Bin Knittin

 http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bobbyla/paper-dolls-2

 

This will be another Kate Davies's Paper Dolls

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bobbyla/10-houndstooth-tank

I'm using Fuzzy Wuzzy from my childhood.

Actually, there is another project. Naughty I know but there it is.

Garden Update

 

Ross's pot

Before and now (below), with the planting

 

Home made posts with debris from garden

You can't say he's not clever. I help but that's about it.

"Blossom" Free Rug Hooking Pattern

Yes, you heard right, it's a Free Pattern Offer from Me to You.

My first packaged Rug Hooking pattern.

 

I'm going to cover a footstool for my grand-daughter for Christmas (if I can find a footstool that is). So, to that end, have started working aroung the whole of it. I dyed a similar colour to the hessian for the background, and will add some green stripes. I think.

 

The cloth is just old blankets and dressing-gown, dyed and cut into strips.

If you want a free pattern, just email me (r.m.square@bigpond.com)and I'll send the PDF. Or you can buy it for a dollar on Etsy. Take your pick!

 

The pattern comes to you in A4, but (the instructions will tell you) you enlarge it to A3 or bigger if you want it bigger. I'm very thorough in my instructions (there's a name for that, like obsessive but not as nice), so even newby's would be ok.

 

I really really like rug hooking. It's my master plan to carpet the entire house with massive rugs that I've made, using my stash. I'm trying not to buy stuff. So far, I've walked our on a great woollen blanket from the Op Shop, because I already have loads.

Great Weekend At Caulfield

We had an amazing extended weekend at Caulfield. It was the first time Rug Making was represented in the Guild area of the Stitches & Craft Show in Melbourne. Interest was constant, with our girls demonstrating for most of the day, every day.
Many, many people were surprised to see the rugs, especially Anne's Proggy rugs. "Oh I remember these!" was heard often. A nice memory.
Lots of folk remembered the day when they all sat around cutting or prodding or collecting rags for the rugs. 'Clippy' or 'Peggy' or 'Proddy' rugs, depending on where they were from. One gentleman said his mother covered the whole house's floors. One alone covering the entire lounge floor! He and his siblings had to cut the strips as well as muck in. Even the father's were involved.
Perhaps we'll find that some of the interested ladies will come and join our little group.
It was obvious that a spark was lit in people's imaginations and we want to take over the world with rug enthusiasts.
Demonstrating Proddy Rug all day over the weekend, on Hessian, I discovered how easy it was myself! I'd been using Latch-hook Canvas (an Op Shop find) and now I'll never use it again. Hessian is so much easier. No wonder I thought Proddy's a bit difficult. The Hessian is pliant and user friendly and I can't wait to get to it!
We had loads of fun and I fell exhausted into bed last night, happy that today is a day off.
Photo's to follow....

I'll Be At Stitches & Craft Sat and Sun Oct 26/27

The Victorian Rug Group, as representatives of the Australian Rug Crafters Guild, will be at the: Stitches & Craft Show, Melbourne, October 24 - October 27, 2013, Caulfield Racecourse, Station St, Caulfield East. This is the first time Rug Hooking will be displayed and demonstrated at this annual craft fair! Judging by the reception in the show at Perth, Western Australia, we expect to be run off our feet. Our group is very excited and hope to inspire as many people as can be to take up this interesting and enjoyable craft. There will be lots to look at and you might like to have a go yourself. Ask questions, share stories or just come to see what we're banging on about the whole time! Come up and say Hi! We're situated on the top level, up near the coffee.

Good Morning Bird Man

This is my One True's influence on the world. They sing for their breakfast and he knows them well.

Bound Edges Complete The Task

I used my excess fabric to cut strips and bind the edges of the rug. I love it. It's a tiny weenie bit tedious but fits right in with the colour and texture. I tucked the ends under the top at the start, then the back for the finish of each worm.

It's Over. I did it.

At last! Bound edges, on the floor, underfoot, in situ, all done. The binding may be a little full and therefore ever so not flat, but it seems to be settling. I'll photograph the edge in the daylight.

I am happy with it. It reminds me of Grandma's carpet, although it's nothing like it. Just like the carpet left over from the 50's or even 40's. Nice. Grandmaesque, like me.

The shape's a bit weird though. Maybe good for in front of a hearth (during summer), but it's way too small for my original thought of in front of the couch. Never mind. I have it on my side of the bed.

At least the One True likes it now. He loves the effects you get with hooking. Mosaic like.  If only I could drag him away from his watercolours to design his rug. Lazy.

Just to add... I bound the edges with more of the same strips. Fold the hem over twice as if you were hemming, but to the front, then round and round and round. Tucking the start and finish in under the previous wraps. The start, under the front or top and the ends into the back bit. Long and tedious but lovlier than I'd thought previously.

So, onto the next now!

Finished!

Excepting for the edges, and I'm not sure how I want to do them yet...

It's quite large really. I may have mentioned but I'm not sure if I did so... it's 164 x 63cm (65 x 25").

I'm just running two rows around the whole of it now, halfway done.

You can see, in this picture, the variety of greys used in the background. I like to use checked blankets in dyeing, so you'll get shades and changes in the hue.

My hubby (darling honey bunch) doesn't like the rug. He says it's Daggy, which, in case that's just an Australian term, means, hmm... old fashioned, but not necessarily in a good way... er... like an old cardigan that's not 'off' enough to be groovy but like your old aunt would wear. Here's a quote from some Urban Dictionary site:

Australian origin (there you go).
adj. not stylish, out of fashion, not trendy, not cool, untidy, unclean, not neat.
v. to have no style.

He means well, the husband. And he's not daggy. But I like it. We agree to disagree.

I can hear a chorus of outraged support, but remember this when you defend me with loving kindness, I have the good fortune to be with someone who cares what colour the doona cover is and who's favourite item has been my Wrapping Cloth curtains. The thing he'd grab if there was a fire.

But, his argument was/is that there is no contrast and therefore the images of the blue flowers and the swathes of leaves just is muddy. The B+W picture illustrates his point.

However, my point was to be subtle. And there it is!

 

Where Is Uzbekistan Anyway?

And do I deserve to use it's good name for my conglomerate blotch of a rug?
This colour scheme alternatively delights and disturbs me. Sometimes it looks great. Unusual, dynamic, brave. Then in a different light it just looks weird.

Uzbeki Revamp

What can I say? It's completely changed and I've learnt heaps about planning. Now I'm having it at my bedside as it looks too small for the position I'd originally made it for. Even though it's quite large really, 150 x 60cm (59 x 24"). I do love it more with the blue, it feels French. The bedroom will suit the colours too and so it's not a demotion, but will be a gorgeous, colourful, luscious treat for me every night when I go to bed.
Now I need to dye some more cloth, just to finish the background and the foliage.
The One True doesn't really like it! But I do so I'm sure he'll come around. There is something about it that I'm not sure about, but I can't put my finger on it.

Kraftwerk - The Robots 1977

The Original & The Best

The One True's Preliminary Sketch For His Rug

All worked out with the Golden Mean, of course (ha ha ha). The Aussie crest, and the Eureka Flag.
My great-great-great John Smith was at Eureka.

We'll stick a bit of wattle in the middle somewhere.

'Here's the mighty wattle

The emblem of our land

You can stick it in a bottle

Or hold it in your hand.' (Barry Humphries)

Notice where he plonked Tassie.
I will do it Magdelena Briner Eby style, unless he has other plans for me, which is very possible. I thought this would be good to have on the go, for when I don't want to be too fussy. Country job... although that's an in joke around here because we always end up being fussy.

Gumby's Darrin Beanie

Aw, just the same colour as his eyes. Look here for the pattern.
 

The Daily Show: John Oliver Investigates Gun Control in Australia - Part 1

Grrr!!!

Lucky the husband is being nice. Although if he says one more time that I ought to have done a few preliminary drawings, I may have to frighten HIM. Boys always have a solution that would be helpful IF I WAS ASKING FOR ONE!
With all of my vast experience in colour and tone, and with years of teaching how to find your pleasing group of colours and SO ON... EVERY time I delve into a new medium I don't immediately take the knowledge with me.
So, rather than build a pile of colours that look lovely together at the outset, I have followed wrong thinking and ended up with a big pile of... Mud!
I love each and every colour. The tans are just completely gorgeous, and so I enjoy every stitch/hook. I'm immersed in the beauty of the textile and the joy of fibre. Likewise the greens. Yeeuum!
I could go on.
So, note from every class I have taught in 18 years: Begin with the colours (fabrics) you simply MUST use. Then add others to the pile that make these colours look happy. You might want to have a limited palette... or not, but in everything, these colours must be happy together.

I have just removed the whole of the foliage. I haven't liked it ever but didn't listen.
Starting again. At least the background (a must have) and the flowers are almost completed.

Just About To Remove The Greens

Well, I may have intended the greens to become a bit obscure and 'hinted at', but it just looks too muddy. So, I'm taking almost all of the green out and redoing it in a stronger shade.

Then, who knows, maybe the tan will look wrong? I think I like the tan.

Definitely obscure, but there... my initials.

It's worth the bother to undo. If this is going to be around forever, then I'll be annoyed forever and I'll cringe when my great-great-grand-daughter's admire my work. Best to fix it now. After all, no-one s making me do this and what's the hurry?

Cucurucucu Paloma

They say that at nights
He simply went through by just crying
They say that he wasn’t eating
It simply didn’t suit him just taking (some food)
They swear that the sky itself
Was vibrating by listening his weeping
How he was suffering for her,
And even when he was dying he was calling at her:
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay he was singing
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay he was wailing
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay he was singing
He was dying from mortal passion.
That a sad dove
Very early in the morning will sing
At the lonely house
Whose small doors are widely open
They swear that this dove
Is no other (thing) than his soul,
That is still waiting
For the unhappy (woman) to return.
Cucurrucucú dove, cucurrucucú don’t cry.
The stones never, dove,
What will they now of loves?
Cucurrucucú, cucurrucucú,
Cucurrucucú, cucurrucucú,
Cucurrucucú, dove, don’t cry anymore

Uzbekistan Rug On The Move

The Uzbekistan source has become quite obscured with my colour choices. I can see that the central leafy motif is well asymmetrical, but as the foliage continues all the way around, it should be ok. I have an avoidance issue with symmetry.

As the background goes in around the foliage, it blends into it and become more of a hue than a distinct leaf. Which is what I want.

I'm so in love with the blue of the blobs. Peas? Just scrumptious. Dyeing is fun!

   

Not sure if I'll leave the darker outside bit. We'll see. There are a few different shades for the outside. I don't want it to be static. Oh, and I didn't dye enough of anything.

CLAUDIO VILLA - Stornelli amorosi

Can't Wait To Work On This Every Day

I've since taken out the greens and am dyeing more (and more) fabric to try and find the right shade.

The floral motifs look like islands here, but are blending in as the background is filled in. I don't have enough of any one shade for the background... Note to self: Take notes! I think I've cracked it now...? Today's batch, that is. I had some gorgeous grass green tones, but have knocked them back a bit with the 'Quarry', which is the slate-ish colour all of the background colours have in varying degrees.

It's difficult to get the right shade in my photo's, but it's a warm, cheerful, greeny, bluey grey. Egg-shell-esque. I've started to blend the next background colour in, by working higgledy-piggledy rows of the first, and coming in with the second so as to avoid a stark break between (as I'd done elsewhere and had to pull it out). Der! I've left the green in so far, but it won't stay there. It's such a pretty shade, but had too little contrast to the slate. 

Just About Got My Kits Ready

Kits will include your design hand-drawn onto limited edition vintage Japanese and other gorgeous pure silk and (wait for it) instructions!
I have a pet hate about instructions that you can't understand, so mine are clear, with diagrams and friendly advice! Plus, options to contact me and ask questions.
This example shows my current format for finishing things and isn't in the pattern, but... if you like it... and want to know...

Uzbekistan Rug

The orange was too much as a solid row, so, using an idea Joy showed me for making circles and fitting concentric rows into each other, I thought I could do two spaced rows. The next row, below, is worked quite close to the first. When you add the third row, it pushes the first two together nicely. I've since done more, and the orange is more 'hinted at' than dominant. Happy La! Just the ticket.

 Below is my leather Gripper Strip guard. A friend's Mum gave me a roll of soft hide and I couldn't pass it up, but didn't know what to do with it. Some nasty abrasions from rampant hooking soon gave me the idea! We now all have one in our little group. Great to use it up. It's not a colour I'd put in the house and I couldn't be bothered making a jacket... Hmmm... Nah, too bust with the rugs and the knitting and the paper-cuts and the garden and the family.