apa's felt carpets from Almaluu, and a loom for yours
A floor shyrdak (2 by 3 metres) takes apa about a month, with help for the rolling. In the village the women's felt group works together in the autumn; in the winter everyone sews at home. Here's the way, in six felt pictures.
In autumn, when the flocks come down, the wool is washed in the aryk and dried on the roof, then beaten with two sticks until it's fluffy and the burrs fall out. Apa's arms are like a blacksmith's from this. Now you can also buy it washed and carded, but apa says bought wool "doesn't know you".
The wool is spread on a chiy mat (steppe grass, tied with wool) in thin layers, one along, one across, until it's as thick as your hand. For an ala kiyiz you lay the coloured pattern on top at this point.
Hot water over everything, then the mat is rolled up like a big kurut roll, tied, and rolled. And rolled. With feet, with arms, by four or five women together, for hours, singing or gossiping (apa: "gossip works better"). The wool locks into felt.
The felts for a shyrdak are dyed: a big kazan on the fire behind the house, the dye from the bazaar in Talas, the felt boiled, rinsed in the aryk. The aryk goes red for an hour downstream. The neighbours know what we're doing.
Two felts of the same size, one on the other. Apa draws the pattern on the top one with a bit of soap, freehand, no ruler. Then she cuts through both at once with the big scissors. Swap the pieces: the red horns go into the blue field, the blue into the red. Two carpets.
Every seam is sewn over with a twisted cord in a third colour, with small stitches, by hand. This is the long part: weeks. Then a backing felt is quilted on. My stitches are 4 mm, apa's are 2. She checks.
Shrinkage when felting: about a third (apa: "it shrinks as much as it wants"). Wool for 1 m² of thick felt: 3-4 kg. Cord: two strands twisted, about 4 times the length of all the seams. My college teacher wants me to write my diploma about the cord. Apa says, "write about me".
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