I think the main reason this is taking so long is because I’m making a lot of decisions along the way. Having never hooked a mat before, I’m learning as I go. Like how high to make the pile so I don’t accidentally pull the whole thing out. And how to blend colours to give the illusion of perspective. The most difficult thing has been figuring out how to detail drawn shapes so forms don’t look like giant blobs. As expected, I’m getting better at it the more I do it. The whole process reminds me a little of tapestry weaving, in that I’m constantly working in a grid format with little “pixels”. However, it’s a hell of a lot easier for me to control my shapes with this than it ever was with tapestry.
It’s amazing how true to the sketch I can get with hooking. I wasn’t really expecting it to be this forgiving even though I am using yarns instead of fabric so my gauge is a lot finer. And, the fact that I’m using yarns instead of fabric means that I have a total shag carpet thing going on but I’m okay with that.
The back of the mat is pretty great. In some respects I actually prefer it to the front and I’m considering different ways of display so the back can be seen. Yet, I do like the idea of having a little secret hidden, a little surprise for the viewer if he/she ever decided to flip the thing around. Maybe in the future I’ll experiment more with the right side/wrong side of the mat, in effort to mix it up completely so the mat would be completely reversible.
So, now that the house is complete, I’m moving on to more picky things in the design. Last night, as I was working the little “Suzen Army”, I had to pull the wools out half a dozen times because I couldn’t get it exactly right. Even now I’m not quite settled on what I’ve come up with.
The trick with this part of the mat is to forget the original photos these figures are based on and focus on what will be good for the overall mat. This means softening edges/forms into fairly simple shapes, changing colours and adding details that may not be in the original image. For instance, I’m aware that my little figures have a case of Carrot Top but it will work in the long run. And my army doesn’t wear glasses because it would be too big of a pain in the ass to try to hook them in.
At this point I’m realizing how valuable it is to have an array of yarns at my disposal. Thankfully, I have a lot of random bits of this and that but I know I’ll have to start gathering up more stuff if I plan on continuing to work in this way. I think overdyeing would be incredibly useful in this instance, especially when working with a whack of found wools. Having a multitude of blues, greens, yellows and reds would definitely make a more rich mat.
Anyway, I’m having a lot of fun working on this because it is different from knitting. It’s not any faster but it is a different kind of movement, a different way of thinking. On the downside of this, I can’t bring it home with me because it’s just far too large given all the materials I need to have on hand while I’m working. This means that while I am home on a self-prescribed sick day, I can’t hook my mat even though that’s all I really want to do. Oh well!