Latch Hooking Again - Pre-Contemplation Stage

This is my color mock-up, but I don't like
the distribution of the colors.

So, the ocean themed rug turns out to be cat pee damaged. What's a person to do? Well, once upon a time, I was given a Lucy latch hook kit, and dutifully finished it. No idea what happened to it, but it did go with my red, white and blue wallpaper that my friend could NOT STOP LAUGHING AT. Not that I'm scarred...

I could buy oilcloth
that measures 18"x54"
That would give me one 
and a half 18x18 pillows
with no seam allowance

So, I ordered the canvas, the tools, and the precut wool, and I will be making a 36"x60" Marimekko Unikko dup. I saw the chartreuse and yellow colorway on a pillow that was $90. Now, given that the fabric is going for $35.95 a HALF yard, and the width isn't even 60", my gracious! So, no, way too pricey for a pillow that will be used to balance Tootie Pie's fruit and jam breakfasts. 

Once I decided against buying the pillows, I have been obsessing about them ever since. So, we're going to get creative and latch hook our own 3-color Unikko RUG! So, in addition to the yellow, jonquil, and chartreuse of the $90 pillow version, I will be adding kelly green like in the Unikko below. Since I plan on having 9 poppies on my rug, each main poppy color of yellow, chartreuse and kelly will be represented 3 times. The jonquil will be the stamen, and the black will be used for the centers and stems. Since I am using wool, the white will not be winter white as in the fabric, but a sort of off-white natural sheep color. 

This is currently out
of stock here.

So, I've scored all my colors in wool, precut. If this is something I'd like to replicate, I'll probably just cut my own lengths, since finding old wool stock is not easy. I ended up buying the following number or packages, which contain 320 strands per package:

• Off White: 6 packages - I also ended up getting two packs of "tan", which look for all the world just like off white, but we'll see.
• Kelly: 5 packages of Readicut #39
• Chartreuse: 6 packages of Symrnalaine #43
• Yellow: 6 packages of Bernat #3100
• Jonquil: 2 packages of Symrnalaine #54
• Black: 6 packages of Readicut #48
• Off-white: 2 packages of Bernat #3173

My canvas is 36"x60", with 25 threads per square inch. So, a quick math says we have 2160 square inches, times 25 is 54,000 threads. I have 320 x 31 = 9,920. Hmmm...I'm off by a factor of 6! Also, if almost 10,000 hooks is intimidating. Fifty-four thousand is impossible! Now I'm wondering if I need a bolster pillow (not).

So, if I keep the size, but lose some detail, by getting 14 knots per square inch gives me 30,375 loops. Now it's down to a factor of 3! Could I cut the 2.5" strands into thirds? Probably not, since each knot takes up 0.5 of an inch of the length, and so 2.5 - 1.5 for 3 loops leaves one inch to be split in 3 pieces, so 1/3 of an inch is left for the fringe, and this needs to be split in two, since each loop has two tails. That means that the pile height will be 1/6" instead of 1 inch, so it sounds not doable, but I'm going to do a trial run anyhow. The thinner the carpet, the thicker the wallet.

Oh, boy, I better figure this out! I should see the mean psychiatrist, Lucy! Let me cancel the orders above. C'mon!

Now what? So, now I go with the cheaper option, cutting my own wool. That should be fun. There are doodads that you can buy to do this, or, and we should know that if there's an OR involved in spending money, I'm most likely going with the OR. I can make a yarn cutter out of cardboard. The only trick is to make it half as wide as you want your threads. In latch hooking, we usually use 2.5 inches, to get a one-inch pile. In my case, now that I have the flexibility, I may go for a half-inch pile, so my yarn should only be 1.5 inches long. Which means:

36 x 60 x 25 = 54,000 x 1.5 = 81,000 inches of wool. I will figure out the proportions of each color next. I am starting to see why they sell these things as kits now! 

70s in a good way, like me

So, this photo is to show how Marimekko arranges 3 different colors, and notice how the colors are very similar to mine! So, imagine the white flowers are the kelly green ones in the above color mockup and you have the idea. But now, what about that blue background? Doesn't that look nice? Maybe we should do this layout rather than the 9 only on mine, above? 

See how the planning leads to more questions? I love it! Fumbling my way towards beauty.

And, so, here it is, in its imagined form. Now I need to source the yarn, determine the proportions of each color (still haven't done that) to get approximately the right amount and then, latch, latch, latch. The likelihood of this project ever being completed is very close to zero, but that hasn't stopped me before. The cost of the wool very well could, though! And, since a tutorial on latching recommended that the strands be no less than 2 inches long, that means I need to figure out the proportions for the colors out of 108,000 inches of yarn. OMG!

Well, the imagining is the fun part. Now
comes the drudgery.

So, let's do it. I used this tool to come up with the following percentages:

• White: 37% = 39,960" or 1,110 yards
• Kelly (main, darker): 14% = 15,120" or 420 yards
• Chartreuse: 13% = 14,040" or 390 yards
• Yellow: 14% = 15,120" or 420 yards
• Jonquil: 14% = 15,120" or 420 yards
• Kelly (secondary, lighter): 4% = 4,320" or 120 yards
• Black: 2% = 2,160" or 60 yards

Look at that wonderful balance between the kelly, chartreuse, yellow and jonquil. Beauty everywhere!