Circuit Board rug

I am really happy with the Circuit Board latch hook rug!!

Doug gave me this circuit board after replacing his furnace. He knew I thought they were neat and said he figured I could “come up with something to do with it.”

I modified the design slightly for practical reasons. Although there are slight differences, like myself and my brother, I think you can tell they’re related.

This rug was a lesson in both planning and learning math. Sadly, I don’t mean calculus, I mean like simple addition and multiplication. I thought with this rug I would be Really Organized. I planned it very carefully, graphing it with colored pens, and then adding up how many stitches there would be in each color. It was going to be so perfect!

First of all, I was thwarted by Hobby Lobby not having enough of the light oatmeal colored yarn. I purchased what they had, used it all, then returned for more. I thought I was set. Turns out I grossly underestimated, but when I went to purchase yet more of the yarn, Hobby Lobby was sold out and the color I needed was on backorder. (“We can’t figure out why we suddenly can’t keep rug yarn in stock; no one was buying it before!”) I ordered some directly from the manufacturer.

Then I ran out AGAIN.

Finally I went back and added things up yet again, got the correct amount to finish the rug, and well, here it is. I guess the moral of the story is: learn to multiply so you’re not wasting money on shipping yarn and more yarn. I’ll get the hang of this eventually.

For the record, I still think it was worth it and plan to do a few more of this type of rug, maybe one in punch needle next.

Some leisure reading

I'm taking a little break after the Indieana Handicraft Exchange, but wanted to mention two of my favorite blogs, that you may not know about.

Dolls Stories

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this blog. I'm pretty sure it's my all-time favorite, in fact. Neta makes such beautiful crocheted dolls and her little stories always make my day. You will never hear me use this word again, but I'm going to go ahead and say it's "heartwarming" ... but in the absolute best, least-nauseating way.

Bibliodyssey

This blog always has fantastic eye candy of the ephemera/historical prints/book art variety.

I'm learnding.

Black ice -- Fiber Arctic Piece
Originally uploaded by thirdpersonpossessive

So, it probably comes as no big surprise that I'm pretty new to this whole Art thing. I've made "art" for a long time, but I only started this year to put myself Out There in any kind of official capacity. It's been very rewarding and surprising in many ways, but I'm still a total amateur at Just About Everything, and this experience has taught me that I have a lot to learn.

This is the piece I did for the Fiber Arctic show at Schmancy. When Kristen asked me to participate in the show I was really thrilled and honored. Still am! And I thought very long and hard about the subject matter before I began.

First of all, I really thought a lot about this piece and it has a lot of meaning for me, but I don't think I conveyed it all that well. I changed subjects three times. I actually had a piece about 1/3 done when I decided to scrap it. It's one of those things that if I explain it, it might make sense ... but I firmly believe that art shouldn't require a long label in order for it to totally make sense.

Second, I really have no idea how to frame/display embroidery for a gallery setting, and this didn't occur to me until the VERY LAST MINUTE. Then, of course, everything that could go wrong, did. My hoop broke, they ran out of the size of hoop I wanted, etc., etc.

Hmm. I don't know. This isn't my strongest piece for sure and that makes me a bit sad, because I was/am sooo excited for this show. But at the same time, if it had turned out Really Awesome, I doubt I would have learned so much from it. I feel good about my technique and the idea in general. But next time, I think I'll try to be more organized about my thought process so that what ends up on the fabric is closer to what I'm thinking in my head.

At any rate, I got about two hours of sleep last night, so now I'm going to eat this pizza I ordered (my second in a week ... sad, I know -- but it's got asiago and red onions and artichoke hearts on it!!!) and relax for a bit before getting back to work. There's still the Indieana Handicraft Exchange to get ready for!!