Move the embroidery frame as needed to work knots throughout the piece of carpet backing. Remove the embroidery frame when all knots are completed. Check the appearance of the pile, trimming as necessary to even the pile out or to give high or low relief to certain areas of the design.

Finishing the Carpet

• 16

  Fold the hem edges to the back of the carpet on the line just after the last rows of knots on all four sides. Hold up the hem binding to the hem margin, lining it up just after the fold. Mark the carpet backing where the hem binding falls on the side away from the fold.

• 17

  Use a ruler and mark one-quarter inch inside the mark at the edge of the binding. Mark this measurement all along all four edges of the hem allowance, using a ruler and permanent fine-line marker. Cut away the excess material with scissors on this marking.

• 18

  Sew the hem binding onto the carpet near the fold, using an overcast stitch, tapestry needle and buttonhole twist thread. Miter the corners of the backing to eliminate bulk. Make a mitered fold in the binding at the corners to cover the raw edge of the backing.

• 19

  Sew down the inner edge of the hem binding onto the back of the rug itself, catching the thread into warp or weft threads and enclosing the raw edge of the backing under the binding. Omit Steps 1 through 4, though, if you're using traditional Rya rug backing.

• 20

  Affix a hanging sleeve on the upper side of the back of the carpet to hang it from the wall if desired, or use the carpet as an area rug.