Adventures in Rag Weaving: A Sakiori Inspired Table Runner With A Hand Dyed Warp

BySarah Hegge

One of the great things about being able to make stuff is that when I find myself looking for something very specific, I don’t have to spend a lot of time shopping for it. I can just, you know, make it myself. So, when I recently found myself wanting a table runner of a very specific size in specific colors, I started planning a new project. And because I tend to over complicate things, this project involved a hand dyed warp and a Japanese rag weaving technique (sakiori) that I’d never tried before.

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Inspiration

My work and hobbies are hopelessly mixed together. When crafting is your life, that’s bound to happen. However, I do have a few things, including my love of tea, that I try not to monetize. But recently, I found myself really wanted a large placemat or table runner to use at my green desk. You see, I managed to get a subscription to this year’s Being Tea tasting box, which includes a monthly zoom tasting sessions. And the desk is the perfect space for those. But with so many cups and such going at once, my usual set of hand woven coasters wasn’t cutting it any more.

I wanted the runner to be flat and long, so a weaving project was clearly the way to go. I mused on it for a little bit until the YouTube algorithm served me this video about sakiori weaving, a Japanese style of rag weaving. When they mentioned that sakiori was great for using textiles that were too weak for other uses I knew this was the right direction for this project. I had a set of linen sheets that had gotten holes in them that were prefect for this project just sitting in my closet!

Additionally, I’ve always been fascinated by rag weaving. Growing up, one of the few things we had from my great grandmother on my father’s side was a small collection of hand woven rag rugs. I don’t currently have a loom big enough to try my hand at run weaving, but I knew one of my smaller looms could handle a runner.

Research

I started out looking for books on sakiori. I was surprised to find that the option were really limited. Riches to Rags: Saki-ori and Other Recycling Traditions in Japanese Rural Clothing by Shin-Ichiro Yoshida and Dai Williams looked like a great reference, but it was out of print and used copies were well out of my budget. Another book I found was in Japanese, which I can’t read.

There were a few other books out there on rag weaving in general, but the only English language book specifically on Sakiori that I could get my hands on was Weaving Western Sakiori by Amanda Robinette (Amazon/Bookshop). While not the authentic, in-depth book I was hoping to find, it did clarify some things, like what EPI (ends per inch) to use.

I never like to use just one source, so I turned to a mix of blog posts and YouTube videos to get a better idea of what makes sakiori distinct from other rag weaving traditions. I wasn’t able to get a really clear answer on this. I was able to gather that sakiori fabric seems to be much thinner and more flexible than rag weaving used for rugs. This is because it was used as clothing, not home decor. This was achieved two ways: first by using thinner strips of material in the weft. the weft strips could be thinner than 1/4″, as opposed to the 1″-3″ found in rugs. Sakiori also sometimes uses strands of the way yarn interspersed with the weft yarn.

Resources I found useful, in no particular order:

If anyone has any additional English language sources on Sakiori or knows of someone who teaches it in the Chicago area, please leave me a comment below!

Planning

The basic dimensions were decided by the weaving width of my looms (both 16″) and the length of the table I wanted to cover (about 30″).

I debated on what yarn to use for a little bit. I had nearly full cones of unbleached 8/2 cotton and a 5/2 linen that I’d bought a while back to experiment with. I ended up choosing the linen because I liked its slight shine. Also, since this is a home decor project, the fact that it was a bit stiffer was a benefit, not a drawback. Last, according to my research, the warp needs to be strong to hold up to rag weaving. While both would be strong warps, linen tends to be a little stronger. Weaving Western Sakiori suggested a EPI of 16 for yarns this size, so I deferred to that.

Since this is a plain weave project, either my rigid heddle or my multi shaft table loom would work in theory. However, I decided to use the table loom here for two reasons. First, I would have needed a new reed for my rigid heddle to get 16 EPI. Second, because the table loom is better for higher tension projects and most of the things I’ve read about rag weaving recommend higher tension.

A sketch of a pink and green runner on a green desk with notations on colors, weaving details, etc.
My initial planning in my sketchbook.

While I could have used just two shafts of my loom, I decided to use four and thread it in a straight draw. This meant I wouldn’t have to move around as many heddles to have enough on each shaft. I liked the idea of alternating rags with my warp yarn in the weft, so I decided to use floating selvages to manage any weirdness that came from alternating yarns.

Last, I wanted to play with color on this project. I watched the Handpainted Warps class from the School of SweetGeorgia recently and I was eager to try some of the techniques I’d learned. I decided to use pink and green as my main colors, with some warm yellow sections to blend and unify them. I decided to divide my warp into three sections and rotate the middle one 180 degrees to get a sort of ombre stripe thing going on.

Winding the Warp

To wind my warp, I used the warping peg set that slots into the back of my Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom. This was going to be a short warp, so it provided more than enough space.

Winding the warp was a pretty uneventful process. The yarn itself wasn’t very stretchy, so keeping an even tension was pretty easy. Each warp chain needed 85 ends, so I kept track using a counting thread in increments of five.

The way I tied the warp was a little different from how I usually do it. I put tight choke ties on at the top and bottom of the warp, since those areas would end up as loom waist. But for the cross and the other ties, I needed to keep things much looser so that the ties didn’t cause unwanted resists. I did simple ties around the cross (don’t do this the way I did, they will fall off, actually go through the cross) and figure-eight ties in the areas I usually would have put additional choke ties.

Once each warp chain was completed, I took it off the warping board in a chain. I tired to keep the chains at roughly the same tension/density because I was planning on dyeing them in the chain shape. The goal was to have a little bit of resist and variation by keeping the warps chained (rather than laying them out flat).

A cat standing in the center of a warping board looking guilty.
Figaro being helpful
A warping board with a thread tracing a path approximately 50 inches long.
The path of my very short warp.
A warping board with a 50 inch long warp with 85 strands tied loosely at the cross and with figure 8 ties on long stretches.
One of my warp chains tied off.
A closeup of a section of a warp on a warping board with a thread woven every 5 passes to help count the warp threads on the board.
The warp with a counting thread to help me keep track of how many threads I’ve wound.

Dyeing the Warp

Since I used linen yarn for my warps, I needed fiber reactive dyes for dying them. I’ve worked with fiber reactive dyes before, but only on fabric and only in the dye lab at my day job. So, the first thing I needed was to gather my supplies and tools.

Dyeing Supplies

For dye, I ordered Procion Fiber Reactive Dyes from Dharma Trading in three colors: 3 Golden Yellow, 12 Light Red, and 26 Sky Blue. Since I’m just starting my home dye stash, I wanted to get three dyes made from pure colors (as opposed to mixed) so that I’d be able to use them in other projects later. Golden yellow is one of my favorite yellow dyes to use, as it has a slight orange tint and isn’t too bright. I was aiming for pink, but I wanted it to be a bit on the warmer side, so I chose the light red over the 13 Fuchsia. While fuchsia is the more true primary, it skews a bit more blue than I wanted for this project. Last, I chose the Sky blue because I wanted a blue that wouldn’t bully the other colors too much. Blue tends to overpower other dyes, and I was hoping that this one would be a little less dominant.

I also ordered some soda ash and a small digital scale from Dharma, along with a few things for other projects I’ve got planned.

The rest of the supplies I got off Amazon. While many of these items were already in my kitchen, I needed a separate set for dyeing to avoid contamination. These included:

  • Large shallow plastic boxes with lids – to hold the yarn while dyeing and keep it from drying out while batching.
  • Squeeze Bottles (4oz) – for mixing and applying the dye.
  • Measuring spoons – for measuring out soda ash and spooning out dye.
  • Two cup liquid measuring cup – for mixing up the soda ash solution and to make it easier to pour water into the squeeze bottles.
  • KF94 mask – I keep a stash of these around for health reasons, but they also work for dyeing.
  • Gloves – I had a pair of dish gloves on hand already for this project, but these long red type are my favorite to use at work.
A plastic box with three white linen warp chains, a 2 cup measuring cup, a pink KF94 mask, a 1 table spoon measuring spoon, and a package of soda ash.
Everything I used (except my gloves) to soda soak my warp chains.
Three containers of fiber reactive dye, three four-ounce squeeze bottles, and two sets of measuring spoons, one with very small sizes.
The dyes, squeeze bottles and measuring spoons for mixing up the dye.

Dyeing Process

I started by soaking my warp chains for about 20 minutes in a solution of 2 cups water and 1.5 tablespoons soda ash. I wanted the color to start sticking as soon as it hit the yarn, so pre-soaking was the best way to go.

While that was soaking, I mixed up my dyes. I was using educated guesses here for the most part. I’ve only worked with fiber reactive dyes on fabric before this and the way I was taught to calculate dye was based on “one yard of standard weight cotton.”

After looking through my books, I found a little table in The Surface Designer’s Handbook that suggested 0-1% WOF for pale colors. I wanted to end up with a sort of bold pastel after weaving with a white warp, so I went with 1%, or 1.5 grams of dye.

When I went to measure out the dye, however, I realized that scale isn’t accurate enough for the small quantities of dye I tend to use. It only measure to a tenth of a gram, which means at quantities of less than 1 gram it isn’t super accurate. I use one like this at my day job (I also have another at home, but it’s for weighing out tea) and I’ll likely order one for the next time I’m dyeing something. So, the actual amount of dye I ended up using is unknown.

With the yellow dye, I attempted to create speckles by supersaturating the water with salt before mixing the dye in. I’ve had great results with this in the past, but it didn’t work well this time. I think I needed more salt.

Once the dye was mixed and the warp chains were ready, I drained the excess soda ash solution (there wasn’t much) and gently wrung out the warp chains. I placed one with the cross pointed to the top of the box and the other two with the cross pointed down.

Then I started applying the dye using the squeeze bottles. I tried to keep the green and pink portions from overlapping too much, using the yellow to unify them and provide a bit of a transition. Once I was out of dye, I put the lid on my container and left it to batch over night.

Three warp chains sitting in a plastic container.
Warps after soda soaking.
Three squeeze bottles with dye in green, pink, and a yellow orange next to a plastic container with warp chains.
Dyes mixed and ready to go.
Three warp chains soaked in dye. The top half of each is pink and the bottom half is green. Excess dye pools at the bottom of the plastic tray they're sitting on.
Warp chains sitting in dye, ready to be batched overnight.

Rinsing the Dyed Yarn

It took more than a few rinses to get the dye out the next morning. Since I’ll be using this cloth as a surface for making tea, I wanted to be sure it wouldn’t bleed when wet, so I didn’t want to do this step halfway. I first used cold water until it was mostly clear, then warm water with a bit of Dharma’s Dyer’s Detergent, then a few more rinses and some time soaking in warm water again until there was no sign of dye, even after soaking for 10 minutes.

Next time, to avoid having so much unbounded dye, I would definitely leave it to batch longer, more like a full 24 hours instead of about 16. I’d also use less dye, especially as things turned out a little darker than I intended. And I think I’d cut the amount of water in half, so there was less loose dye floating around. I might also check the pH of my soda ash solution to make sure it’s at about 10.5 before soaking too.

But overall, I was very happy with how my warp turned out. Honestly, waiting for my rinsed warp to dry was torture because I wanted to get weaving right away!

Three warp chains dyed pink and green, still damp.
The warp chains after rinsing.
Three bundles of yarn dyed pink and green laying on a drying rack.
Warp chains on the drying rack.

Cutting the Weft

While the warp was dyeing, I got started on the weft. However, the old sheets I wanted to use for the weft were more of a challenge to tear than I anticipated. While the linen was very thin, to the point of developing holes in some places, it also was still surprisingly strong. The original plan was to tear 1/2″ wide strips, but the strips kept breaking because the fabric lacked enough structural integrity.

So, I switched to cutting the weft using a rotary cutter. I cut most the way through the fabric, then went back and finished the strips using my shears. This allowed me to create continuous strips quickly. They weren’t perfectly on grain, like torn strips would be, but this seemed a common enough practice, based on my research, so I decided to go with it.

I wasn’t entirely sure how much weft I needed, so I did a little back of the envelop math. Based on the width of the strips, I guessed that I’d get no more than six PPI (picks or weft threads per-inch). So, I cut enough strips to get me about 250ft of rags. This seems like a lot, but because I was working with wide sheets, it only ended up being about 30 strips.

A piece of white linen fabric sits on a black self-healing cutting mat. The fabric has been cut into strips 95% of the way with a rotary cutter. A ruler is lined up for the next cut.
This really was too small of a cutting set up, but you work with what you have!
Three balls of thinly cut strips of white linen fabric sit on a desk.
I gently wound the warp rag strips into balls to keep them from getting tangled.

Warping the Loom

Warping the loom was uneventful, but took forever. As I mentioned above, I used a straight draw warping pattern at 16 EPI. I currently only have a ten dent reed, so I threaded it in a 1-2-1-2-2 pattern. This got me eight threads for every five dents, or 16 dents per inch. There were a few minor variations on this around the edges (and in one spot where I made a mistake), but overall this warping pattern worked.

Warping the loom took me the better part of a day, but I managed to only cross two threads (nothing short of a miracle).

A table loom sits on a desk with two warps tied to the front beam.
About 1/3 done putting everything through the reed.
A table loom sits on a desk with two warps tied to the front beam as seen from the top.
About 1/3 done putting everything through the reed (top view)
A hand holds the cross of a warp dyed pink while a table loom, partially warped, sits on the desk behind it.
Keeping hold of the cross is soooo important.
A table loom, fully warped, sits on a desk. The warp has three sections, two are mostly green, and the one in the center is primarily pink,
Warped and ready to go!
A table loom seen from the back with a green, pink, and yellow hand dyed warp.
The middle of the warp has some of the prettiest sections!

Weaving

I started out weaving with a few rows of the same linen yarn I used for the warp. I wanted to create a more stable edge and I figured it would be easier to do a a hemstitch before I started adding in the chunkier linen rags. I nearly always hemstitch my projects, even if I think I’ll knot the fringe when I’m done. It just gives me more options.

Once I had the first hemstitch in place weaving was very fast. I think I spent about 4 hours total weaving, and I wasn’t pushing myself very hard to go fast, just enjoying the process. I found that I got very little draw in while weaving this project. I didn’t have to use a very steep angle with either of my yarns, which was nice. I think the strong, tight warp helped a lot to keep things from pulling in.

I didn’t keep track of how long the piece was. I just wove until I’d advanced my warp as far as it would go and I found it impossible to get a clean shed. Then, as with the beginning, I ended with a few rows of linen yarn and a hemstitch.

A table loom with a pink and green warp. The header had been woven and about 4" of additional weaving has been completed.
I started weaving right away, even though I’d lost the light.
A table loom with a pink and green warp. The woven portion has begun to wrap around the front beam.
Making quick progress the next morning.
Two stick shuttles, one with rag yarn and one with linen yarn sit next to a table loom.
Managing my two shuttles was key to making good progress.
A pick of rag yarn is shown before beating. There's a small excess tab where the direction of the rag changes.
To keep the rag yarn in one long piece, I sometimes had little turn around points like this…
A closeup of the rag yarn in the warp after beating. It is difficult to find where the excess tag in the rag yarn was before beating.
…after beating, they weren’t noticeable at all!

Finishing

Once the piece was off the loom, I finished it by giving it a good steaming. I could have wet finished it, but I didn’t want to wait for it to dry before trying it out!

I also trimmed the fringe. Originally, I was planning on tying it in knots, but I found I didn’t like the way that looked and I didn’t want the bulk. The piece had ended up a little long (nearly 32″), so I cut the fringe way down, to about 1″.

An almost finished runner on a loom with a closeup of a needle finishing the edge with hem stitching.
Hemstitching in progress.
A hand held steamer steaming a green and pink hand woven runner.
Steaming the finished runner.
A closeup of the finished runner with the fringe cut down to about 1".
The fringe after cutting.
A pink and green runner with long fringe on a desk. A pink measuring tape sits on top of the runner, showing a length of just over 31"
The runner was a little long, so I cut the fringe on the shorter side so it would fit nicely on the desk.

Using the Finished Runner with Sakura Co.

When I was finished weaving, I of course needed to try out my new runner! And it was about 3:30 in the afternoon, which in my house is known as “snack o’clock.”

A pink and green hand woven runner sits on a green desk next to a large window. The window has several green plants on the ledge and a snowy roof, trees, and blue sky can be seen outside the window.
The runner on my desk.
A green and pink runner sits on a desk while a calico cat sits nearby and stares into the camera.
Clara investigating the finished runner.

Luckily Sakura Co. had sent me a free Valentine’s Day themed box of Japanese sweets and tea (note, I normally say no to requests to review and promote items that are outside the scope of this blog, but they contacted me just as I was planning this post and the timing was too perfect!).

So, I made myself a cup of Caramel Hojicha tea and sat down to decide what to eat. I ended up choosing a few of the smaller options so that I could try a few things. I liked the orange chocolate cookies and the strawberry chocolate crunch. But I loved the Tanba Kuromame Arare black bean and rice cracker. My favorite was the crunchy strawberry coated peanuts!

An assortment of treats sits on a small green plate in front of a cup of tea shaped like an upside down cat.
The various treats I tried from Sakuraco .
An assortment of treats sits on a small green plate in front of a cup of tea shaped like an upside down cat and box from Sakuraco.
Thanks Sakuraco for helping me break in my new tea time sakiori inspired table runner!
An assortment of Japanese treats sits in and around a pink box on the handwoven runner. A calico cat can be seen in the lower left corner investigating the treats.

Have you tired rag weaving or dyeing your own warp? Let me know in the comments below or over on Bluesky!

2 Comments

  1. Such a thorough, logical progression of your process. You are a great teacher! And I love your project.

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