Met some wonderful people at a nursing home in Taunton today. I showed them my rugs and in return, two women showed me items they had made: exquisitely hand-hemmed floor length curtains and a Readicut type cushion cover, depicting a tabby cat and its kitten.
As I pulled some hessian sacking out of my bag to show them the base fabric that I use for my rugs, I had a spine tingling moment when a woman told me that she used to be a jute weaver in Scotland. She had been in charge of six looms. They were good looms, she told me, because they were automatic, so would stop if a thread broke. She also knew the rugs by their delightful Scottish name; "Clootie rugs". "Clootie" meaning clothing, or cloth, as in "Ne-er cast a clout till May be out".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/taysideandcentralscotland/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8390000/8390747.stm
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