My Irish Initial

I have been obsessed with Medieval art since I knew there was such a thing. It may be the gold halos, it may be the slightly off-kilter proportions of the people, but it has always attracted me. It is funny, that my name, Kelleher, is so similar to Kells, as in the Book of Kells. Well, interestingly, the letter K is not native to Ireland. My name is an Anglicized version of the Celtic (pronounced Kell-tic) Ó Céileachair. And, no, there is not an apostrophe, but an acute accent. It means descendent of Céileachair. A céilí is a social gathering, but Céileachair means lover of a social gathering. So, somewhere in my ancestry, someone loved a party.

Now, technically, the Book of Kells is not Medieval, but Dark Ages, but I feel the imagery is in the same vein. It is also a misnomer, especially in Ireland, to call it the Dark Ages, because, once the Visigoths conquered the Roman Empire, neither one touched this distant western corner of Europe, and the arts flourished in Ireland during this time. It is ironic that an illuminated manuscript came from the Dark Ages, innit? I saw this when in Dublin, and even though I was only allowed to view one page, like all visitors, it was so detailed that I could have stared at it forever. Since I first laid eyes on it, in 1988 and again in 1995, Trinity College in Dublin has since scanned the pages. Many of the pages feature intricate Celtic designs incorporating knotwork and animals, and even images of the big names of the Bible, which is what the Book of Kells is. I wanted to find my initials, but sadly, there was no such thing as the letter K in circa 800 Ireland. So, my first initial will have to suffice, and, boy, does it! Just look at it:

So, what you are looking at is the first word, in Latin, of the Book of Matthew, "Liber". The L is curved, I cut off the bottom of the letter I, a large "B", and within the B, the ER (the image is large, so click on it to see all five letters). The first book of Matthew is "The Book of Generations", or "Liber generationis". Funnily enough, when I was younger, I sat down to read the New Testament, and read page after page of this first book. I gave up who knows how many generations into it and never returned to it. I expected more. I am not religious, but I do consider myself Christian, as in, aiming to be like Christ. But, c'mon, Matthew! Try to hook your audience, man.

But enough about the story; the beauty and intricacies of this single word is just breath-taking. Scholars say that Matthew was depicted with wings, and you can see that the faceless person in the left-most side clearly has beautiful gold tipped wings. Another two blokes here are both clutching books, which were cherished. Most of the animals look like snakes, but didn't St. Patrick both bring Christianity to Ireland AND drive out the snakes? But, they're perhaps not snakes. Are these dogs, specifically hounds or Great Danes? At first glance, I thought frogs, but frogs don't have tails, and these creatures do.

 

And this. I still say they're snakes, but the creatures end with either bird claws or fish tails for the purple bodies, or with a sort of lion's tail in the case of the yellow animals. No matter what they are, they are mesmerizing:

A close up of the ends of the tails:

Absolutely certain this
is a lion's tail

Fish tail?

But, wait, these are lions! Argh!

This is one page, one WORD for goodness sake, of a masterpiece. Somehow, they turned the dry genealogy of Jesus into an absolute, gobsmacking chef d'oeuvre, those unknown Irish monks did. Also, these monk-authors had a sense of fantasy and humor. Maybe these are snakes, but they've given them different animals' tails. It is a work of whimsy. I'm not certain Irish monks circa 800 had ever seen a lion, so there is definitely artistic license being taken. I challenge you to find your initial in this treasure and do your own deep dive into it. Or, pick an animal, and search it within the Book of Kells. No matter where you end up, you will be the richer for it.

Another drawing of Matthew, this time
with a dead eye

Since the drawing to the left is showing the man
with the wrong hand holding the book, apparently
to avoid the same mistake, deformed hand hidden
on right

No discussion of the Book of Kells without
a mention of a man who is playing his
harp snake with his two left hands

Another sensational L! What will you find?

Partial Unveiling Fish Chandelier

Well, it's missing a bulb and I still need to string 4 1/2 fish strands, but it looks good. Because it has 6 bulbs, it is not casting fish shadows, alas. 

It's custom and bespoke and delicate. No two fish are the same, and there are non-fish surprises such as a wave bead that ties the color scheme together and a glass bubble. There is a massive deep green fish. They all sparkle with Aurora Borealis (it's a bead thing). I wanted to make a blue whale gathering up the fish into a readily edible mass like I witnessed in Juneau, but never did. I don't have the right colors any longer and I like it without predators. 

I put the longer strands in the middle, the medium ones in between and the shorter ones along the outside for a graduated appearance that mimics the bulb stems. I want to learn how to make a circle with beads to create one octopus, but so far all I managed is one transparent star fish. This is the perfect task to beat the heat and humidity. A bit more fish making and I'll need another project. Alas, all of our ceilings are covered and I need to move onto another medium but light fixtures are my favorite. Oh, and after I finish with the fish, I need to strand my plastic flowers because this chandelier is CONVERTIBLE! The flowers should cover the space better than the fish because they are larger. 

Half Complete Fish Shoal and Dining Room Disaster

My fish shoal is 1/3 complete. I made 16 strands of four, out of a total of 42. This creates low fullness on the 6 inch diameter ring I am staging the fish strands on. I am doing this diligently to avoid hanging the chandelier. I have cleaned it. I have the bulbs. I need to ask for help, and I have no problem asking. The problem is no one wants to lend a hand. 

Sixteen strands of 4 fish. Looks sparse
and still tangles.

It's okay. I have been known to weed my friends' driveways and sweep up confetti and other thankless jobs because later, my friends would hold the ladder as I get another plastic bag out of my tree or loosen that screw I can't budge. Whatever. I'll do it alone. It is cemented to the ceiling. Fine. I am trying to remove it and I want to cry, and this will make it that much more glorious when I finally achieve it, I must say so to myself to keep from doing myself in. 

It still tangles. The fish are disappointingly tiny. They hardly sparkle. Many fish are non-symmetrical and will always seem to be swimming in circles. I am not in a great mood.

The old fixture is down - cue religious music. It required the use of a spatula. The new chandelier is HEAVY and I need help putting it up. There it is. That is why it stayed on my floor and became covered in dust. The dream of a new chandelier. I have not been getting what I want lately. I think it's part of the aging process. People flock to you when you're young and beautiful. Become a bit janky around the edges and suddenly, you lose all appeal. It is men and their frustrating lack of ability to see women as people. They did it then and they're doing it now. What can I do but persevere?

I am past the halfway point: 25 strands out of 42 total. They're so small. I liked the overlap that the inspiration fixture had and the basis in art also had. Here they are for reference:

In comparison, my fish are sparse and overfished to the point of colony collapse. I still have the flowers to fall back on. Oh, maybe the layering of the fixture will give the illusion of fullness. I am noticing how narrow the inspiration fixture is compared to mine and the fish in the inspo are about a third of the width. My fish are minnows and not worth catching!

Fish Work - Going For It

A good view of my lighting design. 
There should be 48 fish here, but 
the bubble takes spot #48

I will have a convertible chandelier. It will feature plastic flowers some days and beaded fish others. I am putting off more urgent matters and it doesn't matter. I am making my own world and I only have myself to consult with. 

What a nightmare! Making the fish is easy and fun. Hanging these MFs is a whole 'nother thing. Keeping them from becoming a tangled disaster is proving almost impossible. So here is why we seldom see such things as dangling chandeliers. I've made some 50 of them and strung them onto jump rings and dangled them and they're all in a rat's nest right now. Frustrating.

I know that I write this to no one. No one listens anymore. I pay my therapist to listen and I can see the reflection off her glasses as she surfs the web during our sessions. Tootie Pie, forget it. People's attention spans can shrink all they want, as long as they can greet me in the store and make eye contact at the register. I guess that is too much to ask.

All this talk and no where to direct it. Back to the fish!

I found a cord by Kreinik which is metallic, meaning it holds its shape better than string, but isn't as easily caught like the wire. Fiddling with the fishing line was way tedious. The cord is the solution and it's iridescent! So it's back to making the fish, which is soothing and I'm becoming an expert. The key is to keep the loops from forming kinks, so keep your wire in a U-loop and not a loop-dee-loop. The cord is #12 in Crystalline. I am looking for my blue ball beads to look like bubbles. I think it will be adorable if I ever put up the new fixture and finish the other 200 fish to hang.

Still stringing the next group of 4 
strings of 4 fish, so only 32 pictured
here. I need to not add the strands
as I go because BALANCE

Obviously the fuller version looks better, but the fishes' tails are catching even this sparsely populated. It kind of makes you appreciate how they either don't collide IRL or they are so slimy they simply slide off each other. 

Chandelier/Mobile Creative Direction

Fishy

I suppose I could have a convertible chandelier: that's the beauty of the hook idea! It's about time I put up the kitchen chandelier and I can develop the mobile portion later. I may have found two great creative directions. I don't want to make hundreds of tiny beaded fish only to discover that it doesn't quite look right. So a quick mock-up was in order and I think it may work. The chandelier is just over 20 inches in diameter, and the fishy is 1 inch. There are 6, 14 and 22 concentric sets of rings, or 42 strands. If each ring has 4 fish, that would be 168 fish, and if it has 6 fish, that would be 252 fish. That is doable.

Fishy x252 (but here only 52 of them)

Here is a mock-up of just the outer most row half completed. It already looks like it will appear full. We don't want a constant reminder of overfishing over our kitchen table! This project is on tap for tomorrow. I am putting off the switch because I'm not 100% sure that the electrical box will hold this heavy fixture. But, I know that the six arms will put out much more light than the current 120V inside a plastic coated fabric shade. 

So I must talk myself off the edge, but beads are so sparkly! And by now I've made 6 whole fish. They're mostly blue. I could justify this by saying that I am using up the beads that I have on hand, but ain't no way I have 252 fish worth of beads, who am I kidding? And I have bubble beads, but maybe only 5 or 6. Fun!

Ran out of black flower sequins so 
resorted to some sort of flanged deal
for one fish.

I kind of like the look of the ridged white crystal on the one and only green fish. To supplement my used up supply of eye sequins, I have a bunch of clear ones on order. And I have one more tube of light blue beads before I can justify purchasing more, but that day will come! I heard there are two separate hobbies: beading and collecting beads. They both sound doable!

And becoming a small
school

Now 14 fish start to
cluster

As I work on the fish and work through my bead stash, I am working out how they will be attached. I will most likely attach a jump ring and hang from clear fishing line. Only the hook will be in their backs, not their plump lips. Did you notice their luscious lips?

 

Bonus Marimekko Free-Form Rugs

A view of rectangular mate reflected in mirror

Beauties. I thought that hemming the contours of these rugs would be disastrous and I was pleasantly surprised. Because I tried to hem the rectangular base rug with yarn instead of thread, most of my problems with this simple job could have been avoided. Having switched to quilting thread makes things so much easier. Like with the rectangle, I couldn't manage to figure out the whip stitch so I just straight stitched both. That was another part of the problem with the larger rug.

So now the question is, do I do one more, in kelly? I think it's time to give the kitchen some love with the new chandelier and cushions (finally for the banquet).  

A rather unfortunate
worn spot on oak floors

Arial view reflected

Cutting Gets Easier for Boontje Garland and Sputnik Light Homed

I added a chicken. The 
Queen Anne's lace lost
a tiny floret, ah, we'll say
a bear ate it

My knockoff Garland light is veering further from the inspiration. I collected more milk jugs and then free handed the following cut-outs:

It is getting easier to make my own designs and I added a bird. Tord Boontje never ventured into the fauna. Ha! This is a project that could never end, but since I ended up with an extra ColorCord and have plenty of lighting hardware in the basement, I may start to sell them. They don't melt if you stay away from incandescent bulbs. 

And now we need a slate
grey or shamrock starburst
ceiling medallion to set 
off the crisp blossoms

I suppose my apprenticeship ends and my artistry begins. Although, it hardly looks bushier since I added the new stems, but there was a bare patch that they covered. I love this.

The cutting will continue at a greater pace since I discovered how to make cottage cheese. I am still trying to perfect my yogurt and had success once out of three attempts. The milk that doesn't turn into yogurt becomes cottage cheese and I get the jug afterwards. Pretty much perfect if I could manage to set yogurt consistently, but hopefully soon.

Too high now and cord
isn't hung correctly

Also love, my Sputnik. It is bright. I need to extend the wire again. For reference, it was shorten, lengthen, shorten, and now lengthen again. 

Wire correct length and cord
swagged. Now I need to
introduce more fuchsia
to this corner

Latch Hook a Custom Rug

Rugs these days are pretty cheap, and I use both meanings of cheap. I found a beautiful looped pile ocean themed rug in yuppie central's garbage night, but upon unrolling at home, it was pulled by cat claws and, well... more cat activity occurred sadly. If I'm being honest, though, an underwater theme is great for my hall, but maybe a bit too predictable for this Ocean Stater. I need something quirkier and less practical than sparkly corals. I needed custom.

Top, left most orange flower looks
like Chicken Little in profile

It all seemed so easy in the planning phases. As ever, there were fits and starts and do-overs. I believe that my yarn issues goes back to my original mock-up image which, in retrospect, had white space columns along both long edges. In the end, I have 5 Hobbii white skeins and one complete chartreuse left over after the yarn reordering. Since I knew my lengths were short for the kelly and chartreuse, it was inevitable that I'd be buying more yarn. Now I can use my loom with the leftovers. Yes, I have a loom, and it is Barbie sized and made of plastic. It came with the mechanized loom inventor's bust, who years ago adorned my 6th grade moon landing rocket ship and never found his way home to the Industrial Revolution. He hung out inside the Apollo behind the circular window that was somehow convex and gave the impression that he was more than just shoulders and head. Also, and this was appropriate for my population, he was brown. Not in actual life, but the bust is brown and he looks like a person of color instead of a pasty Englishman. He is hanging out with a plush foiled astronaut and, this was 6th grade we're talking about, Sponge Bob. Those were good days. I feel my academy owes its 3-year Spirit Week domination to my creations. My favorites were the cities of New Orleans and Dubrovnik. The moon landing was the culmination of the 60s and I loved my decade because A) I am from this decade and B) Sesame Street! I know there were many huge milestones in the 60s, but from my standpoint, ain't no bigger cultural sensation than the Muppets!

Even Tootie Pie is impressed! I hemmed it, painstakingly, and will wait to trim it until it needs its first refresh and I'm prepared for it to shed all over again. It is still white!

Post mortem: costs

• Original purchase of $151.85 on wool, backing, and hook
• Supplemental purchases of $80-something of extra wool ($27.21) in Hobbii Shamrock (3) and black (1), and $55 for 2 skeins of Sulfur and 3 skeins of gold fusion from Cascade.

    This ought to be lower, but I bought too much white by half and the incorrect sized hook. 

Post mortem: technique and tools

    If anything, the Hobbii yarn was more consistent in thickness and tied for knots with the more reputable Cascade. Learn from my mistakes and splurge on the more expensive canvas. The crummy one I bought from Dimensions had glue blobs, some squares broke, and the edges were an uneven nightmare. When hemming, you really only need 2 or 3 good border squares. Use actual thread instead of handy extra yarn! Oh, and if you have a large canvas, roll it to make the hooking easier. This will tear up the back of the hooked areas and also your couch, if you decide that it is the perfect hooking surface instead of the non-catching kitchen table. The canvas will definitely cut you. And, if you don't heed my warning and go with the Dimensions canvas, it will be simultaneously too stiff AND pliable, in a way that cannot be described. There are different sized hooks and chances are, you will pick up one for 3.5 gauge by accident.

Post mortem: accomplishment

    I already miss my latching project. The planned mini rugs will be a quick and fun hook, but the hemming should be a debacle. Enough faffing about! 

I do love it. I will have an outdoor photo shoot of the rug where I attempt to make it look twee and wear cool shoes and pigeon toe my feet or whatever the kids today go for. 

It would be easy to buy a rug. Probably cheaper. I have 3 other rugs, and one has emotions with it and the others are disposable. My Persian rug from my grandparents will always be my prized possession for many reasons - the one I like to brag of is that because of sanctions, you haven't been able to buy a Persian rug since my Nana was in the department store selecting ours. Other reasons are its huge scale, the beautiful natural colors, and of course, the thinness and overall fineness of it. I cannot imagine how long this took! The amount of knots is incalcucuable.

Impressing Myself - Rewiring a Sputnik Ceiling Fixture to a Swag Fixture

I've been lowballing
tri-state residents for
years before someone
accepted!

I failed Electrical Engineering. First problem was it was three times a week at 8 a.m. Second problem was over confidence. I was certain I understood how to make the light blink using ands and ors and parallel and serial and, well... It wouldn't work. And I experienced it again when I found my dream chandelier, the Sputnik! I have a ceiling fixture taking up valuable floor space for the dining area, so this will go in Tootie Pie's room, but we're keeping the fuchsia chandelier. This Sputnik needed to be switched from a ceiling light to a swag. 

Most tutorials say to just switch out the ceiling end connection with an outlet, wrap the correct wires into the screw socket, and voila! But, I don't have an outlet on my ceiling and so I needed a longer cord. I originally bought the clear kind, but didn't realize that the Sputnik is grounded and the transparent kind I bought only had the 2 prongs, so back it went. The second time I went for something special, since I realized after I bought the transparent cord that it didn't have an on-off switch, it wasn't grounded and the fixture was, AND I found much prettier cords. Everything at ColorCord.com is beautiful!

So pretty. I need an 
extension cord in this color!

It took forever, but I figured out how to get the canopy off. Luckily, the chandy has a wire to attach it to the ceiling so that the weight doesn't pull out the wires. But the canopy wasn't just attached to the bar, but also to the wire that holds the weight, which prevented me from getting it off, until I figured out that there's a button on the bottom of the wire attachment that allows it to come off. If I hadn't figured that out, there would be an extra piece at the base of the wire, because I could only manage to move this adjustable canopy finish cap forward to make the wire shorter and shorter. I backed it out okay eventually because it had a hidden button. For a moment, I thought I'd need the jaws of life or a blowtorch to remove the canopy. And, since this is a knock off Sputnik, the wiring was not standard, and my electrical skills are weak. It is a 24 light fixture, and I ended up having to take each arm's wires out and marking the hot wires. Just like in Electrical Engineering 101, I thought my first attempt was golden and the second! I even visited the hardware store to purchase a current tester, but they were double what I was willing to pay. This was the incentive I needed and I did it right finally! If everything was easy, there would be no sense of accomplishment. It works!

In the end, I got the chandelier for $50, plus I had to buy the cord with the switch and a grounded outlet, which cost me $43.93, and new wire nuts cost $2.99. Labor was free but not inexpensive. Under $100. Not including 24 light bulbs. And, a ceiling hook, which, I already had, but I bought another - oops! I will probably eventually find wire nuts - it might be time to organize my hardware. And, a plug converter that I need now because my outlet isn't grounded! Such a rollicking success!

On the one hand, it is
not within the vernacular
of the room...

Now that it's installed, I don't love it! I have turned Tootie Pie's bedroom into a lighting showroom! Even taking into account the facts that it doesn't have the benefit of a full flight of bulbs and that the cord isn't swagged - it doesn't go. In the end, I should have not bothered with my Tord Boontje inspired creation and put the OTHER chrome, armed chandelier that has been on my living room floor into my room, and the Sputnik in the kitchen. The thought process is that the fixture that is on the floor has a base that mounts fixed to the ceiling. Both bedrooms have center ceiling wires and the chandeliers need to move, because we're tall people with little spatial awareness. But, what's done is done. In my next home, we will have 3 bedrooms, one of which will be the craft room, so that my rug making and electrical work, and come to think of it, skyline painting, gardening, and a host of other activities, can all be done in a separate location instead of in our main living area. For now, my studio is immediately upon entry to our home, and her bedroom should be a beacon of Queens.

Glimpse into my
in-process home and 
future starburst area

Ah, she took it down! She CAN be motivated to do things in her room! I never tightened the ceiling hook in her ceiling because I was meeting resistance; not the type of spectacle I want to try on my own - and I tried DIY electrical! Sputnik starburst will live over our refrigerator. Now I regret the cloth cord, because kitchen surfaces should be non-porous. Oh, well, this can be swapped out again for the transparent cord when this bright, cherry pink is coated in grease and mystery sauce. For now, we have more than enough task lighting and my electrical skills are back up-to-date. 

When I Go Back to the Calculations

Where did I go wrong? Here we have less than half of the Gold Fusion/Marigold complete and yet, no more yarn. I'm less than halfway done with the Sulfur/Chartreuse flowers and more than halfway finished with that yarn. It seems like the Yellow I'm only going to use one of the 2 skeins. So, what's the issue?

Starting on the repeat

I recalculated. My numbers are correct. Funny enough, it's the sketchier Hobbii brand that I computed correctly. This leads me to believe that the Cascade brand is not 220 yards as advertised. 

I am also having serious customer service issues with Yarnspirations.com and their poorly labeled hooks. They are either hiring only the mentally challenged or they are evil geniuses that determined that a service outlook founded on leading the consumer on a ridiculous goose chase is more cost effective than fixing the problem. So, I will make sure that I tell the vendor to cease selling their goods.

Yarn and conspiracy theories. The more logical explanation is that companies decided to dupe the consumer because they can. Well, no more from me.

Nice to imagine, but
I think this junks it up

In any case, I am thinking my rug looks more runner-like than I'd like. Stupid canvas manufacturer never learned the golden ratio. So, in order to full it out and use up the extra yarn, how about a width-increasing border of pompoms? Because, the only thing more impractical than a white rug would be the addition of vacuum clogging pompoms. So, on the one hand, the mock up looks festive, but on the other, does it clutter up the modern, clean lines of the Marimekko design, or did I take care of that already with my insane color scheme? I will probably make the pompoms and if they look funny on the rug, I'll turn them into a cool garland. 

In the end, I dropped another $80-something for the yarn I forgot to order in the first place. When I factor in the non-slip back, the only plus to hooking a rug yourself is complete control of the design. 

Oh, since my new, custom rug is too small for the floor (yet, simultaneously, too big for me to hook sanely), the solution has been located. Small individual flower rugs scattered around the main rug. 

Let's plan our next major
project while still in the
midst of current one!

And, finally, I decided against the pompoms and will go with length increasing fringe on the shorter edges. White is out because it will get sucked into the vacuum. I have 11 inches to go with the hooking, then fringing and hemming and binding and all that good stuff. The anticipation is off the charts here!

Marimekko Rug - Status and Lessons Learned

My wacky arm is rising up in protest

My math is off! I finished less than a quarter of the marigold flowers and I have, of course, used half the yarn. How? I want to blame poor quality control for my miscalculations! So, here's what I learned so far:

• It is tedious! I need traction and I'm not even 1/5 done. Past Linda didn't consider Future Linda and wanted to get the 5' wide canvas in the 8' length (bought by the yard). I'd need to apprentice the next few generations if I had done this. Carpal tunnel is looking likely.

• 

  Inch by inch
  

  I was worried about the white flowers, and I never thought about kelly green not really being a big floral color outside of leaves. The colors looked juicy until I added the black center in the kelly flower and that cut the Zebra Stripe gum vibe somewhat. And the marigold could more accurately be called mac 'n cheese...
• Fuzz: we all know that new rugs shed. I can confirm. AND, the yarn isn't in its final, cut state. Oh, well, that's why I have the German vacuum cleaner.
• Right to left and bottom to top is the way to latch hook if you're a righty like me. In other words, exactly the opposite of my instinct and most likely how I did my Lucy rug. But then, I ride snowboard goofy, so find what works for you.
• Soothing. Maybe because I did it during the good old days of my childhood, maybe it's my female ancestors echoing in the wool that they spun and crocheted to make spending money, but it feels comforting to do this. It calls to me to do one more row.
• Yarn quality is mixed. I bought a Cascade 220 white to test and mixed it in with the Hobbii white and I cannot tell the difference. The thickness does seem to vary more with the Hobbii brand, but it holds its ply better than the Cascade, so I think it is better for latch hooking, IMO. When all the threads are shmushed together vertically, you cannot see that some strands are fraying, again, IMHO.

I will let you know how ordering more yarn from other color lots goes. Let me finish the two cheesy flowers I started and I will address this problem later. Maybe Jesus will perform a miracle and fish occurrence and it will all go to plan, tee hee hee!

Will I persevere and finish or will this languish in a closet while my arm recuperates? Stay tuned!

Transferring Large Designs Without a Projector

Almost convenient, the auto-
resizing by my video
editing software!

If you're looking for an answer, keep moving, because I haven't figured this out. First, I tried casting my screen to my television, but I cannot use my Chromecast because it's a long story. At first, as a work-around, I thought I'd load my image to YouTube and then find it on YouTubeTV. Except that putting an image into a movie means the screen puts the entire image into the frame, and I want the whole frame taken up. When I do that, it's too big and now I need to do math to figure out what percent my canvas makes up of the whole screen and reduce the size by that percent. Not tempting.

Vintage wool precut yarn in yellow 
on a 5 gauge canvas. The knots
are on top of each other and it is
nearly impossible to pull this
thickness of yarn through

Backup number two would be to transfer the design to paper using the computer, and then use the paper to copy it to the canvas. This would save my television screen from being covered in Sharpie. I do have a cable to directly connect an image to the tv screen. Should I try that? And, as a last, last resort, I guess the old grid-to-grid square copying will need to happen. I used to use this technique when teaching scale factor as an extra credit project. I made the assignment such that the students could choose the image that was used. I have never seen so many scale drawings of Mario from Donkey Kong. In any case...

After testing my yarn and lengths, I can report the following: 

• The precut yarn is too thick - if I use the bigger $8 hook, it rips the canvas, and forget about the little hooks: this yarn is just too thick.
• The Hobbii yarn is perfect for the smaller hook size and the canvas, but this leaves some canvas showing. Also, this yarn is holding its ply the best, but that may be because it came through the canvas most easily.
• The Cascade 220 yarn is not as easy as the Hobbii, but is a nice balance of slightly fuller yarn that is only slightly more difficult to pull through and coverage. 

So, in the end, I am glad I went with uncut yarn and the smaller hook for the 5 gauge canvas. It seems like precut yarn is designed for the more common 3.5 gauge, and the Susan Bates latch hook commonly found in craft stores does not work on the smaller 5 holes. It tears the 5 gauge canvas apart, her hooks do, so watch out! Not sufficient information on their packaging! Now I'm stuck with an $8 hook I can't use, and free precut yarn to go with it; a mix of yellows and materials. 

The white in this picture is the two different brands of continuous yarn that I bought, on the left in the back is the Cascade 220, and in the front, the less plush Hobbii yarn. As you can see from the picture, the Hobbii yarn is holding up the best, but compared to the Cascade product, and the two yarns being of comparable price, I'd go with Cascade completely if the colors I wanted were a better match. So, now I get to hope that the difference between the two brands I will be using for my rug are not a hodge podge of uneven thicknesses. As if I needed any more incentive to trip!

And, as for the transfer, I ended up scaling the image and copying it to chart paper. I also decided to switch the canvas from Dimensions, which was breaking, to Color Crazy's better quality item, because I don't want to hook 54,000 bits and then find out that the base is crumbling. So my price will go up, but long term, this is worth the extra $30. Until it gets here, I get to wrap and cut, wrap and cut. Good times!

My Custom, 3'x5' Wool Rug for Under $150 (excluding slave labor, my own)

Well, sometimes doubt and procrastination equals savings. In my deliberations, I found the perfect palette (I am hoping) AND it's cheaper than my two prior options. But, I do have to increase my yarn length 12.5%, to at least 2.25". That makes it 121,500" in total, minimum. So, now we have: 

•  White: 37% = 44,955" or 1248.75 yards = 6 skeins of 220 or 12 of 110
• Kelly: 18% = 21,870" or 607.5 yards = 3 skeins of 220 or 6 of 110
• Chartreuse: 13% = 15,795" or 438.75 yards = 2 skeins of 220
• Marigold: 14% = 17,010" or 472.5 yards = 2 skeins of 220
• Yellow: 14% = 17,010" or 472.5 yards = 2 skeins of 220
• Black: 2% = 2,430" or 67.5 yards = 1 skein of 110

But! I found more than half of the yarn for $2.50 per 110 yards at Hobbii.com. So, I under estimated the white in my excitement and bought only 10 skeins and so I'm under for the white by 148.75 yards. Another $5. The rest are Cascade 220 and Cascade 220 Superwash. All 3 types of yarn that I am using have the same weight and ply. Imagine. Here's the breakdown for yarn:

220 Superwash in Sulfur (formerly known as chartreuse): 2 * 11.50 = $23

220 Superwash in Gold Fusion (formerly marigold): 2 * 11.50 = $23

220 in Daisy Yellow (formerly yellow): 2 * 11 = $22

Free shipping, total: $68. Now for the other 43%:

Friends wool in kelly: 6 * 2.50 = $16

Friends wool in black: 1 * 2.50 = $2.50

Friends wool in white :10 * 2.50 = $25, but, should have been 12 for $30, oops!

That makes $42.50 in Friends wool, plus $4.99 shipping and $4.21 tax, or $51.40 for 1923.7 yards of wool. Hmmmm...What's the catch? I'll tell you when it arrives.

I want to change the image to reflect my more orangey palette. I hope it looks nice, because now I am worried I've gone too John Boehner (Donald Trump for those of you who follow politics "lightly"). What do you think? Can you spot the differences?

There is no way that I even changed it. I am impressed with myself! The best news is that the white that I didn't buy enough of is a true white, or it looks more so than most wools I've seen. So, this is looking fortuitous as a beginning. Planning definitely helps rather than just jumping in. And testing, because I used my 2" yarn bits and they were too fiddly, so I increased it and all it affected was the white.

In any case, optimistic me wants to believe that for the low, low price of $119.00 plus the cost of the hook, $8, I will have myself a custom wool rug? The reason I am not factoring in the canvas is because it was a bit irregular and I am trying to get my money back. Not too shabby for a 3'x5' rug in wool!

I did also make some more egregious errors than just not ordering enough white. This was before I started officially planning and just jumped into things. I was ordering pre-cut yarn and it was going to cost me a small fortune for the wool. Most pre-cut wool has two major drawbacks, besides the exorbitant cost of the wool: 1) it is sourced exclusively overseas retail so factor in exchange rates and foreign shipping and 2) it comes in limited colors. So, even if budget was no issue, pre-cut wool is not going to make floor art! Luckily, the buyers that I started buying from, in grossly underestimated amounts, did not bother to check if the packages all came from the same dye lot and they did not and I got my money back on all of it. The only other mistake so far was buying a hook that is too large, and that set me back $8. I eyeballed it and thought I estimated correctly, but the flange was back and when it's folded up, it makes the hook too big to fit through the holes without tearing the canvas. The reason I had to eyeball it is because there were no dimensions on the package. So, now I want my $8 back! Haha! I will get it, too! I will not accept shoddy quality!

Now I'm noticing two things about my longer strand computations. First, I am not only short the white, but 220 x 2 < 472.5 yards, so now I need to two white for $5, plus the $4.99 shipping and $0.45 tax, and one more each of expensive Daisy Yellow and Gold Fusion. Two inches is going to have to work with my new hook that I should be getting for free, because we just added $22.50 more onto the total. $22.50 worth of 220 wool + $10.35 in Friends + $119 already spent = $151.85. My pride wants this rug under $150. I will make it work!

Color Mock-Ups for Marimekko Unikko Rug

Decisions, decisions. So, now that I sourced my colors, let me rethink the design. So, this is my inspiration art, by Bjorn Wiinblad, and that inspired my bedroom color palette. Now I'm using this as my design, but it's looking a little stark. Here they are together.

Now let me show you some others that I don't like. First off, there is the matching background color, but I feel like this adds clouds to very bright flowers. Nothing is bright when it's cloudy, so this is a fail.

This is worse! What are they in front of, Donald Trump? Jeff Boehner? I think these mockups are getting worse. The color proportions just look off compared to the artwork. As for the pink, it is pretty and could be a pink, cotton candy sunset, but again, no. I think the eye needs the white space to take a break. Also, do I need to complicate the settled palette and throw off all my hard work spent yarn sourcing? No.

Now, what I could do is switch out one of the colors for the white, I'm thinking the chartreuse, and that could be the background color? Where do you find chartreuse flowers in nature? However, my wedding flowers were exclusively Stop n Shop chartreuse mums. My colors were chartreuse and all the greens and bronze. My one bridesmaid was given free choice but told green or bronze. She doesn't look good in green and so my bridesmaid wore...brown. Close enough! How many people remember that my bridesmaid was not in the metallic family? My main complaint about her was that she hadn't popped and wasn't as pregnant as the bride (why didn't she invent a time machine?) Okay, off topic.

Before I even write this paragraph about white flowers, do I even want to consider dirty white flowers? No, no I do not. But, let's try it. Okay, I do like this. It is kind of unexpected. And now the jonquil or true yellow looks chartreuse, but it is jonquil! So, two final decisions before I commit to the yarn: white background or white flowers? Now even what I term marigold is looking pretty orange, and there is a minor focus on white or near white (pale pink), echoing the tones of the picture more? It was the chartreuse that set this whole project off, so now I'm wondering, do I lose it altogether and go with the blue-grey background and these 3 distinct flower colors rather than the color family with the white background? 

Okay, that's a no. So we have 2 versions to decide between. The original, unmessed with vision, or the chartreuse background with white instead of chartreuse flowers.