Revisiting red ...

My red rug is beginning life again. I am going for "subdued complexity" the shades and tints of  yellow and red (thankyou to Judy for this lovely term), and a pop of colour - the purple.

front & back

This is the front of a magenta and teal rug

and the back

I like the added texture and the stitch effect of the back

and here is the whole thing

purples

I’m working on this one at the moment. The rugs in the posts over the last few days have actually been created over a period of about 3 months. The biggest issues have been

. the extreme physical nature of crocheting rags
. keeping the edges nice and flat
. developing and implementing the colour schemes. I like colour, but I want these rugs to have subtle colour changes allowing colours to “pop”, depending on what they are surrounded by. I don’t want lots of colours clashing and competing due to similar intensity of colour.

This last one is a fun issue. I am using my stash of patchwork fabrics – collected over the last 10 or so years. Most of them I will never use for patchwork as I have given up patchwork for the time being (never say never). I’m sure if I go back to it I will want to use the latest designs and colours anyway.

This purple rug has muted lavenders, yellows and purples, with one or two quite clear lavender colours.

Rose Rug

I managed to make something in red & green & avoided it looking like a christmas decoration. This shows the single crochet stitch – makes a much tighter & firmer rug.

Aqua and Brown

Here is my Aqua rug. Love these colours. This is the very interesting back …



… and the front

Red Rag to a b….

Now this rug has been very troublesome. Its my second one, and I tried getting too clever for my own good. This is it’s third incarnation, and it is still going to be undone & crocheted again. I think I was trying to do everything I could think of quickly. What was that I said about perfecting the craft first ….

A close up showing the mix of fibres.

Rag Rug Star

This is my first rug – my very own star pattern. Done in double crochet – its a bit loose for a lot of wear & tear on the floor. I’ll try single crochet next time.

Craft and Art

I guess my favourite comment on the difference between craft & art describes a craft as specific technique. Practice your technique and apply your skill to create a piece of art. (or along those lines). So I have spent the last 3 months or so crocheting rag rugs. Huge amounts of time have been spent re-crocheting when the colours have been wrong, and even more time re-crocheting when the edges have not laid flat. This is not a craft for those with arthritic hands and wrists - it is very physical. I'll upload photos from tomorrow.

Meanwhile here is a section of the amazing midden on cockatoo island - teacups for the white settlers, and oyster shells for the indigenous people.