Melinda's Latch Hooking

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MelindaH
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Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by MelindaH »

I don't have a picture of the last rug I finished because I'm stupid, but I finished an Ed Elric rug in February. I keep it right outside my bedroom door. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the top of his hair is a different color. I went several months without working on it, then found I did not have enough yellow. When I went to the store, they didn't have the same yellow anymore. Oops.
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Hilda was scared of it at first, but now she likes it just fine. I'm not sure why squishy things are so scary to her.
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The one I finished in April is in my sister's nursery. It was my fastest finish ever at two months, including the time it took to design it and buy the materials. All that usually takes me 6-7 months working time for one that size.
I'm not sure where any of my previous rugs are. I found a pattern for a Homestar Runner rug, with evidence that I had started it, but I have no memory of it and no idea where it is. My brain is broken.

I just finished designing my next rug, which will be larger than any previous rug I've finished. I included a 12 ounce can of soda in the picture for scale, along with a glimpse of my finger toes. XD
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Most of the yarn won't arrive until sometime next week, but I started with what I have. (Sorry about the lint stuck to the bottom of the rug.) The red stuff is just tape to keep the edges from unraveling.
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I cut my own yarn, as the pre-cut kind is too expensive. I keep a ruler, scissors, and a latchhook in a jar and just cut the yarn I need into the jar. I design using Pattern Maker, the same software I use for cross stitch.
Yarn is pretty.
Image
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rcperryls
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by rcperryls »

:applesauce: :applesauce: Very pretty! Long, long, long ago I remember making punch rugs. I think I must have been in high school? Seems like it was in art class? I had forgotten all about it. Looking forward to seeing more of your newest project. That is going to be one nice sized rug! Plans for where it will be going? I've noticed also that cats tend to be very cautious about stepping on to squishy things. Until they realzie that there is a solid bottom. Then it becomes a soft and cushy thing instead. Hilda is just being cautious.

Carole
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fccs
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by fccs »

I love the rug. I used to latch hook - it was fun and fast.
Debby

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karen4bells
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by karen4bells »

Wow---what a huge project this looks like it will be, but I do look forward to watching it progress!! I've done a couple of latch hook projects in the past, but certainly nothing of this caliber!! My most recent and largest one I finished at least 20 yrs ago and is a Christmas tree skirt, which I still use every Christmas!!!
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AlwaysGoofy
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by AlwaysGoofy »

It's been a few years since I've done a latch-hook rug. The last piece I did was a Debbie Mumm snowman piece. I am very impressed you design your own rugs and cut your own yarn. That is quite an undertaking. You are very talented.
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Squirrel
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by Squirrel »

Great to see a larch hook rug again and yours is awesome. My late husband made 2 or 3 when he was recovering from surgery eons ago.
Thanks for sharing your talents, they are very lovely. :applesauce: :applesauce: :applesauce:
Sally in Brisbane Australia

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MelindaH
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by MelindaH »

Carole: I tried a punch needle once, at the fair. There was a nice lady there who had some fabric for people to ruin, so my BIL and I tried it out. I don't think I would be any good at it.
I have no idea where I'm going to put this humongous rug. The guest room is a possibility, as is my bedroom. I'm not too worried about picking a spot just yet, as it will take a long time to complete.
Hilda is a super cautious kitty. This isn't a bad thing. It helps keep her out of trouble, as she comprehends that the stove and counter are bad places for a kitty to be. Sadly, it doesn't keep her from trying to dart outside. So... not that cautious?

Debby: I've done latch hooking almost as long as I've done cross stitching. Sadly, my arm has been very weak all year, so I'm much slower. (Yes, I did a super-fast completion this year, but that was because I spent almost every waking minute outside of school on it. The actual looping was almost as slow as when I was first learning.)

Karen: A tree skirt sounds large to me. :thinks:

Goofy: Thank you. I was a little scared of cutting my own yarn at first, but I quickly realized that the cutting is very easy, and it allows more personalization. I used a variegated yarn in my last rug. It turned out very pretty. (I need to get a picture the next time I visit my sister.) At some point in the future, I want to try putting wildly different yarns in the same rug. We'll see if I ever get up the courage to try it. :D

Sally: Thank you. What type of designs did your husband do? I tend to gravitate to cartoon characters because they're easy to convert into pixels. In fact, this one will be my very first non-cartoon rug... Whoa. :o
Last edited by MelindaH on Mon Aug 24, 2015 12:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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AlwaysGoofy
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by AlwaysGoofy »

MelindaH wrote:Goofy: Thank you. I was a little scared of cutting my own yarn at first, but I quickly realized that the cutting is very easy, and it allows more personalization. I used a variegated yarn in my last rug. It turned out very pretty. (I need to get a picture the next time I visit my sister.) At some point in the future, I want to try putting wildly different yarns in the same rug. We'll see if I ever get up the courage to try it. :D
Oh, please try it. Just try a small project, if you don't like it, nothing lost. The world will continue to rotate every day. If you do like it, you could start a whole new trend in crafting. :D
AlwaysGoofy's Blog with Cross Stitching, Quilting, and My Love of All Things Disney: http://goofinoffaroundtheblock.blogspot.com/
MelindaH
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by MelindaH »

I bought a few skeins from Hobby Lobby for a varied rug, so it will happen. :D

I had a little trouble with my rug. I wasn't liking how the colors looked, so I redid the design. I had to take a bunch of pieces out and replace them.
Image fixing in progress
I'm still not perfectly happy with the colors, but I'm not doing it a third time. I don't think the canvas would survive.
Image the bright pink part is supposed to be skin tone *sigh*
Image close up

(The rug is folded in 4ths. I am nowhere near as close to finished as it may appear.
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Serinde
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by Serinde »

Very impressive. What sort of yarn do you use? I ask because uncut "rug yarn" is something I have come across in my initial attempts at tapestry weaving, and I can't for the life of me figure out what they mean because the "rug" yarn I come across is always cut and bundled. :doh:
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rcperryls
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by rcperryls »

:applesauce: :applesauce: for your progress. This is going to be a lot of fun to watch as it develops. Do you actually fold the canvass so you only need to work on 1/4 at a time? I imagine as you get nearer to a finish you have a pretty large and heavy piece to maneuver. Please keep the pictures coming!

Carole
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Star Wars Afghan:Chewbaca
HAEDs:
O Kitten Tree
Dancing with the Cat
Everything else "on hold"
2022 Finished: Star Wars Afghan: Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Finn, Rey, Poe, Han Solo,Darth Vader, BB8,Luke Skywalker
MelindaH
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by MelindaH »

I use I Love This Yarn. The pre-cut rug yarn is thicker, so the end result is squishier than what I make. If you want to buy a skein of "proper" rug yarn, look for heavy worsted weight or bulky.

I fold the canvas because it's just too big to hold flat. I keep it on my lap while I work. It comes folded into a much smaller square and can be worked that way, but the finished sections won't fold so tightly. A single fold in each direction is about as thick as I can handle when I get close to finished. It's just easier to not change how I fold it so I don't have to fight with it when the time comes. As you said, it's heavy to maneuver.
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AlwaysGoofy
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by AlwaysGoofy »

I'm glad to see this one come to life. I've never designed my own rug, but you have certainly piqued my interest.
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tiffstitch
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by tiffstitch »

That's so cool! I started with latch hook when I got into crafts and like you I really don't have any photos of finished ones. I do have one I started several years ago that's for DH and I can't really work on it now when he's home. It's a fair size, but not as big as your new one! What will the design be? Or is that a surprise? :)
MelindaH
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by MelindaH »

AlwaysGoofy wrote:I'm glad to see this one come to life. I've never designed my own rug, but you have certainly piqued my interest.
I'd advise starting with a simple design with few colors to start with. A cool background can be achieved by simply using variegated yarn. The project I am working on now has 17 colors. It can be hard to keep them straight sometimes. :lol:
tiffstitch wrote:That's so cool! I started with latch hook when I got into crafts and like you I really don't have any photos of finished ones. I do have one I started several years ago that's for DH and I can't really work on it now when he's home. It's a fair size, but not as big as your new one! What will the design be? Or is that a surprise? :)
It's a surprise. :silenced:
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lavenderbee
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by lavenderbee »

That's lovely & look forward to next update as well as the next latch hook project :D :)
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richardandtracy
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by richardandtracy »

What a nice idea. Looks really rather nice.

Yet another skill I don't have. Have often wondered what it's like to do though.
Interesting.
Presumably can use normal charting software, just need different colour reference data. Skein lengths & usage would be different too. This has got me thinking.

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19Roland19
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by 19Roland19 »

What an undertaking. Looks wonderful.

Last year my granddaughter wanted to learn to "sew pretty pictures" like grandma. I could not find a simple cross stitch picture for her, but I did find a simple latch hook kit. She loved it. (And has since learned to cross stitch.)
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StitchinWitch
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by StitchinWitch »

that's really neat! My grandfather used to latch hook all the time, and he tried to teach me, but it just didn't go in my head. I'll admire your work - it's great.

I love the cartoon characters too, they're great for converting to quilts, cross stitch and crochet. :)
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weeseechew
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Re: Melinda's Latch Hooking

Post by weeseechew »

I have done rug hooking..I've got a few finished pieces that were from patterns baught...I've got left over yarn and was thinking of just throwing the extra yarn pieces together and creating something...Keep up the amazing work. Oh and a quick question...do you put anything on the back of the rugs or just leave it as is?
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