Using Jute, Rug Prototype

I am another self, having had a birthday on June 1, and having been seized with the idea of shoes, doily rug rugs and crochet and light.

My Pinterest boards – under Akua Designs – have exploded with my explorations and discoveries. I started a Crochet Lampshades and Umbrellas board on Ravelry, become a moderator for the Crocheted Rugs group and have started lists and threads on soling materials in the Shoes! Forum.

I’ll begin at the middle and talk about the Rugs.  There are three in process. An abandoned brown one, an almost finished green one, a cotton piping-based behemoth and this much smaller, but still oversized, doily en jute that is the piping one’s prototype.

PiggWiggy suggested that I prototype  before committing to a pattern for a doily rug and  while I resisted the suggestion at first, I’m glad I did, because there were holes I didn’t want or need and as there was no original picture for the pattern and some things  made at thread –size, don’t look as handsome when magnified. Also, I only used a part of the pattern and so had to  devise a different finishing edge.

(I laid it on the floor to take pictures and Zen -- the rescued-from-Sandy-with-his-sister kitty, came and claimed it).

I came to jute when I read about it in passing as a soling material. The kind I had  languishing on a shelf didn’t work out—which I’ll discuss in greater detail when I get to shoes. I bought another kind – 3 ply undyed from Amazon and it seemed to fly through my hands as I made this prototype. Then I went on to feel its figurative and sculptural capabilities as I made  oversized flowers for yarn graffiti.