do you mind if i knit

My favourite type of matting.

Well hello there! Isn't it ever so nice to be at the beginning of the weekend? I must admit, I'm feeling a bit tired. I have myself partly to blame, because I've just been sucked into the site that is Ravelry, searching for patterns for crochet dresses, (31 pages), and then going to the knitted dresses section (over 80 pages, I gave up through lack of stamina). I fancy crocheting, or knitting a dress. That would mean abandoning all my unfinished projects, so I'm just going to have to exercise a bit of self control, and put it off for a while.

I did knit a dress once, from Lily Chin's book, where she uses big yarn. But I obviously got the tension completely wrong, because it turned out to be a bit short, and so is now officially a jumper. It was the guage instructions that stumped me at the time, the instrustions were to work out the guage over cables! I gave up, just couldn't see how you can count the number of stitches in a row over a cable pattern.

I'm getting a little side tracked here.

I've also realised that my normal method of revealing what I'm working on, (as in showing you a piece at different stages, leading to the big reveal), has been diminished by my first photo of this post, revealing the finished hooky mat, the one I said I'd show you, in yesterday's post (where I revealed the proddy mat I'd finished).

The hooky mat, in the first photo, has a very different look to the proddy mat above. I prefer the first, hooky mat . Maybe part of the reason is the large area of navy in the heart cushion, I really don't like using dark colours, but that's what we were provided with on the course. I managed to sneak the brighter colours in, from my own stash of wool fabric. I also prefer the detail you can achieve with hooky mats, rather than the big, bold statements you get when prodding.

To get the best effect with looking at this craft, you really need to see them from a distance. I'll take a photo of my hooky mat (the one with the flowers on it), from a distance, when I've made it into a cushion cover, then you'll see the full effect.

I have my next design already drawn up, and stretched on a frame. A frame, I have to add, that was made by my lovely husband. He also made the stands. He's really quite wonderful. I know just how fortunate I am to have a husband who is a DIY'er and a great maker of things. Very fortunate lady indeed.

I'm positively itching to get started on it, but first I have to cut about fifty jumpers into strips. Yes. Fifty at least. Well, heigh-ho, I suppose I should get going on it then, shouldn't I?! Have a lovely weekend, take care, and see you on Monday.
Love Vanessa xxx

From rags to rugs!

Hello? How are you? I haven't enquired for a while, have I? Hope you're very well, fine, and dandy? I'm fine and dandy thank you.

I've been mulling over how I'm going to show you my new hobby, which I am now admitting is.............................. 'matting'! Some call it 'rag rugging. And there are different types of matting, of which I'm going to show you one today, and one tomorrow.

I was very impressed that some of you guessed! Sorry if you were hoping it was going to be quilting, or needlepoint, or tatting, or felting, or batik painting, it's none of those! Though there's time for those at a later date, isn't there?! That last sentence might tip Hugo over the edge, he's surrounded by my hobbies enough as it is, without me adding more. I must admit, it's taken a couple of years for me to finally succomb to the temptation of matting. That's how long I've really, reeeaally wanted to take it up. I refrained from starting a new hobby, because I already have a yarn stash the size of Everest, and am consumed with my knitting and crochet, and thought I wouldn't be able to fit something else in. Well I have. I juggle hobbies now.

I first came across Proddy matting and Hooky matting when Hugo and I visited a place called Beamish. The lady in the photo above is making a Proddy mat, some call them Clippy mats, it just depends where you're from, I'm going to call it a Proddy mat, because you 'prod' a hole in the hessian, and push one end of your fabric strip through, and then a small space along, you prod another hole, with your pointy prodder, and push the rest of your fabric strip through. You work from the wrong side of your mat. If you were to turn the lady's mat over, you'd see a 'pile' effect, like on the cushion cover I made below.

You see, the pile is thick, created by the fabric strips.

This is the back of that cushion cover, as I was working on it, on the course I did to learn matting.

I was constantly being reminded of matting when I went to the Agricultural shows, in the Summer months. There would often be an area in one of the tents, with a group of ladies demonstrating matting. I just found it fascinating, and enchanting.

I was inspired by their wonderful creations, and their naive quality. I took my first tentative step towards finally committing to matting, by approaching the ladies, enquiring how I could learn to make my own mat.

That's how I came to spend four Sundays over the last few months, driving an hour and a half, to a little village hall, and spending the day learning how to mat.

The first two Sundays were spent learning how to do a Proddy mat, over the remaining two Sundays, we learnt how to do a Hooky mat. I prefer the Hooky mat technique, you can get more detail, and sort of 'draw' with the strips of fabric.

Here you go, the tools of the trade! You've got the hooking tool on the far left, in the photo above, and the prodder in the middle. The scissors are shaped specially for trimming the pile, on a proggy mat.

My favourite of the books above, is the "Rags to Riches" by Rosemary E. Allan. There are lots of photos of old rugs, lots of inspiration.

And in the above photo we have just a few old woollen jumpers, having been washed and felted, and cut up, ready to be turned into long, narrow strips.

Actually, this is the worst part of the whole matting process, it's unbelieveably time consuming and dull, but very neccessary, unfortunately.

Hugo just asked me "when is it enough, a pile of rags?" I said, "when it reaches the ceiling". Hugo replied, "or fills two rooms, maybe?"

Here's the back of my proddy cushion cover. It is nice to actually finish things, isn't it?

Well, dear readers, tomorrow I'll show you my Hooky cushion cover if you like? It's easily my favourite of the two cushions, and I prefer the hooking technique (such an unfortunate term for it, don't you think?).
Ta-ra then. Love Vanessa xxx

Dashing around.

Helloeeeeee, I'm dashing around today................. Just finished work for today, just got to eat supper, and then clear up, and then just got to dash out to knitting, where I will breath out and relax.

But I couldn't not pop by and give you a great big fat hint as to what my new hobby is, could I? (Just in case you didn't read yesterday's blog entry, I was being all mysterious about a new hobby I've started, and there was much guessing going on in the comments you left me!). Guessing games are great fun, when you're not the one guessing! So I had to show you something. I don't have time to go into great detail about my new crafting hobby I've adopted, as I'm just about to go and have supper, but I will do my best to give you a full "I love my new hobby" post tomorrow.

Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx