Toothbrush Rugs - Loving them, making them, discussing them

Toothbrush Rugs: Grocery bags as an art form- my waiting room rug & Creativity is the best medicine

2010-09-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

I started this rug in January as a rug to work on while in the waiting room at doctors' offices and while waiting for scans. Mind you, I always have a rug with me at such events, but often it is what ever rug I'm working on, and the rugs I had started before fibro were too complicated in their planning for what I was able to deal with.

So this one is very simple- its to be an abstract flower. The center is all yellow, the rest alternating white and yellow. Such an easy scheme I could pull off even in deepest fibrofog / agony, and as you can see, I have. At 20" it would be close to done were I to stick to my 24 - 26 inch standard, but plastic bag rugs I often make larger. I'll keep working on it until I'm sick of it. Yeh, nothing deeper that that. Really, that's often the reason I decide to finish a rug off. These are a pleasant past time. When they stop pleasing me, I move on to another one.

This craft is inherently "green" as even the needle is recycled, but I especially love the "beautiful recycling" aspect of making rugs from grocery bags. We all go through so many, and even when we take them to the store to be recycled, lots of fossil fuels have to be expended to reuse them. Not so when made into a rug. The environmental impact is zero, since I do these during "down time."

So each colored section above = one half bag. I've never calculated how many it takes to make a rug, but you can imagine it takes a vast quantity.

Shopping bags are ideal, they have the right strength and surface. My mother has made them from bread bags and newspaper bags, but these stretch out more easily and have stickier surfaces so aren't as easy to work with.

I take a bag, fold it in half, and cut it. I don't cut slits, I use one handle of the bag for one end, and punch a hole with my needle for the other. So in this you see I remain true to my prime directive that these rugs are to be fun, relaxing, easy. Sure, you could cut up the bag other ways, but this takes the least time and effort so its what I do.

Handicrafts most certainly do count as "art therapy" as much as painting or photography. They are creative, a means of expression, something on which to focus other than suffering. I take a very "holistic" view of art therapy, not a narrowly defined one that it must somehow directly relate to expressing or processing your suffering. My view is... sometimes the best way to process suffering is to take a break from it. We who live this life are supersaturated in suffering. I hardly think its necessary that everything we do revolve around it... and indeed, there is immense benefit in finding what we are able to do in spite of, regardless of, the pain and limitations under which we live. (Yes, actually have had this argument... more than once, sadly.)

Indeed, I'm sometimes reticent to depict my art- be it photography or the rugs or videos- as art therapy because that makes them relate to fibro... when really, they are what frees me from fibro, frees me to be me. I can't chop wood or ride the bongo board or very often even drive because of fibro, but these are things which give me joy and are of my essence which I can still do. I

So why do I always post these as "the art of suffering?" Because I want to encourage other people who are disabled and pain ridden to find themselves through art and creativity because for all the wonders of modern medical science- doctors and pills cannot make you you, they can-at best- make it possible for you to be you.

The birthday I wasn't supposed to have

2010-09-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 43rd birthday, and in some ways, it was the best birthday I've ever had.

Not because we had a blowout party. We didn't, just a nice cook out where I grilled my favorite foods.

Nor because of the presents (just one from my wife, mother, mentor, and mother-in-law)

but because... I wasn't expected to have it at all.

Many times during the course of this shredding of the boundary between the sane and the insane, the probable and improbable, the earthly and hellish, the grim reaper's shadow fell upon me. Indeed, almost from the start, there was a palpable fear that my broken bone and brutal pain presaged the presence of something dire and terminal such as cancer or a brain tumor.

The fear grew and grew with each test the doctors ordered which seemed to confirm it.

It reached its horrible apex on what we call "the day of death." A scan showed something which we were told indicated stage 4 (the last, terminal, essentially untreatable) cancer.

I'd held off speaking of that horrible day in public because any words I could give it seemed so insufficient. I was lying there counting my remaining minutes, wondering how I could spend as much of them with Tess as possible while also earnestly desiring to shield her from the agonies to come as much as possible.

The next day came a reprieve... a new scan, a new interpretation.

Even after the death sentence was revoked, the fear that something almost as bad was present remained. I had still broken the strongest bone in the body for no apparent reason. I still had excruciating pain without apparent cause.

And of course, the tests continued. All told, I spent close to a day in various machines having every inch, every cell, of my body scanned and rescanned.

It wasn't until the Fibro diagnosis came just in time for our 15th anniversary that the grim reaper's specter finally left us.

That wasn't too long ago, and the time of fear and uncertainty had been- if anything- more agonizing than the pain.

So when I awoke yesterday, it was indeed the most joyous birthday of my life.

About the picture:

I used FotoSketcher (win & mac) to convert one of the photos a dear friend shot for this blog post. The mode used was watercolor. I adjusted the settings to produce a picture which simultaneously had fewer sharp details yet conveyed the over all setting in a very vivid way.

The other thing I was after was to dampen the color intensity.

The net effect I wanted was to convey to you how my mind's eye sees the time there. (I was on a morphine pump after all.)

You on Multiply can see the original below.

You rug folk - yes, I did work rugs, and even tried to teach people how to make them (yes, even on the "Day of Death" since I've always wanted to be remembered for three things: My steadfast love for my wife, parents, and friends, my visual arts, and my rugs.)

If hell is a fraction as bad as Fibro, then I DRASTICALLY undersold it in my sermons!

2010-09-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

To understand this dark humor, you need to know/remember that I was once a preacher.

Word Picture: Psalm 107 - Oh Give Thanks to the Lord for He Is Good

2010-07-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

I finally got these uploaded to imageshack.us using their uploader - its been a long time in coming, but wow, was it worth it! The upload was easy, drag and drop, and when it was done, they generated the html code for ALL EIGHTEEN images! This is media hosting made easy... I'm hooked!

Toothbrush rugs: Cleaning without washing, for large rugs or ones which can't be washed

2010-07-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

While cotton poly fabrics, plastic, and hosiery rugs can usually be washed, dried gently, and left to hang, some rugs can't.

Rugs which are too large to wash
Rugs which are too old or loosely stitched to hold up to a washing machine
Rugs with leather or vinyl in them, as this beauty.

Since most people outside of certain select circles and antiquarian religious groups don't have a carpet beater, there's still a good way to clean these rugs.

A vacuum cleaner works well enough on rugs which aren't old or delicate, but it'd better have a pretty strong motor and good brush to get all the dirt and grit and hair out of the crevasses and creases of these handcrafted masterpieces.

An easier way is to put the rug into the dryer on low heat or air fluff setting for about 10 minutes.

You might have to vacuum out the dryer, but that is a lot easier than vacuuming the rug!

PS- I do have a new rug video to post!

A dear friend came up to help me out while my wife Tess was in the hospital recently. It needs a bit of post production work before I can post it, and I've not been able to look at a monitor long enough to finish that.

He also helped me figure out how I can shoot more effective videos by myself, so as you have thoughts about new videos you'd like to see or old ones you'd like to see with lighting better than that of a cheesy "Blair Witch Project" copycat video, let me know, and I'll get to them as time and my health allow.

I was just cleaning our anniversary rug to have it on my wife's return, I used the technique described above, and I decided to post it while the thoughts were in my mind.

Storm clouds swallowing up Indianapolis this morning

2010-06-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

This was all hand held... under exposed 2 stops... stopped as it started raining.

Been trying to find places that take weather vids to upload it to... got the Weather Chnl's "weather out your window" one, but want to find others.

My first Fibro photo, and on coming out of the "medical closet" on this- the scariest thing I've ever done!

2010-06-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

I wrote this for my fibro blogs:

fibropathology.blogspot.com - A "mirror" of the one below, created because I wanted a presence on blogger, as many other fibro sufferers blog there.
fibrofog.blog.com - my "personal journey" blog
TheArtOfSuffering.blog.com - Displays the art I do as therapy, and encourages others to do likewise

With this and most such posts though, I will be cross posting here to multiply (and by extension to FaceBook.) Listig.multiply.com is my "root" blog, and will remain so.

However as I've done with the Word Pictures and toothbrush rugs, I find it worth while to have blogs more narrowly focused so people with an interest in these matters can find worthwhile material without having to sift through the eclectic range of things which interest me.

First, the art

This image is the first one I created for the project.And here is the original

First off, I love taking pictures of things in shadow (not just myself) because its visually compelling and has nice symbolism to it.The concept of the shadow is a powerful one.In Jungian pyschology, the shadow is the part of our "self" (id, psychae, what ever) which is hidden, repressed, not integrated into the whole.Scripture talks of this world itself as a shadow, as in 1st Corinthians 13:12, the verse which lent its name to my "Word Pictures" project. A compelling image I did with this verse is here.The top image was created from the original by running it through one of PhotoFiltre's engraving filters.The result is exactly what I was after, for it conveys quite vividly how the pain and related aspects of fibro distort reality, darken and warp the suffer's experience of it.Yet you'll notice the gold bits. No matter how thick the fog or overwhelming the pain, there is yet good to be had and embraced. This is a good practice for anyone, but for someone living with a chronic disease/syndrome, its essential.My 2nd eldest brother would appreciate that black and gold are also the colors of his alma mater- Purdue. Don't think that was in my mind when I created it, but its a fun thought.So this image depicts what is for me the most oppressive and distressing aspect of fibromyalgia- "fibro fog."I can't say that working with photography clears the fog... rather it renders it irrelevant. For some reason, no matter how thick the fog, how heavy the pain, I am always able to tap into my dynamic creativity.I become lost in the project, and in this, I find my greatest relief.Besides showing how I cope with and transcend Fibromyalgia, it is my hope that these blogs have the following effects:

They encourage others to likewise tap into their core, embrace and express it
They give expression to the experience of chronic suffering more effectively than words are able to.

Now why it was scary

It was a difficult decision... coming out of the medical closet about this.The two reasons above are very compelling ones. It has always been my way that when life dumps a load of manure, I compost it and grow flowers from it. This has not changed with the onset of fibromyalgia, only the means available to me to do so.I'm not easily scared either...

When I did my chaplaincy residency, I was the resident for the Trauma and E.R., and relished the opportunity to be in situations most people would give anything to have nothing to do with.
When we lived in Chicago, I embraced the city
When the opportunity came to preach my father's funeral sermon, I was honored to take the task upon myself.

Things don't scare me, what scares me are more existential concepts- injustice, xenophobia, hatred, and the like.Yet... anyone who has been needy or suffering knows the pain which comes when people turn away from them in their time of need precisely because they are needy.As a Christian, when this happens I find myself thinking that in this I share something in common with Christ, of whom it was prophesiedIsaiah 53:3 (English Standard Version)He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.That doesn't make it fun or pleasant, nor something I wished for myself.I never woke up and said, "Why should my wife have all the fun! I want to have an incurable complex and ruthlessly painful condition too!"(You see, my wife is disabled with migraines, has been for half a decade.)A Psalm of lament describes this experience most vividly.Psalm 22: 6But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. (ESV)When we lived in Chicago, I conducted an informal ministry to the street volk, of whom this is even more true. I saw people not even bother to step over them... they literally walked ON them.I was honored to receive permission from many to share a bit of their life and story online. A lot of it is pretty raw and graphic, this is one of the few fit for a family audience:

I'm sure anyone who's ever been in a time of need and found friends fleeing fast as their feet can carry them understands.Here is an artistic project I did with photos with this fellow, whom I miss and for whom I pray ever day.

But this is more than a collection of symptoms, a medical term, this is an opportunity...

to speak words of comfort to others who are suffering,
and to use the skills with words and the visual arts to give voice to our experiences.

I hope it does at least one of these for you.

Coming out of the medicinal closet - In a picture (low grade steganography at its best!)

2010-06-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

You'll probably need to click on the photo to read.

Coming �Soon? - Listig [4]2.0

2010-06-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

I am so frustrated to not be able to keep up online... I can't even keep up with myself.

But some major things have happened, and I'm going to have to figure out how to talk about them, and I'm going to have to figure out how to resume reading your posts and interacting with you all.

I've never experienced anything like this... this "DDOS" attack which has become a way of life. There has to be a work around, a hack, a crack... and I'll find it.

I miss and love you all, I want to be back here, sharing in your live, your joys, your sorrows, your sometimes lame, sometimes twisted sense of humor...

Rug folk... The rugs have been a lifeline for me, a way to stay sane as I've waited for exams, diagnoses, tests...

I think the last shoe has dropped, that my life is no longer going to be an ongoing jack-in-the-box experience.

This is a good thing. I know I'm not terminal, I know what I'm dealing with. I am both blessed and stressed.

I don't want to roll out Listig 2.0 until I have the bugs worked out though... so till then...

Message to Sophia & vague health / life update

2010-06-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

Sophia,
   Thanks so much for your kind comment! I am glad to have given you information and encouragement.

   I am intrigued by the type of meditation you mentioned, but when I clicked on your name, it would not let me leave you a private message.

If you leave a comment to this post, it will make me approve it before its published, so if you want to leave more info for me that way I can read it and NOT publish it if you'd like.

   The doctors do have a pretty good idea of why I've been in so much pain, but I'm still not sure how many details I want to be sharing in public.

   Suffice to say... in an astonishingly freaky turn of events I'd never believe were it not true of me... I have a syndrome as complex and intractible as my wife's.

   I keep working on the rugs in doctors offices, while waiting for scans, etc. I've gotten a plastic bag rug almost half done. It is two tone- yellow and white. I'm using a repeating sequence to make it look like an abstract painting of a daisy or sunflower.

Quite looking forewards to doing some new tutorial videos one of these days, but as long as my world keeps getting turned upside down every week or so...

Outflanking pain by embracing beauty - as demonstrated and illustrated by VIDEO Humming birds in the morning set to Beethoven's tempest

2010-05-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

Both the content and the construction of this video are very telling of how I'm surviving even though the torment of my body- far from subsiding- has increased, and the medicines I have available to me do not effectively deaden the pain or spasms or address the other related issues.

I've always loved nature, and by soaking it in I find peace and experience God. I barely even watched TV when I was a child, I was always outdoors.

So its very fortunate that when my body went kaput, I was in a place where I could so easily access and behold nature- weather, plans, animals. Those three months I couldn't walk, I could still look outside and see birds on the feeder, the dogs playing in the snow, and scenes like the one in the picture above.

Its nice that I can move around now, but the dynamic is really no different. I am so fascinated by plants and animals and weather that I can get distracted by watching them or taking pictures and video of them... that time I spend focused on the beauty around me outside, or in honing and presenting it in a video, is about the closest I come to having relief from my promethean torments these days.

The other things which are powerful enough to draw me out of my own personal daily hell are

Touching, talking, being with Tess
Lending an ear to a friend or family member
Engaging and embracing the beauty of the natural world by working with it in the yard.

Indeed... one day in the hospital was especially dark... so dark we didn't think I'd be here assiduously NOT talking about it now. I got through that day by holding Tess, working on a rug, and lending an ear to a friend in need.

Before I went to the Seminary, I most communed with God by helping people in sorrow and by being in nature. Nothing has really changed there.

Perhaps that will help you understand why I'm not angry at God about this. God has provided me a safe, comfortable, beautiful place to live where I can always experience Him through His Creation.

God has given me Tess now for 15 years.

He's given me people who love me, and who need my love... people who help me and who need my help.

I don't expect God to be some sort of prayer-operated vending machine. He's under no obligation to relieve me of pain or restore my health. He has been true to His promises though, the way He always has been.

Its DEEPLY ironic, but in this time when my body and mind alike are greatly impaired, I am the most fully and richly me I've been in ages. It all comes down to embracing and being surrounded by

Beauty in nature
Love
Truth

And receiving them with gratitude. Sure, it takes a lot of creativity to get through each day, but its that very creativity which gets me through.

Creativity first takes me out of myself- which is a good thing, something I desperately need given the pain, torment, turmoil of my body and nervous system.

Then it fills me with peace and beauty... my words don't reach far enough to quite make this connection, but maybe if I say it this way:

- Creativity for me is a form of meditation / prayer ... creating art is not primarily a manual act but an existential experience.

That'll have to do. The video and my discussion of it is below. You'll see that this video quite well fits in to the sort of pattern I described earlier today... it wasn't at all technically challenging... the major "tasks" for me were cutting out the parts of the video where there were no hummingbirds (I shot these on a tripod for 10 minute spells the last couple of mornings) and finding the right music. Beethoven's Tempest is PERFECT for these frantic, frenetic creatures!

But taking time to do these things did me more good than taking any of the score of pills I've taken today... and such is usually the case. Even when I take the maximum amount of medicine I'm allowed, my perception of pain never drops below a 7 on the pain scale.

Of course without a high end camera of the sort they use for "time warp" its impossible to catch the action of these frenetic fellows, but I love the way the sunlight catches them in the morning, and they often perch on this feeder.

The music is public domain from musopen.org, played by Paul Pitman

The segue image is an old public domain image from a Russian language encyclopedia

The music suits the subject perfectly, and when when my body itself is in a tempest, I need to embrace and loose myself in beauty.

For more on this piece of music see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._17_(Beethoven)

For more on hummingbirds, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby-throated_Hummingbird

Diabetics be warned: More cute baby papillon dog videos

2010-05-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Ambrose in a basket at 4 weeks - almost walking

Ambrose at 3 weeks sort of walking on one of my mother's toothbrush rugs

Ambrose about 2 months wagging his tail and playing in and with a basket

Rushing water - Hoosier Zen - Video taken on our 15th anniversary outing

2010-05-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today is our "liturgical" 15th anniversary- we were married during the church service on Pentecost Sunday.

Our other anniversary is June 4th.

This portrait of Tess is stitched together with Microsoft Image Composite Editor

My wife and I went here today for our 15th anniversary. We honeymooned near Lake Superior, so for our anniversary we wanted to be near water too.

I hope others can use this either as stock footage, or to loop to just go to a nice relaxing place, thus the lack of title slides.

This is how I outflank pain: Majestic clouds- panoramics, synths, and video

2010-05-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

These are the panoramics created by Microsoft's Image Composite Editor.
I also shot video clips tripod mounted, so you can well imagine how stunning they are from these. I'm looking to see if there's an easy way I can make them available to other artists the way that I get creative commons licensed music from freemusicarchive.org and archive.org

I also have at least one project I'm working on.

I didn't expect much when I uploaded these to PhotoSynth, but they came out among the best I've done.

Here's the first

Here's the second

It seems to be axiomatic that the more pain I'm in, the more photos and video I shoot. Several reasons...

Pain takes away my ability to think or process, but not to be creative
Without the ability to think, process, even stand up without passing out... there's not a lot else I CAN do
I often find my best recourse to be not heavy narcs but creative arts. While I'm engaged in them, I can loose my awareness of myself, and thus of the pain. Other than when I had a morphine drip in the hospital, when I'm doing creative things is the closest I have come to being out of pain for the last 6 months... .

Unfortunately, editing, mixing, posting, talking about what I've created... these draw on energies and clarity of mind I don't often have.

So my stunning videos will have to wait.

The project I've started with one of the cloud videos will too... the concept was easy to come up with- I noticed how the clip resembled the roaring water of a waterfall when viewed sideways- but execution...

As for outflanking pain...

Every expert of war from Sun Tzu onwards has taught that you never meet an enemy at his strongest point, you look for a weak spot, you go around the side (which is outflanking.)

This experience-which-is-so-far-beyond-"pain"-as-Mt-Everest-is-higher-than-a-hill laughs at medicine. The meds kill one pain, another arises.

Meeting the enemy head on with medicine is NOT working, and has NEVER worked.

Granted, I'm thankful for what relief I can get... together with Tess, my mother, my dear ones, the pups, the birds, and the Military Channel, I'm able to make it through each day, but only in loosing myself and going outside myself do I get any respite.

This can occur with Tess, when doing light landscaping, and when engaged in the visual arts.

I don't know if this flanking maneuver is something others in a similar state could do- I dearly hope no one else IS in a similar state!- but while "that-which-is-beyond-pain" wins every day, I still make the most of each one. What ever time I'm allowed when my body isn't shaking with spasms of pain, I'm embracing or creating beauty in one of these forms.

Our mother's day card - for ours and all others out there

2010-05-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Tess wrote the verse.

Mother's Day gift/card pink tulip photos uploading - Special FX by "Image Analyzer"

2010-05-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

The rest of the Word Pictures based on the mother/daughter pink tulips will have to wait, but as promised, the best pictures of that shoot are being uploaded to all the usual sites.

The special effects you'll see on some of them are from a freeware program I just became aware of, Image Analyzer.

I was drawn to it because it promised an automated way to make photos extracted from a video or taken with a camera phone have higher quality / resolution (as per my challenge before the latest eruption of demonic pain hit)

In toying with it, I discovered a filter called "increase local contrast." It produces very artistic effects I've not encountered with any other program. That filter alone will guarantee it a place in my toolbox.

So... Pixelpipe.com is uploading the images to Multiply and Facebook as we type this. Its time for me to take more meds and go to bed, so the remaining Word Picture versions of these will have to wait.

Any of the Word Pictures I've done with the commandment would work well for a mother's day card if the lady is of a faith tradition where it is relevant. Add your own text to a space in the picture, add the picture to a card template, what ever.

There's countless ways to make a custom greeting card with an image... I'm sure multiply and vendors advertising on Facebook would be delighted to provide you with this service.

I hope some of you are able to make good use of these. I'm still on the darkside of the moon, so tschuss!

Make your own personalized mother's day card! Use my mother/daughter pink tulip word pictures!

2010-05-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

I chose the mother/daughter pink tulips for this verse because the image so naturally brings to mind family, offspring, parents.

Any of the images from that series with the verse from the 10 commandments would make a great mother's day card.

Download the image, add your own text, or print the image and write something on the back.

Here's my latest version of it... I'll work on posting the others and the unedited pink mother/daughter tulips after the line of storms we're under all sorts of weather alerts for passes through.

Today's art / puppy therapy

2010-04-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

You can read about the video on Youtube.

Had to make some feeble attempt to approximate some form of existence beyond/besides my Promethean condition.

BEST free software to batch extract stills from video: SuperC - also good for conversion, audio extraction, etc.

2010-04-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to keep posting content others can use while I weather the drastic increase in intensity of my body's storm.

So I wanted to post the stills from the butterfly on lilac video.

While GOMplayer can do it, there were some aspects of its operation which made it less than idea. For a single image cap, its great, but for doing a series within a video, or the entire video, it falls down.

Irfanview has the capability in theory, but it doesn't seem to like Vista 64 professional, and to get it to extract images from an avi file, you need to go looking for codecs, installing package after package until you find one it likes... and even then it has a tendency to crash. Pity, Irfanview is one of the great success stories of the open source software movement. I have a friend whose employer could provide any image editing software on the market, and they use a customized version of irfanview.

I tried several other programs which promised this capability and didn't.

A particularly appealing program turned out to be "snoop-ware" Softwarepile Free Video Studio Decompiler.

Fortunately McAffee's siteadvisor toolbar caught the danger.

If you don't use this great free tool, its = to driving a car without airbags or seat belts.

Finally I tried Super (C). This article does a better job of explaining what it does than I can. Its a very powerful media manipulation program. It doesn't rely on external codecs, so it works seamlessly on any computer.

The interface is a bit hard to figure out, but its simple enough to use once you get used to its Control Panel / Windows Management Console like interface.

It was quick, it worked great, and doesn't much with the performance or operation of ANY other software, while ALL the other programs I tried did so.

Here's their homepage. I expect I'll be enthusing about other things I can do with it in the future.

Attention spam commentators... my blood work shows abnormally high testosterone levels, so I have no need of your enhancement products

2010-04-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

I have changed the requirements for leaving a comment to include the word verification and the use of some sort of id.

I just don't have the resources to weed through a lot of people who have an untoward interest in my personal life... which is matched only by their ignorance of my preferences and prowess. ;>

I'd also like to be able to respond to people who stop by and leave well wishes etc., and since right now my brain is about as sharp as a butter knife, I need this to be as easy for me as possible.

Tulip 3d! My first 3d photosynth!

2010-04-17T02:43:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, Microsoft uses DHTML / XML in their embed codes, and Multiply doesn't allow it.

So you'll have to click on this link.

But its worth it, and you don't have to be a member of anything to view it.

Ms ICE will generate panoramas you can use in Photosynth, but to get a 3d virtual world, you need to work directly with photosynth and take a whole cloud of overlapping photos.

This came from 18 different photos- you can view the individual ones which went into this in Photosynth so I'm not posting any here beyond this one sample.

I'm pleased... I think I should be able to "grok" this

Rug folk: What would you like to see me do 3d to help understand how to do rugs? Something about a start perhaps, or when to use a double stitch?

Stunningly beautiful hillside at Fort Harrison St. Park - My first real ICE pan experiments

2010-04-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Video

But what's REALLY cool is MS Photosynth, which lets you play with them 3d

This video's pan

Another- this is of the lovely foliage at the base of a large old tree with a "cave" in its base.

Have fun... this has HUGE potential!

"So how do you keep the toothbrushes all-together?" The history of the name of the craft and a fun anecdote

2010-04-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

The "toothbrush" in toothbrush rugs!

From Toothbrush Rugs - Loving them, making them, discussing them

Below: The rug I started while in the hospital... imagine me lying there with an IV in one arm, trying to stitch the rug without stitching my IV into it...

From Toothbrush Rugs - Loving them, making them, discussing them

A dear multiply friend who will only be referred to as "Suzy" posted a question to one of my remastered rug videos:

so is there ever a time when you use a toothbrush? I wonder why they call it a toothbrush rug?

This is a fun question, and one which has caused no end of consternation and confusion over the years.

About 5 years ago when I first set out to bring this ancient folk craft into the 21st century with my blog and tutorials, I considered using a different name for the craft... one with less ambiguity.

My best idea was "Recycling rugs" but in the end, I decided to stick with the anachronistic name out of respect for the generations of master rug makers who have come before me and used "toothbrush rugs" or "toothbrush handle rugs" as their name for the craft.

As you can see in the photo above, the toothbrushes are used to STITCH the rugs, they are not a constituent of the rugs themselves.

It could be that in twenty or thirty years, we will have to give it a new name because the flat handled toothbrushes which work so well for conversion into needles are almost impossible to find, having been replaced by ergonomic batter powered ones... I expect a toothbrush with bluetooth or wifi out any time, probably from Apple.

Similar items can be easily turned into needles- the strongest and best are small detail/trim paint brushes. Plastic handled spatulas can work, but my experience is that these are often made of inferior grade plastic and break very easily.

One time I even made a needle out of one of those little discount cards that goes on your keyring. I was at the doctor with my wife, I had my bag of goodies along but somehow the needle had fallen out.

Now the fun story:

I've been "evangelizing" about this craft for decades. So it was that 17 odd years ago when I found myself among a lovely group of folks near Duluth MN that I gave classes. These ladies (all my students there were) were incredibly quick to learn, as most of them did knitting and quilt making.

One dear Frau however was not able to come to my classes as she was in the hospital. As it was part of my responsibilities to visit our folk who were so situated, I offered to give her a one on one tutorial at the hospital.

She happily accepted. Little did I know that this Grand Dame was the matriarch of a large family, all of whom had come to be with her in her convalescence.

I get to her room and find it packed to the gills with good solid blond haired ladies of all ages

Each of them had a fist full of toothbrushes

So the question which I was asked by one of the inquisitive ladies was "We've been trying to figure out how you get the toothbrushes to stay together in a rug for hours!"

So that's a bit of history and explanation, and one of my fondest memories from a time and a life which seems like several alternate universes removed from the one which I inhabit today.

Toothbrush Rugs- Starting one using a half hitch stitch, video tutorial remixed

2010-04-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

Doc's still have no idea what's going on, I don't have nearly enough meds, and the ones I have don't do much... so I've been trying to find ways to get engrossed in the creative arts... and that's working as well as anything.

The software I discovered this week is phenomenal, the likes of which I've been dreaming of for a decade.

This is part 1 of the video.

I'll mix part 2 and some more rug stuff tomorrow.

I am quite keen to suggestions / requests for new videos or videos to redo to assist people in learning and practicing this craft.

Christ broke free of Hell on Easter - I got sucked back into it (physically)

2010-04-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

I can barely get my fingers to type, and I'm relying on my touch typing skills because everything I see is blurred... its as if either the throbbing of blood in my body or the oscillation of the electronics- though supposedly both at frequencies we're not able to perceive- is affecting my vision.

Wanted to drop a place holder post here, as I had been so very active before last weekend.

The crazy itchiness and spasms of my muscle fibers has grown and enveloped me. Its affecting more than just my right leg now. It itches so badly I feel like I'd like to peel back the skin and connective tissues and scratch the muscles themselves!

Along with that, the deep impenetrable fog.

We did have a perfectly lovely time with family on Easter. My cousin Dan- about the only relative on either side who's close in age to me- came over, as did my brother and his family. So Tess and I got good family and kinder time in.

They LOVED the slide I dug in to the side of the hill, and gave it a right royal workout... it never budged!

So... I'm outa here till this abates or we figure out what is going on.

Usual procedures and policies- if you're local or passing through, you're welcome, and if you have other means to contact me, feel free.

So what's wrong with me? Ah, isn't that the trillion dollar question. Many minds have exploded trying to figure me out!

2010-04-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've been back among the living for about a week now. Its nice... basically what happened folks is that about 10 days into December, my pain level reached the point where it shut down the higher processing of my brain. I was either feeling every single bit of the pain without any abatement, or I was incredibly tripped out.And in the mean time, my life has pretty much been taken over by going for scans, going for bloodwork, repeating the scans, repeating the bloodwork... early on I made a quip that by the time this is all over I'd be seen by every specialist except an OB/GYN. Well, that's indeed how it's played out. Safer than ever on the OB/GYN front- the ONLY abnormality they have found is significantly elevated testosterone... so much so that they gave me the third degree about whether I'd been shooting up steroids and androgens!

So that's where things stand... one bone broken and reenforced with a titanium rebar, countless others close to needing the same.

I've had less pain and fog the last week to 10 days, but that's not to say it isn't there... when my muscle fibers aren't itching and spasming and trying to push against each other like two magnets... I'm able and inclined to push off my awareness of the pain in favor of more pleasant stimuli. I have the pain tolerance of a rhino on meth... I used to eat habanero peppers for the exquisite burrrrn.

So what now... where to now?

I will always maintain that pain in itself is NEVER a benefit or blessing. What ever good comes from work through it comes in spite of it.

I did not need this pain to learn about pain... I've been caring for a woman in pain for the last 12 years, and most of my professional experiences have been with people in physical, spiritual, or emotional pain.

Indeed, I was surprised how WELL I understood the emotional, physical, and spiritual dynamics of living in AGONY.

So nope, no benefit there... nothing to be learned I didn't already know.

What is NEW, and is quite overwhelming to face, is that while the pain may not have changed me, the over all medical condition has DRASTICALLY changed the laws of the universe under while I operate.

Before this, I was at my physical prime... I was getting more exercise than ever, but I was in good shape even in Chicago because of stairs and walking.

I could always trust that if I used good sense and good body mechanics, my body would go along with any plans I had for it.
I could always count on being able keep my focus on something other than pain when ever needed.
I could always count on my innate sense of balance, time, and space and my cat like reflexes to keep me physically safe.

NONE of that can be assumed now.

It is no exaggeration to say that I've had to relearn how to do most everything- as anybody who's had bone or joint problems- especially hip and leg- knows and has lived.

There's not a single aspect of my life which is not affected by the limitations which my osteoporosis ridden body and volcanic pain place on me!

So that's why I chose this new picture for my avvy. Its an arted up and negativized picture of Savi, our alpha female papillon.

How much will I get into the various events which have happened? Haven't a clue. Some of it makes for pretty riveting story telling, but having lived it, I'm not at all certain I want to take my newly reacquired lucidity and apply it to that task.

BOTANIST- is there a botanist in the house? I need to know what kind of chestnut tree this is

2010-03-30T02:36:00.000-07:00

I took hundreds of photos of the buds of these chestnuts which grow wild as underbrush in the glen by the creeks (see most recent Ambrose romp video.)

I know its chestnut

I know it doesn't produce edible nuts

I know it grows wild as a weedy underbrush in Indiana.

But I don't know what kind it is, and as I'd like to do a slideshow from first bud to this point, it'd be really nice to know and be able to label/tag it appropriately.

DANKE!

The obligatory spring posting of "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" / Mayan Apocalypse Cord

2010-03-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here's another BRILLIANT song from "Unicorn Frolic" artist Greg Landgraf

Mayan Apocalypse Cord

This is a great video of the old demento classic

Cadejo : Noun - Legendary Central American cow sized Goat - Dogs

2010-03-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

I'd never heard of this beast until today, but I needed some figurative way to describe what a bizarre version of surreality I'm living, so searched for mythical bests, found this one.

From the wiki:

The cadejo (IPA pronunication /ka.�e.xo/) is a character from Belizean, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan,Costa Rican, Honduran, Guatemalan andsouthern Mexican folklore. There is a good, white cadejo and an evil, black cadejo. Both are spirits that appear at night to travellers: the white to protect them from harm during their journey, the black (sometimes an incarnation of the devil), to kill them. They usually appear in the form of a large (up to the size of a cow), shaggy dog with burning red eyes and a goat's hooves, although in some areas they have morebull-like characteristics. According to the stories, many have tried to kill the black cadejo but have failed and perished. Also it is said that if a cadejo is killed, it will smell terrible for several days, and then its body will disappear. Some Guatemalan folklore also tells of a cadejo that guards drunks against anyone who tries to rob or hurt them. When the cadejo is near, it is said to bring about a strong goat-like smell. Most people say never to turn your back to the creature because otherwise you will go crazy.
In popular etymology, the name cadejo is thought to have derived from the Spanish word "cadena", meaning "chain"; the cadejo is at times represented as dragging a chain behind him. There is a fairly large member of the weasel family, the tayra, which in common speech is called a cadejo and is cited as a possible source of the legend.

See wiki article for the rest
Image from: http://trianacartoon.blogspot.com/2009/07/el-cadejo-version-triana.html

I thought the idea of my "pain" and "condition" being a white and a black dog-goat was very apropos!

On suffering and art: A dispatch from the other side of the looking glass

2010-03-23T05:29:00.000-07:00

Its a widely held belief that great suffering creates great art. I had a friend in high school who was brilliant and creative, had every advantage. But this friend wanted to be an artist, and thought that suffering was necessary for it. So this friend's life became the sort of soap opera that you'd see portrayed on a Lifetime movie, or featured in an episode of The Shift

I thought that was bunk then, and I even more so now that not only have I dedicated most of my adult life to helping those who are suffering, but have spent several months feeling like I had plasma burning paths through large parts of my body.

Here is what I have observed however: While I've lost a great deal of my cognitive abilities and faculties, my creativity has stayed with me, and often provides the only real relief from the onslaught.

I can't speak for any other creative person who is similarly suffering, but for my part, pain has not made me more creative, it has merely taken away my ability to do much else.

Every day I go for a nature walk with Tess (which is a wonderful thing, no small miracle, and the answer to years of prayers) and take pictures or video. The only extent to which pain impairs this is that since I'm often dizzy from it, I can't bend or lie down easily or safely, nor go scrambling around creek banks or rocky outcroppings to get just the right point of view for my photo.

I have taken GIGABYTES of photos and hours of video while this has been going on. The photo in this blog is just one of over a dozen I took this morning of chestnut buds along one of our creeks, and I've been documenting the bud's progress since they first appeared. The place is a very special one for me and Tess... its where a little creek joins a larger one. We spend a lot of time together there.

I rarely have the presence of mind to organize these pix & vid , much less post them... that's more analytical than creative... that has been significantly compromised.

For me, pain has been like an acid bath... its burned away anything not vital or essential. A group I don't necessarily endorse has collected a wide array of sacred texts which speak to this.

For myself, this text from the first chapter of my namesake's first epistle often comes to mind:

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
⁴to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
⁵who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
⁶In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
⁷so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
⁸and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
⁹obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (NASB)

I think of this passage so much because most of the ways I experience the pain is that of some sort of fire... be it plasma, lava, matter and antimatter combining, etc.

Among my close circle of dear hearts who have been such tireless supporters, constantly being the mirrors by which I am bathed in the light of God's love, we more often remark on these texts:

1Co 10: 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, andhe will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.(ESV)

2Co 12:7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. Forwhen I am weak, then I am strong.(ESV)

The wry remark made being "Would that God did not esteem me so highly as to count me worthy and able to bear the blessings of such hardship"

One other remark which bears repeating is one I made the other day in a text message.

"When medicines fail, God does not... the house finch still come to feed outside our window."

You'd be astounded how long it took me to compose this post dear friends... but I've had so much on my heart I wanted to speak about, and since at the moment my dizziness is preventing me from doing much else...

I hope I can issue forth a few more dispatches from the other side of the looking glass, and even more, come around online and see and hear how you all are doing. I so wish my ability to type and read were not so severely attenuated!

Having given voice to what my pain is like yesterday, I tho't it important to give you another glimpse of life on the other side of the looking glass.

Time for tea, the cat's ready...

The few details we know, and why I'm still not much online - A diagnosis without etiology, etc.

2010-03-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Nothing is clear in my life these days... not my thoughts, not the cause of my conditions, nor the future course of it.

After...

Four months
Hours spent in every known scanning device
Litres of blood and urine drawn and tested

Here is what we know: Diddly/squat.

OK, we know a little more than that. As my first x-rays at the walk-in clinic back in early November suggested, I do indeed have osteoporosis. VERY severe osteoporosis. So severe that the doctor wrote for the best and most expensive osteoP drug on the market- Forteo- and insurance approved it right away.

We know one other thing: My testosterone levels are significantly higher than normal... so much so that the doctor asked if I'd been shooting up 'roids and testosterone like an MLB home-run king.

Yeh... right... were I taking additional testosterone, I'd look like sasquatch, and sound like a foghorn.

We don't know what caused the osteoporosis.

Nor do we know why I am still in such inexplicable unbelievable pain on a daily basis.

My surgeon has determined that my gamma nail has set properly tho, so he's signed off on my care... we're looking under all stones to find a doctor who will either treat my pain or help find its cause.

So far that's been difficult, which is why you don't see much of me online, and won't until this is addressed.

The pain- more than the pain meds- leaves me in a fog/haze most of the time. I'm often disoriented in regards to space and time... I trip over things not there, run into things... and remember, before all this, my reflexes were so acute that I did all sorts of crazy things balancing on the bongo board.

Along with the pain is usually very severe muscle spasms. They are primarily in the areas of the body most affected by the osteoporosis but not exclusively.

The pain and spasms started before my femur fractured... so either they and the osteoporosis share a common cause, or they're just comorbid.

I just can't words for the pain... but perhaps this will suffice to convey how severe it is... I often find myself wondering if phantom pain could possibly be worse than what I'm experiencing on a daily basis... I wonder if I'd not have done better to have the leg amputated? Consider that... consider what a lover of the outdoors I am, how vigorous and vital I am, that the pain is such that amputation seems like the greener grass.

There are lots of good things happening in life... most especially that Tess and I have spent more time outside together in the last 5 weeks than in the previous 5 years... its an answer to many prayers.

Thanks for the comments and caring and praying... I so wish I were able to be online interacting with you, but interacting with this maelstrom which is working its way through my body takes all I've got... and then some...

The photo is one I took of my reflection in the creek which runs along one side of our property... seemed like a more apropos image than the wheel chair one. I did some FX to it... maybe I'll do a post about them someday...

Living with pain and its limitations AND what I've learned about myself in this

2010-02-24T02:54:00.000-08:00

A friend responded to my blast this morning thusly:

"enquire within"
sometimes just being still and asking the body what it's trying to tell one leads to insights about physical ailments...I do not say this flippantly, the best way to health is regular communication with the usually unconscious parts of oneself.
I wish you all the best in finding your way back to a pain-free level.

This is what I've been doing most assidously... because nothing else avails or is available to me.

In the past I thought force of will was enough to conquor anything, so I didn't heed the yellow and red lights my body was giving.

I'm learning to be aware of them (firstly) and actually follow them (secondly.)

I can't assume that I'll be out of pain or provided proper pain medication until one or the other is the case.

I've not really learned anything about pain or life I didn't already know... though I would never have dared tell my wife or anyone else suffering "I know how you feel" as it turns out, I did have a pretty good idea of what it was like to be subjected to torrential pain. I had a pretty good idea of how it reduces the person to a primal / primitive state, and so forth.

I have been watching and observing very carefully what is of my essence, and what isn't. Most every day I've taken pictures, enjoyed watching the birds and the puppies in our backyard, and so forth.

Rejoicing in the blessings of beauty, family, and friends is of my essence, and is present even when in most abject and dire circumstances.

So is being artistic and creative.

Caring about the pain and suffering and needs of others has remained constant as well. Though I could not visit my terminal relative, I employed my artistic skills in such a way as to provide him and my family comfort.

There are several other ways that being a "bleeding heart" towards those in need and suffering has still been present in my life, but they're not mine to speak of... suffice to say that as much of my time and effort even now goes into caring for those whom I love who are spiritually or emotionally needy as into anything, and I'm quite pleased at this.

Beyond that... I can't say what is of essence, and what isn't.

I care about all of you and miss interecting with you, but being present here online is greatly complicated by my constant state of overstimulation by the pain. Its such a level that I often times can't really process ANY stimuli.

I miss you folk, and there's something about doing this which of my essence, so I'm trying to find a way to reengage more, but I am going to be cautious and not make promises.

Before that, I need to find ways to follow through more on my creativity with the rugs, pictures, and video. My soul yearns and burns for more of that even as my body burns in torment.

I'm either out of my mind with pain, or from the pain meds - no news

2010-02-14T05:35:00.000-08:00

I keep waiting for the pain to break or the docs to have a clue as to why its happening... neither is the case. Most of the time I'm either out of my mind with pain or from the meds to control it.

Terminal situation still ongoing... don't know how long this sunset will last. The photo I made with Psa 46 was appreciated, and I'm working on another those rare seconds of the day when I can tell up from down, etc.

Thanks beyond words to all who have been thinking of / praying for me.

If you have another means of contacting me, feel free to... nothing else in all reality could affect or drain me like this pain does and is. So call, write, stop by, sail up the creek... I'm not in a bad mood or bad way, just unable to interact with or engage much reality beyond the pain.

Calling surgeon tomorrow to try to get better pain management, see the endocrinologist Weds to find out if he has any guesses, or if we move on to the next specialist. Still think I'll wind up seeing every one EXCEPT ob/gyn... pretty safe on that not being an issue!

Have taken some brilliant pix, had some great times with Tess and friends... but my moments of lucidity and functionality are few and fleeting.

The photo is subtle wry humor at my condition of life... click on this link to read about it and you'll understand.

A dear person to me is imminently terminal

2010-01-31T04:01:00.000-08:00

I've alluded to this a bit previously.

I still don't think I should be going into the details in public, but yes, a very dear person to me was just given a confirmed diagnosis which means this person will die. It could be very soon or "just" soon.

What makes it especially hard for me to both cope with and talk about is that there are some deep level connections / resonances between this and something which happened to/with me when I was in the hospital, something I've still not figured out how to talk about.

So... thought I should at least make it clear that there is imminent loss in my life.
We're frantically trying to work the logistics of my many tests and scans and doctor's appointments such that when the imminent becomes actual I will be able to go to the funeral.

If you know me from real life, odds are you know this person. If you don't, its certain you don't.

About this poignant picture

Given the circumstances, I had to go with something true to my deepest artistic sensibilities. The picture is from the Wiki commons-

Jheronimus Bosch 4 last things (death).jpg

My right femur broke for no apparent reason, have been in hospital, now in PT, still no etiology

2009-12-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

Its been a wild time for me of late. A week ago last Thursday I spent half the day in MRIs and a bone density scan. Before I even got my coat off, the doctor's office was calling because they'd scheduled an emergency appointment for me the next day. On arriving, I found out the bone scan had revealed I'd broken my femur right below the joint, and emergency surgery was scheduled for the next morning.

Went in for that, they used a relatively new procedure to put a 1/4" rod in my femur so it could bear load again. The bone scan revealed significant ostepoenia, especially in the top of my femur, along with several other "hot spots." These hot spots, and the absence of any other apparent cause for the pain I'd been in and the broken bone (I suffered no accident, when not making rugs had been very physically active and fit) the concern for cancer was raised.

So I was in a sub-ICU unit, beautiful place, top notch. Were I to get into personal details here, I'd be singing the hospital and nurses' praises, and I am writing lavish thank-yous to them.

The next day I had a consult with an oncologist, who ordered a CT scan.

A week ago today a different oncologist told me of some anomalies on the CT scan which, combined with the afore mentioned "hot spots," had them concerned that I was in stage 4 renal cancer.

What a fun day that was! Additional scans were ordered, these ultra-sound. They revealed the anomalies were benign cysts. We didn't find that out until the next morning though. It was a rough night for me, my wife, my family and friends.

I was discharged that day, but will be in physical therapy and off my feet for quite some time, as I have been since about my wife's birthday.

We've ruled out many horrible things as the cause, but we have no idea why this has happened.

I don't generally post about my personal life here- I have other places for that- but since this has resulted in a much more prolonged absence than I had planned, and will continue to keep me away, I wanted to offer a word of explanation.

I'm not checking email often, but if you want to know more of the gory details and medical stuff, drop me an email, and when I'm up to it, I'll either tell you about it in private, or direct you to my personal blog. I've not been updating it either, but a dear friend of mine has been keeping people there apprised for me.

My friends and family, doctors and nurses, have been wonderful blessings to me through this. I have no complaints. Merde happens- why shouldn't it happen to me?

And yes, I was working on a rug while in the hospital. So imagine me there, IV in one hand, cuffs on my legs to keep circulation going, being taken out for scans several times a day, working on a rug!

The Sari rug - and now for something completely different!

2009-12-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

Here's the photos of the most unusual rug I've ever made

This rug is NOTHING like I've ever done before, or ever will again... I cut the strips very narrow, stitched very loosely except the final row.

I like to do different things with each rug... and having done this... I don't expect I'll do it this way again.

Colors worked well, but not ones I liked.

Mostly made from saris I "rescued" from an ignominious interment in a landfill when we lived in Chicago.

Toothbrush Rugs: Don't launder, used a foaming carpet cleaner & My most elaborate "pattern rug" explained

2009-09-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Summer is usually the down time for toothbrush rug making... you're outside, in the garden, hiking, etc.

For years, one of the "selling points" I've used for these rugs is that you can put them in the washer.

This is true- you CAN.
Years of accumulated experience however has led me to the conclusion that this is not the best way to clean them for the following reasons:

It reduces their life span
They are hard to dry
Non-colorfast fabrics can bleed out and affect the other fabrics or items in the washer.

Plastic bag rugs, ones made from umbrellas and hosiery are not damaged and you don't generally have the color bleeding problem, but plastic bag rugs are the hardest to dry of all!

From now on, the only ones I'm even going to consider laundering are ones made from hosiery or similar.

Instead, I suggest the following three step process:

Take the rug outside and give it a good shake. If you want to get in touch with your inner pioneer / Amish person, even hang it on a line and beat it out.
Spray the rug with a foaming carpet cleaner- both sides
Vacuum it up with a shop vac or a normal floor vac set to rug / carpet, again both sides.

This will clean the rug at least as well as washing it, it will last longer, and you don't have the "how do I get this thing to dry" problem.

With fall blowing in (we're under a high wind advisory today, the phrase is literally true here) I'm sure my mind will be back in this groove more often in the future.

The picture above is of my mother holding my most elaborate and successful pattern rug. I call it my "Berger rug" because I made it for Berger Park in Edgewater, the neighborhood in which we lived in Chicago.

Its an abstract / symbolic rug of Lake Michigan and its shores.

The blue center is the lake.
The tan area is the shore and the dunes in Indiana.
The light green on the right is the fertile farmland of the lower peninsula of Michigan.
The dark green on the top and left is the the wilderness of the UP of Michigan & Wisconsin.
I bet you can guess the final rings of blue and white- the sky.

kicking a man already falling down by Rev Peter (Mr. Dr. Tess) List is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at listig.multiply.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at listig.multiply.com.

Stitching a rug while balancing on a bongo board: Don't try this at home, or anywhere else

2009-07-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, no one has suggested a new video idea for me yet, and I had friends by to help me shoot a few days ago, so I decided to finally live up to my boast that I can stitch a rung while doing anything, including while balancing on a bongo board. Hence this video.

Planning the colors for a rug: A conversation with my mother about a most atypical rug

2009-07-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

Some time ago, I set my new camera up on a tripod and shot some videos of me and my mother doing "ruggy things." This was one of the better videos of that lot, though I do notice that the camera couldn't make up its mind what the color temperature of the lighting was.

What would you like to see a new, good, well lit video of? / "I'm not dead yet, I'm getting better... I think I'll go for a walk..."

2009-07-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long time no post... I'm still alive, still making the rugs.

I have a new video camera, and I might even have someone who can use it to shoot a video while I do a rug. I know my previous videos often left much (almost everything) to be desired... its really impossible to shoot a good video in a room dark enough for a migraineur, on a tripod, while you're hoping what you're doing is in any way visible.

Better camera, have well lit places to shoot, and friends to help me now, so... post a comment or send me an email about what you'd like to see, and it'll be my pleasure to work on it.

One leather skirt = a 9 inch rug center

2009-03-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

Skirt specs: Size 12, knee length.

This is the center of my "retina recovery rug." Next I'll do blue jeans, doing one pair at a time. I have a whole series of photos showing how I chose which jeans to go with this skirt, etc., to do as a tutorial for how the creative process works, but that will have to wait. Our female dog gave birth while sleeping on me last night, so... .

Toothbrush rugs: Improved videos- basic stitch, finishing off a rug AND photos of the "gentle pastel rug"

2009-03-02T01:45:00.000-08:00

FINALLY!

I finished the gentle pastel rug
I shot some well lit videos in a quiet place.
I came up with a name for this rug- the "Brisk Rent Riot Rug" (its obtuse, its supposed to be, don't try to understand it. )

I've been wanting to get some better videos shot and this rug done for 2 months now! This rug could best be categorized as a "thank you rug" or a "gratefulness rug." There are some people from our previous lives who have stuck with us, prayed for us, loved us, helped us out, when few others have done any of those things. They don't (to my knowledge) read my blog or facebook page, don't know its coming, never asked for it. They've been masks of God and means of Grace to us, and turn about is fair play and well overdue!

First- the video showing the basic stitching technique:

Watch Toothbrush rugs- doing the basic stitch | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Next, a video showing how to finish a rug off or tie it off.

There is no "right" way to do this, but this is what works for me!

Watch Toothbrush Rugs- finishing one off | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I hope these videos are clearer and more helpful than the ones I shot in Chicago, but if there's any way I can make future such videos more helpful, I'm always game. I'm a great rug maker, but I have no pride when it comes to these videos... especially since I usually shoot them without help of anyone else behind the camera. In this case, my wife was asleep with a brutal migraine (what other kind does she have? ;< ) elsewhere, so I had the time and space to set up a tripod in a bright quiet place.

Now some stills of the rug

This is the finished rug

This is one of the most beautiful rugs I've ever done, I'm glad to be giving it to such beautiful people... and I hope its at least a decade before I work with Pink again!

I have a "retina recovery rug" in progress which is made of a leather skirt center, and will have jeans around the outside, but I've not gotten around to finishing my rather detailed [me... verbose and precise... never! ] description of how I chose the colors and shades of jean to use, so... that will be for another time. It certainly is turning out well, and you should see the expressions of people when they see me stitching with LEATHER!

An already excellent site updated- Laura-Jane Whimfield's tutorial

2009-02-17T06:58:00.000-08:00

The site "Whimfield: modern pre-industrial living" is an utter delight! Laura-Jane is so talented and is an excellent teacher. I wish I knew a tenth about any one craft as she knows about a vast array of them.

This talented lady has updated her already excellent tutorials on the one little craft in which I happen to have some facility. Do check it out!

Kudos, Laura-Jane!

Why yes, the cat DOES have my tongue- and here she is! And here is a little of what I'd be saying were she to let go

2009-02-17T04:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, the cat does have my tongue!

I don't generally post these days unless I can say it well, and lately, that muse just hasn't been with me. Instead, I've been chopping wood, taking care of Tess, blitzed out with either allergies or a cold, fencing in the dogs, and so forth.

I have several projects in the works rug wise about which I wish I were posting.

A photo expose of my "retina recovery rug" which will have a leather center and jean body.
A video about repairing a rug which has suffered the ravages of an overly agitated (agitating?) washing machine or dog... or both
Rug stories... there's always rug stories

So when my sinuses let up or the cat lets go, that's what I'll blog about. Until then, enjoy the cute kitty! Most of the pictures in the slide show are of her hiding among the boxes of rug mat'l in the garage, as is the photo below. I also took a particularly difficult piece of fabric and made a cozy cove for her, but as soon as I approach she jumps out to rub against me, so no photos of her in it yet.

Phoebe was our cat, we gave her and another to my parents when we moved in 1997. The other cat died, but Phoebe is still fine. She was the fiercest of the kittens from her litter, but now she is very affectionate. She loves tormenting the Papillon dogs when they are outside, she always knows how far their leads will let them go, or how small a space they occupy.

This is my favorite picture of Phoebe

Toothbrush rugs: And now for something completely different

2009-02-07T02:08:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still making my rugs... but like most things in my life right now, I've been too busy doing life to talk about it.

I'm almost done with this beautiful pastel rug which while artistically luscious couldn't be more contrary to our aesthetic. So I'm going to give it to some dear friends from our former life who have been supporting us in many ways. I don't think they read my blogs, so it'll come as a surprise to them. The pattern had been three rows of the pink pattern to one of the teal, but as of the current row, I'm not sure that I have enough teal to finish a row, so I'm doing three strips pink pattern to one strip teal. That way, the mathematical pattern is maintained.
If I run out of teal to intersperse, I'll use up the pink. A "problem" or challenge all rug makers face is "what do you do with the scraps." Sometimes I make hot pads out of them, sometimes I start a new "sister" rug, but I've another rug in the work which involves pinks and pastels which is destined to be a gift, and once its done, I think I'll be off pastels and definitely pinks for a decade, or until someone pays me enough to overcome how much I dislike the color.
Yes, I know... people keep encouraging me to sell my rugs. And when people have seen them and offered me something reasonable, I'm game, but I HATE bargaining, and I'm as bad at it as they come (think Bryan in the market in Python's The Life Of...) so...

Next I'll be doing something REALLY radical, I'll be fixing this rug. Its one my mother made of my wife's uniforms when she was a professional of a certain sort. However, my mother does not stitch as tightly as I do, and some of the mat'l was rather flimsy, so a huge section of it has disintegrated. So... just because I love taking this craft to places its not been before, I'm going to cut off the bad part and stitch two or three rows on as an anchoring boarder. I'll be shooting video of several steps of the process.

Here's a slideshow of my rugs, for those who are new around here, where ever 'here' is

Brrrr... OW! But otherwise OK, just not online much

2009-01-14T01:50:00.000-08:00

I've been having such a grand time chopping wood again, I overdid it and have some very sore muscles to thank for it... that and a lot of wood which is keeping us warm this week, so its not all bad.

But because of that, its painful to spend more than 5 minutes at a time online.

We're generally well.

Thanks for visiting, the notes, etc., I'll get back to you/blogging when it doesn't hurt my back to do so.

Back home again in Indiana, but too busy unpacking to spend any time online. Hoosiers- call, text, or stop by (AM or dinner time only pls)

2008-11-26T01:22:00.000-08:00

Wrong season, right idea. Yep, we've traded the hustle and bustle of Chicago for more relaxed and friendly (and friend filled) environs.

The move was a nightmare... we would have done better to hire my homeless friends to pack and load.

Already though, my H.S. best friend has spent the afternoon with me because he knew I needed a friend and because he missed me (it'd been over a year!), and have made contact with or seen several other dear ones in my life.

Most of our stuff is still in boxes, it'll be a while before I have the time or energy to spend any amount of time online.

Hoosier folk reading this though- please do call, text, or stop by! Our general schedule is awake and upacking 5a - noon, noon-2 wind down, 2-? nap, ? - 8, dinner and "Mama time", so mornings or around 7pm are the best time to catch us. Eventually that will even out / change, but right now, there's a lot to do.

Setting down new roots, even in fertile familiar soil, takes a lot of time and energy.

Barb's move was equally inept- about half the boxes marked for her went here and vice versa, but it was less stuff and a shorter distance, so less opportunities for destruction.

Free Comments and Graphics

Its a good move for us to make, but its not made without sadness- A Fond Farewell to Chicago... and to all of you for a while too

2008-11-13T03:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, I've been busier than... a campaign worker taking down all the yard signs, or a reporter trying to get an interview with anyone who's ever known and might work for the Prez Elect.

But I've been taking time to shoot some of my best, most picturesque, and most poignant videos and stills of Chicago ever. They'll mostly have to wait- I've not even turned on my computer (or been able to get to it) in days, and mostly did so today to burn backups off.

Here's some of the stills I've taken. They were all taken with my new cell phone, the aptly named (for me) Samsung RANT . It shoots at the same resolution as my still camera, but generally the photos come out better.

My mother is very excited about us moving, and we need to do this, but there's much I love about Chicago, much I'll miss. I love the Lake of course, the mass transit (best in the Midwest), the eclectic diversity of the place. People wise, Snark rocks, but beyond that, there aren't any, other than "my" street people. I hope someone else here comes along who will look at them has human beings worth a second of their time, and not just as another pile of refuse to step over.

Anyway, this is but a sample of what I've shot this week. I'll probably still be uploading backlogged Chicago stuff when we've lived in Indy a year!

PS- I see some have taken me up on my challenge, but I'm not going to do anything other than thank those who have commented, and urge on those who haven't, until well after we're settled in in Indy!

PS#2- Barb's recovering as expected. She showed me her place yesterday... very nice, I'm happy for her. Pix and vid of that are in the que too.

PS for rug folk- been doing some very creative things, lots of stories and pix to upload there too, once we're settled in!

2 Parts Frustration + 3 Parts Boredom + 1 Part Ingenuity = Rug needle made from a discout key fob

2008-10-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

While my wife was in the hospital, I took a rug with me back and forth to work on while on the CTA. One day I made the mistake of leaving it in "Savi land" and she decided the needle was a chew toy. I got it back, but forgot to put it with the rug.

BIG MISTAKE!

We show up for her follow up apt. after discharge and... no needle. Initially I tried using a key, but the head of the key was just too fat to fit through. Then frustration and ingenuity came together, and I cut up one of my discount key fobs, and it worked. It wasn't ideal- it was a bit shorter than I'm used to, and I was always worried about giving myself a hellacious papercut, but it worked! I love the "make do with what you have on hand" aspect of this craft!

You can see me discussing this in the video below, and also see the canine culprit, angelic papillon puppy Savina...

Watch Toothbrush Rugs: Discount Key Fob as an emergency needle in Video Blogs and How to Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Not dead, just moving- Look for better tutorial videos Dec / January as a side effect

2008-10-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

I tend to keep details of my personal life off this blog for the simple reason that they're not relevant to this craft. What my tastes in music are, where I live, and so forth having nothing to do with anything, and easily become distractions. (I've been involved with the medium of computer-aided communities and communication since the days of 300 baud dial up modems, so I've seen a lot of flame wars, etc.)

Those who have asked via email, I'll say a bit more to, but I love this craft so much that I don't want me, my life, or my personality to distract from it.

That being said, events in my personal life obviously affect the frequency and nature both of my rug making, and of my posting about it. I've mentioned before about working on rugs while waiting at the doctor's office and in my wife's hospital room (she is disabled and is hospitalized several times a year.)

So, a big one is coming up which will take me off line for a while, but when I come back, my posts here and especially my videos will show the difference. We're moving to a new home in a different but not very distant city. That home has much better lighting and "studio" resources, and that city has several other rug makers in it, so I may get the chance to showcase the craft of others, should they be willing to.

I expect I won't have anything new until December at the earliest, and for a week or so in November when the move itself happens I probably won't even have access to email, but go ahead and keep sending me questions, and as I have the chance, I'll be happy to answer them as always.

Happy rugging, be well, God bless...

Questions asnwered: Too many / few doubles and clockwise or counterclockwise?

2008-10-25T15:23:00.001-07:00

These came in by email, and I always figure if one person is asking, many more are wondering.

The last first- too few:
When the rug is cupping up, you've put in too few double stitches. If you catch it early on, and depending on how tightly you stitch, what kind of material you're using, and so forth, usually no drastic action is necessary. Just make sure to put a normal number of double stitches in the following rows, and it will probably flatten out.

In extreme cases though, you will have to pull out a row or two. Except for where you've joined one strip to another... I usually just snip the joints out rather than try to pull them through.

Ripples and Waves- Too Many Doubles:
This is more often my problem, especially since I stitch so tightly. Unless you're sewing very loosely, or catch it early, you'll almost always have to undo to correct this.
The rug I'm working on currently has had this problem, but I'm trying to correct for it because I'm sewing it very loosely and using much more thin strips of fabric than usual. No, its not the rug most recently pictured. As per my next post, our life has turned upside down, so...
So, you'll be able to see when I'm finished with my "sari rug" as I call it how well trying to counter the ripples worked.

The big exception to both of these: Working with fabrics with spandex (such as hosiery) or plastic bags.
Both make wonderful rugs... I think rugs made from old pantyhose feel the best to walk on. But both of these are very unforgiving. Its easy to overstretch any fabric with "give" in it, only to find your rug is trying to self form itself into some bizarre 3D shape. Plastic bags, on the other hand, will NEVER stretch out. You have to keep the number of doubles just right with them from start to finish.

Clockwise vs. Counterclockwise = right / left handed
It was recently observed that the rug start I posted October 2nd seems to be going in a counterclockwise spiral. In the picture, indeed so it seems. When I work on it, however, its back is towards me, and I stitch with my right hand, so I actually go clockwise.
Left handed people tend to spiral in the opposite direction.
As I do many other things left handed, I've had no trouble teaching people to do it that way, and can stitch left handed also, just not as quickly.

A new beautiful start (Photo) - But I don't know what to call this one yet- suggestions?

2008-10-02T02:00:00.000-07:00

This equals only about 3 hours work- starts are easy for me. The pattern will be three rows pink print to one row teal print, as long as the teal holds out. I havea LOT more pink than teal.

This will DEFINITELY be for sale... its contrary in every way to our idiom, but beautiful none the less.

I don't know what to call this rug though... country kitchen, cute and cuddly...? Suggestions?

As dark and painful as things might be, I can always work on my rugs, and turn to my wife.

(She'll be calling her doctor during his calling hours today... once that's figured out, we'll call mine about my foot.)

Another rug done: Sister of Monarch rug- pictures and video, and a preview of my next rug

2008-09-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

I was working on this before the wedding rug, but had to set it aside to rush that one into reality in time for my best friends' nuptials.

The inner area of it is made of leftovers from the final row of the rug on the left, the "monarch rug". The tan rows in both rugs are from the same sheet. The final variegated rows of the new rug were one entire sheet.

As you can see, it came out EXACTLY the same size as its "older sister."

In the video below, you can see some the details better, and also hear and see what I have planned for my next project. We're keeping the sisters, while this next one will be for sale or gifting.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

First peek- The "Fade to Black" wedding rug

2008-09-17T01:52:00.000-07:00

Since my foot is preventing me from doing much other than sit at the computer, and I'm waiting for the videos of Ike hitting Indy to finish upload, here's the first peeks at the finished rug. I'm desperately hoping the ones I took with my SLR come out better, but no idea when they'll be processed (or how they'll turn out- the film in that camera was at least 5 years old!)

This shows the best color, but the arpeture was such that the entire rug did not make it inside the area focus (wide arpeture = shallow depth of field)

I had to phutz around with the settings on this to make it look halfway decent... REALLY hope the SLR version of the picture comes out MUCH better

A new slogan for my rugs: "Art you- can/are supposed to- walk on" - Help me decide

2008-09-12T01:08:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mention in the previous post, the "fade to black" rug inspired such awe in those who've seen me working on it / the finished product, that a new slogan for the craft came to mind. I had been calling it "Beautiful recycling" which it indeed is, but in talking with those here who were admiring the rug someone said (I think it was me, but I can't recall right at this moment),

"Yeh, its art, but art you can walk on"

So, I'm working on honing that down to either

"Art you can walk on"
or
"Art you're supposed to walk on"
or
"Art designed to be walked on"

Let me know which of those you think is most apt, or give me your own variant. That's your "assignment" while I'm off fulfilling filial piety and being a happy David as I see my Jonathan from college years get married.

The rug is done, but I'm leaving for the wedding presently so pix and vid next week

2008-09-12T01:04:00.000-07:00

I did get the rug finished in time. It turned out being 29", by far the largest jean rug I've made. It only took 19 days, which for a normal rug would be nothing, but it took quite a toll on my fingers, knuckles, etc., doing a denim rug that quickly.

I'm leaving for the wedding after I've taken care of getting my wife to the doctor etc. I'll be back sometime next week. I won't be having as long a visit with my dear mother as usual since her oldest living cousin died yesterday, so she's leaving for her funeral Sunday. I'll stick around till Monday or Tuesday doing household maint. for her, then head back.

So look for pictures and video of the "Fade to black" jean rug sometime late next week.

Toothbrush rugs: Sequencing with blue jeans, extending a color, and a fun bit of folk art.

2008-09-06T04:42:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy lately working on a rug for my best [college] friend's wedding, which is a week and 3 hours from right now. I'm almost done with it.

He gave me his old jeans, which I thought was fitting- out with the old ratty life, in with the new life.

I separated them into darker and lighter blue. Generally this corresponded to wear/age, but not always. My pattern (after a colorful center I'll explain in a post when the rug is done) was to alternate darker and lighter strips. This technique my mother calls "sequencing" and I like the term. I'll finish it off in a really stunning way, but again, I'll wait to talk about that for when the rug is done.

Here is a close up of the rug, showing the effect of alternating the lighter and darker strips.

This shows you very clearly the two different "blues" which went into this rug. I GENERALLY cut the lighter blue wider because it was thinner and more worn.

This was a Juniors 7 which I had to cut up to add to the darker more intense mat'l to get the rug large enough.

When I do this, I start blending in the strips of the new clothing source before I've run out of the old, so there's no jarring demarcation, and the rug evolves organically and naturally.

Toothbrush rugs: Tutorial on how I plan a rug, pix of my two current ones

2008-08-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

I've not posted to the rug blog in a while, nor about the rugs on my regular blog. So I thought I'd give you a couple of pictures showing how my current rugs are progressing and a video discussing the planning of my next rug (which I'll start while back at my mother's for her 80th birthday party.)

The Sari Rug

The "Daughter of Monarch rug"

This one is almost finished.

The Video

This video discusses how I go from a pile of clothes to a plan for a rug. As usual, this will be a free style rug. When making them for my own purposes/pleasure and stress relief, that's how I do them. Patterns or more precise sequencing put more work into it. I'm willing to do that from time to time as a challenge, but usually I only do those when its on commission or for a gift.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

And here's a slideshow of all the rug pix I've uploaded to multiply

See you all when I'm back from my mother's 80th, and recovered from same! God bless and keep you all!

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

2008-07-16T03:26:00.000-07:00

My mother's mother had a sign with this quaint saying on it hanging in her kitchen, and now, I can REALLY relate.

For five weeks now, its been "boot camp" intense and busy in all regards here. We had our anniversary in early June, then Tess got sicker, then we had to get everything ready for the trip back to the place-formerly-called-home, while there our car engine almost melted, my brother's alcoholism (and family's passive enabling of it) both exploded back in my life, and my dog died. We got back reeling from all that, got a new puppy, then Tess went into the hospital.

During this time, Barb's been trying to recover from a shoulder injury without going under the knife.

So if it's had to be done, I've been the one to do it. Well, I'm done done in!

I am going to have to be pretty selfish for a while and take care of and love myself because... somebody's got to!

I wish I could say when I'll be back to visit your pages or post more blogs, but I'd best not make promises I just don't have the ability to keep.

Here's a few pictures from the various aspects of my/our life to tide you by.

The Sari rug is my "travel rug" - I work on it on the "L" at the store, etc. The Son of Monarch I started in Indy, worked on at the hospital, and now work on at home.

I'm sure I'll try to sell the Sari rug (really is made from Saris!), its not at all our idiom, but I've not had the time or energy to pursue selling the 50s/confetti rug on Ebay or Etsy. We could REALLY use the money, but... I've such a back log of things I have to do which I know how to do, that going into uncharted territory just isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

Tess and I went to the Lake this morning, and saw this

(Taken with the Aiptek, it actually got the color balance right for a change.)

Savina is up to 5 pounds, and is very cute and cuddly!

The monarch rug finished & tutorial on matching an orphan color/pattern

2008-06-04T10:05:00.001-07:00

I finished the "monarch rug" today, which is apt, since my wife loves it and helped me plan it, and today's our 13th anniversary.

So we will be keeping it, though I have very similar materials around should anyone see it and want one like it.

Here's two videos I shot with Tess as we planned the final row. The challenge was how to finish off the rug in a way which tied back into the center when I'd used up the entire sheet on the center. So these videos give you a glimpse of our artistic process, and our loving interaction.

It can be frustrating when you use a one of a kind fabric and then need to duplicate the effect of it, but we made it fun, and I hope you can have fun with it too.

Part I

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part II

Online Videos by Veoh.com

One sheet, one week, one rug - The "Monarch Rug" - ¿Finished?

2008-05-13T01:51:00.000-07:00

It took me one week to do this, which is pretty quick, but sheets are the easiest to process. It came out pretty small, just 15" - The Lady of the House definitely wants to keep it (so if you wanted it, let me know and we'll work out a way I can buy similar fabric, etc) but she hasn't decided if 15" is large enough for the niche she wants it to fill.

I'm pretty sure this must have been a twin at most. I didn't measure it before I cut it... I found it while walking the dogs before my final, took it and my heavy duty shears along to the final, chopped it up and started work on it while waiting for the results of my final, and so on. (On those, BTW, "A" both on the final and for the class.)

Rugs: My current one, the two "mistakes" I've made in it, and how I fixed them

2008-05-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

I decided that I needed a nice low intensity, no brainer rug to work on in the aftermath of my final in Anatomy and Physiology. So as I scrambled together my stuff Sunday morning to head off for the test, I grabbed a needle, my best sisciors, and a wild animal print sheet I'd just "rescued."

After the test was over, I had time to kill waiting for it to be graded, and also waiting for the students who'd not presented their final projects to do so. (They'd sat through mine, it seemed only gentlemanly to sit through theirs, even though I didn't have to.) So I got out the sheet and shears, and away I went. This is 2 days work on it. In the overview picture with the uncut mat'l, I added arrows so you can see the rug... it blends into its source so well it took me a while to see it... I thought I'd goofed up the photo!

Now here's closeups of the front and the back. I made two mistakes in this rug.

1) One time I joined a strip, somehow a 3" loop of strip got caught, and I couldn't get it straight. The presentations were about to kick in, so rather than doink around with it, I just made sure it lay flat along the advancing row, and made sure my needle passed through it each time.

I was going to circle it on the pictures below, but it worked its way into the rug so well that I can't even see it. When I first did it, it seemed like just a slightly thicker row, and if you spot 2 to 4 inches of row about 5 rows out which seems thicker, that's it.

2) (This is my most common mistake) I added too many repeat or double stitches as I moved from the rough start phase on to the rug proper. To fix that, I just skipped a stitch when ever I noticed pronounced puckering. As you can see from the pictures, the rug is still a little more 3d than is optimal, but that kept it from getting worse, and the natural evening out of tension will do the rest.

The problem I've noticed in myself is that I tend to think a double stitch is the solution to any problem... so sometimes I've made matters worse not better.

The moral of the story: Yes, you need double stitches, especially early on, but as with all things in life, don't overdo.

The more precise advice for you ruggers out there- pay attention both to the direction your needle is leaning AND to the surface of the rug. If the needle is leaning far back to the left, its time for a double. (Say, 40 degrees or more.) Otherwise, leave it be. If the needle is leaning forwards OR you have puckering going on, skip a stitch.

Yes, this is stuff better illustrated in a slide show or video, but my wife's still "hospital sick at home" and given how my previous attempts to be both the camera man and the rug guy worked out, I'm holding out for when my wife can help me do a quality shoot.

Finished "Poodle skirt" trivets

2008-05-02T01:47:00.000-07:00

They came out slightly different in size. This could be because the seams did not divide the skirt into exact halves, or it could be that I cut the 2nd set of strips slightly thicker. Either way, they came out very well. I'm sure our friend at Diamond will love them!

When rug making is not only recycling, its a humanitarian act to save us from horrible fashion

2008-04-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

I found this poodle skirt last week, which was timely, as one of our dear friends who works at Diamond is retiring this week, and she has a thing for black and white patterns, so I offered to make her a pair of trivets with that scheme.

It was especially fortuitous for the people of Chicago that I needed to do such a quick turn around (I'm taking the trivets in Friday) as Tess' mother, our dear Barb, would surely have prevented me from taking the scissors to it and claimed it as our own. Barb is beautiful, a wonderful mother in law, a quality human being... but such things are best left as fond memories of ones' halcyon youth... rather like the peg legs and jean vests I wore to high school in the 80s.

Now... if I could only get my hands on a pair of candy apple red or lime green 3x hot pants...

Video- stalking the wild umbrella in Chicago

2008-04-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

Online Videos by Veoh.com

(In Elmer Fudd voice) Ssssshhhh, be wery wery quieeet, I'm hunting 'brellas! Its the little things like this to which I look forwards. Each time I walk the dogs, its an opportunity to meet new people, or find new things for my rugs.

Toothbrush rugs: Matching hot pads, yellow umbrella

2008-04-25T01:02:00.000-07:00

I made these for Tess' migraine doctor. We see him today, so as soon as I finish this post I'll add the hanging loop to one on the right.

I like making hot pads for people as gifts. Its easy and quick, useful to the recipient, and you don't have to think so hard about matching the person's decor, etc. I did ask him his kitchen theme etc. last time we saw him.

Of course, I always love it when I find umbrellas to work into rugs. Here's my latest find.

Please take my survey- is this rug as ugly as I think it is?

2008-04-17T01:54:00.000-07:00

The horror... the horror...

Maybe not all materials can be recycled into a beautiful rug?

These are curtains I "rescued." I had hopes they would look better in a rug than they do laying flat, but from the little start I've done... I'm dubious.

Now, Tess and I have particular and rarefied tastes. I'd be glad to hear if someone else sees beauty where I see a mixture of baby foot and dog vomit, but I'm not going to continue working on this unless I have pretty good reason to believe someone out there somewhere might want it when I'm done (either as a gift or sold.)

Thanks!

PS- No improvement on Tess. We take her for her weekly pain shot tomorrow, but if things aren't looking much better, we're going to ask that she be admitted.

The 50s rug- soon to be completed and made available for sale / Update on my wife's health issues

2008-04-15T03:46:00.000-07:00

Click for larger image

I found a lusciously beautiful sheet set last night (outside my friend's Snark's)- it will make a beautiful stand alone rug, but I'm going to use a bit of it to make a final row on this rug. I'll be available for sale afterwards.

I've so many rug projects in progress, it'll be nice to finally finish one. And since this one- as previously discussed, needs more light to work on than my wife is usually able to bear, this will be a very elegant way to finish it, and the sheets will make a GREAT future rug!

So if anyone's interested in this one, drop me a word.

Tess Update

As for Tess, my wife... we saw her doctor yesterday. I give him lots of credit- he takes us and our situation very seriously, trusts us, and is willing to several extra miles to help Tess lead as "normal" a life as possible. So, we're trying a few new things medication wise to see if we can keep her out of the hospital.

The good news is, I found another umbrella for my rugs - The bad news is, Tess is so sick she will probably go into the hospital Monday.

2008-04-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

The bad news- Tess is in status migraine

Were a picture ever worth 1,000 words it would be this one. Tess is so bad that even with our blackout curtains drawn and the only light coming from fairy lights, it was too bright for her. Killian as always was aware of this and was taking care of her.

The good news- I found another blown apart umbrella for my rug!

I'll just finish removing it from its skeleton and cut it into strips. Works great! ... Wonder how many rugs I'll finish this time she's in the hospital?

So yeh, prayers appreciated. I have a MAJOR exam Sunday also, over three chapters, so...

My 50s rug and other pictures

2008-04-10T19:19:00.001-07:00

In my other blog world, there is a weekly picture post, and the topic this week was your hobby. So I created this post for that, but, thought ya'll'd enjoy it too. Since it seems like Multiply images don't work well here, I uploaded all of these to photobucket.

This rug I call my "50s rug" because the colors are reminiscent of that era. I'm not sure if I'm done with it or not. It doesn't work with our decor AT ALL, but it is one of the most beautiful I've made.

I may wind up selling it, I do have the materials to continue it... the problem when a rug reaches this size is, you need to have a lot of space to work on it. A second problem unique to this sort of "abstract art" freestyle rug is... you need to have good and fairly natural light to work on it, as I chose each strip individually by how it "works" with the ones around it. The only "plan" for this sort of rug is to go with the "artistic dao." Well, with my wife disabled with migraines and often needing a low light situation, I don't often have enough light to really make the choices properly.

So here it sits... for now. I'm always game for ideas about it. In the mean time, I work on plastic bag/umbrella rugs when I'm on the "L" or at Tess' doctor (because they're lighter to lug around) and monochrome rugs made from jeans or old blankets at home, since neither needs the attention to color congruity that a rug like the one above does.

These images are all of clothing rugs, but the technique works equally well as a way to recycle old shopping bags, umbrellas, hosiery, etc. I couldn't put my hands on images of those more exotic materials so easily, but if you look through my blog here or the blog I have which is just about this craft- toothbrushrugs.blogspot.com- you'll see them.

Its a great way to recycle time and mat'ls which would otherwise go to waste, and anyone can do it. I can't draw or cut a straight line, I'm a menace with tools, but... I can do this, and have for over 30 years!

Slideshow

Still images

On the poll, and on the new link

2008-04-09T06:53:00.000-07:00

One of my faithful readers told me about another site which has a tutorial. I've not had time to watch her videos (I should really be studying for my Anatomy exam right now) but I wanted to tie up some loose ends (if you'll forgive the pun).

About the poll- my wife is still too sick to assist me with either doing the sewing or holding the camera. So the improved tutorial showing the needle work more explicitly will have to wait for her health to improve.

Someone suggest diagrams... which would be a GREAT idea if I could draw, but I can't. This is the ONLY handcraft I do... all my other artistic endeavors involve the mediation of machines (photography, video, writing.)

So the options are...

A video showing the process from a better angle with better lighting and more explicit commentary.
A slide show with annotated pictures and my narration.

FINALLY- I got to finish a project, even though it was "just" a hot pad.

2008-04-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

I always make my professors a hot pad of the colors of their choice. I made this for my Spanish teacher. Even though the "perfect storm" of ill health which beset me and my wife at the same time means I've given up that class, I still wanted to make the trivet for the teacher.

The hanging hook is the best I've made yet... I used a series of half hitch knots (which are also the ones I discovered work great for making an easy rug start) and then used a "basket weave" stitch to tuck the end under.

The other thing which went very well was how I "signed" it on the back. I do this with most of my rugs, but like the hanging hook, I never quite do it the same way twice.

With both, though, I think I'm on to something which works pretty well. Its in my nature to always experiment and look for ways to make a system better, but... once you've perfected one system, you get to move along and perfect another one!

If you look closely (or click for the full sized view) at the bottom picture, you'll notice I also showed the size in METRIC for my international readers.

My mother's rug stories, another installment

2008-04-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

I shot a LOT of video the last time we were home with my mother, but I've been so busy and sick that I've not been able to weed through the 6 gigs of files to find what is worth posting and where, what should just be kept for family history, etc.

My health has largely returned, so I started in on the project again last night.

When my wife's health stabilizes, we'll shoot the improved tutorial videos for which several of you have asked.

Grandma's unfinished rug which my mother finished, the rug Mama made from her children's flannel jammies, etc.

This is one of the longer and more poignant rug story videos I've uploaded.
<

My mother telling the stories behind her rugs, including the rug my grandmother (her mother) was working on when shedied and which my mother finished, the rug my mother made of all of us kids' flannel jammies, etc. As always, my papillon dogs Hilde and Killian make cameos. I shot in lower frame rate mode to conserve drive space while visiting my mothers', so when people or the camera are moving the video is a bit herky-jerky. My wife Tess also is heard off camera.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Some rugs my mother made "just because" and the papillon' appreciation of them

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Q&A- How long to make the strips? - AND- An intersting site to check out- knitted rag rugs

2008-03-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine just made me aware of this site http://shewhomeasures.wordpress.com

An entry which may be of interest is one on making one long strip from a large piece of fabric.

I've tried similar things before, but found that it didn't usually work for this technique because the corners tended to "rip out." But maybe it'll work for others of you... if it does, wunderbar! Let me know!

I have used a spiral cut with pantyhose, socks, and other very "givey" or stretchy fabrics.

Q&A: So long do you make the strips?

That varies on

type of fabric,
how tightly you stitch,
and personal preference.

Obviously, longer the strip, the more you have to pull through on each stitch. Correspondingly, the shorter the strip, the more junctions you need.

For my purposes, I've found that strips longer than 3' get unwieldy, but my sister who stitches much more loosely than I commonly uses strips twice that long. With the looser stitch, there's less friction. Its all a matter of personal taste.

You know over arching philosophy with this is- this craft should be about fun, about making treasure from trash, not rules.

So... experiment with different lengths and different fabrics. If the strip is too long and gets unwieldy, just chop it, put slits in each end, and do a joint when its time.

HAVE FUN, and do what works for YOU!

Q&A: How much material is needed for a "normal" rug?

2008-03-31T06:35:00.000-07:00

My dear friend is full of great questions today! Glad to answer them. I know being the husband of a disabled professor, that the question one person asks, 10 people have in their heads.

This is a more complicated question though, not quite so suitable to the "Q&A format" of the previous two posts.

There are SO many variables. Synthetic fabrics, for example, are lighter than cotton, which is lighter than linen. The plastics from which I make my umbrella/shopping bag/shower curtain rugs are VERY light, which is why that's the rug I usually take with me on the "L" or to Tess' doctor.

I have noticed, however, that one BIG gym bag full of strips will make a rug about the size of the rug shown above.

I can also tell you that this rug was made out of cottons and cotton polys- probably 2/3 cotton by weight. I weighted the clothesbefore I started the rug, and it came out to around 25 pounds. (Because I've been doing this so long, I knew what size I wanted the rug, and about what size the pile of "raw clothes" had to be to make it.) Zippers, seams, pockets removed, the finished rug was closer to 20 pounds.

So if you use clothing which is a mixture of cotton and poly, and want a rug about this size, this should give you some idea of how much by weight you'll need. For an all cotton rug, you'll need more by weight, for one heavier in synthetics, you'll need less by weight.

One other relevant hint: For my stitching, I've noticed that VERY consistently, 1 foot of strip = 1 inch of stitch!

Q&A: Mixing materials in a rug - The "Levitical myth"

2008-03-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

I decided to make this a separate "Q&A" post because it comes up a lot.

I call it the "Levitical myth" because Lev. 19:19 (among other places in the OT) prohibits the mixing of two different fibers together in cloth.

The specific question as seen in the comment to the previous post was if she could start with flannel and add other things later, but I'm going to abstract it out to be more generally relevant.

Q:Can you mix different types of materials in the same rug?
Will it make the rug weaker or the junctions less durable?

A: In the broadest sense, the answers are "YES" and "NO," but see following discussion.

There's no functional reason why you can't mix different types of fabrics together in the same rug, or even fabric and non-fabric. One of my most beautiful rugs was one with a leather center and a blue jean body (pictures and a video of it are in back posts.)

The major issues are:

Aesthetics- how will they look together?
Functionality- where and how do you plan to use the rug?
Strip size- different materials need to be cut to different widths, or else the thicker fabric will tend to overwhelm the thinner rows, and create problems with the tension of the rug.

On functionality for example... I like to make rugs from plastic bags, shower curtains, and umbrellas to use in the bathroom and kitchen. You'd totally destroy the functionality of these rugs for use in wet areas were you to mix in normal fabrics which absorb water.

Likewise, jean rugs are great for heavy use areas, places where pets and children are likely to get to them, etc. Chiffon might look nice enough as an accent in such a rug, but its not going to be as durable.

But so long as the aesthetics & functionality work, and you adjust the strip width to get a relatively constant row thickness... have at!

Q&A: "I just put my foot through a flannel sheet, can I use it?"

2008-03-31T05:42:00.000-07:00

Q: How do flannel sheets work up. I put my foot through a hole in my fitted sheet last week so figured it's time to rip the entire set up!

A: Flannel sheets work great, but the weak spots or places where its thinned out you'll want to cut especially wide, and avoid having junctions in those spots. For the undamaged areas, you'll probably want to cut it 3/4ths to 1" wide... that should be enough to provide for the weakened areas provided their localized. If a large area of the sheet is getting thread bare or weak, increase that by 50%.

The fabric itself feels great in a rug when done, very cozy, and since its cotton, the tension will even itself out nicely if you add or omit the occasional double/repeat stitch.

You'll find that it doesn't pull through quite as easily as broadcloth, since flannel does have a somewhat textured surface, but I've never found it a problem, and I stitch so tightly that people joke you could use my rugs as bullet proof vests. (Only my grandmother stitched more tightly- when she was done with a rug, she sometimes had to put it under several mattresses for several months to flatten it out! *grin*)

For the needle, I'd recommend one with a nice large hole, but a more rounded tip. If the sheet's already ripping, the last thing you need to do is "spear it" with an especially pointy/sharp needle.

I think a rug made out of JUST the sheet set would look spectacular.
Send me a picture when you're done, I'd love to feature it.

Same applies to other "Rugsters" out there,
I'd love to share your pictures and stories!

The state of things- rugging, living, loving, and occasionally eating (cross posted with the rug blog)

2008-03-16T01:54:00.000-07:00

ABOVE: I'm still recycling umbrellas blown apart by Lake Michigan into rugs. I'm almost done with this umbrella, then I'll be moving on to a ratty windbreaker, followed by a discarded shower curtain.

I don't normally talk about life issues on my rug blog, but since some of you are doubtless wondering if the world really is flat and I fell off the edge of it, this is a rare cross post between this blog and my more personal general purpose one.

I've been very VERY sick- think a stomach flu which won't go away.

I'm taking medicine, have seen a doctor, will be following up, but this has been going on for about 3 months, and it will take some time to recover from that even once my body has.

At the same time my beloved wife has been as sick as she's ever been outside the hospital, on any given day at any given moment its been a toss up which of us is more functional.

So my rug work has been more "background" stuff- cutting up things I've found while walking the dogs, but I've just not had the creative energy to work on rugs, do any of the follow up videos which have been requested, etc.

These pictures are worth the several thousand more words I'd normally type.

See you all on the BRIGHT side of the moon!

Our puppies taking care of us in our infirmities

Toothbrush rugs: Pictures, and what I've been up to lately

2008-03-06T02:06:00.000-08:00

ABOVE: Hilde on the famous "50s rug" - I've paused it at 24", but thanks to recent aquisitions (see below) I have enough similar materials to make several such. So if you'd like to buy one, or make one yourself, let me know!

In terms of making them... not a whole lot. But I have been getting in lots of GREAT new material for them, such that I could probably make 4 or 5 more rugs like the beautiful "50s rug" from earlier posts.

I've also found a nearby charity to which I can take useable clothes, and I'm very glad of that. I'm as passionate about recycling and environmentalism as I am about the rugs, so it just breaks my heart to think of good clothes going to an ignominius and eternal tomb in landfills when people need clothes or could make rugs from them.

Any ruggers in Chicago area... if you need material, let me know, we're overflowing with it now!

And I'm still looking for someone who would like to finish that dear old lady's dream of using hosiery to make a rug!

Here's some pictures of various projects I've taken the last few months.

A trivet I made for a friend's birthday

A doggie rug I made for a friend's chihuahua
(Is he using the hood yet P-?)

THESE TWO PICTURES
Detail of the penultimate row of the anniversary rug

The Anniversary rug- almost finished, just short its final black border band.

The blanket rug against a fairly neutral background

This shows my blanket rug sitting on a complimentary color which I may use to make a similar rug, in this project, etc. The artistic possibilities are endless and exciting!

Rug makers: Anyone want to make a pantyhose rug and at the same time honor a dear woman's memory?

2008-02-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by a person regarding a large quantity of hosiery her mother had saved up to make a rug, but it never came to pass. She would love someone who follows after her mother's craft to have them, the issue is arranging shipping. To protect this person's privacy, I shan't say where she is other than that she is NOT local to Chicago (so I can't just hop on the "L" and go pick them up) but if you'd be interested, drop me a line at my dedicated rug email address, as shown in the picture.

I don't know yet the quantity or weight. I told the donor I'd put out a note on my blogs to see who might be interested, to see if

There might be anyone who really wants to make a hose rug such that they'd be willing to cover shipping costs
There might be someone closer to her than I am.

On hosiery rugs, I'll say this: Though they are among the more difficult to make, they are absolutely luscious when finished. Walking on them is utter ambrosia!

A bit of fun- WTF is this?! And wanna bet if I can make a rug out of both?

2008-02-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

While I've been away, I've been busily saving the environment one t-shirt or ratty pair of jeans at a time. Its amazing how much clothing people throw out, and I'm only getting a small part of it (I've met my fellow guerilla enivornmentalists... sometimes we work together to divvy up the diggings) from a couple of blocks radius.

I came across this today. Lets have some fun... see if
1) You can identify it
2) You can make up a good story for it if you can't.

(I do know what it is based on surrounding "archeological evidence.")

Next, I also came across the shoe below. (I didn't go digging for its soul-mate... ooh, ow... sorry... just too easy... ) because the location wasn't one I'd venture into without a hazmat suit... this was sitting on top of a lid.

Anyone want to make a wager as to whether I'll figure out how to use it in a rug?

I will you know... both of them!

Lifestyle recycling in action... anybody wear a size 7?

2008-02-21T14:08:00.000-08:00

This was just tossed aside in the middle of an alley... it wasn't even in a receptacle. Its already being worked into my latest plastic bag rug. The orange works great next to the "Chicago tribune bags" blue.

I found these in a treasure trove left behind by someone moving out nearby. This is the first time in my life I wish my feet were smaller! But I've not been able to wear size 7s since about 3rd grade!

So if any of you local folk have feet this size, get in touch with me! Otherwise, I'll donate it them to a worthy charity. But charity begins at home, so if one of my amigos or amigas could use these... they're yours!

The state of my rug art (3 rugs on which I'm working concurrently) Monday Feb 18- a cross post with both blogs

2008-02-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

I've been studying Spanish so much today I've reached saturation-, so I thought I'd give a pictorial update on how my rugs are going, and give some more insight into what goes into this personally and artistically.

click for full sized image

The first picture is my "50s rug" which had started out as the left overs from the anniversary rug yesterday. The first few rows are mostly those... then I started rescuing items or being given them which worked with the "dao" of the rug... and away its gone. I'll keep working on it so long as I keep getting colors which work well with it, or until someone sees it and says, "Stop, its beautiful as is, I'll take it!" I put the yard stick diagonally across it because its an oval, so as to give an average diameter.

I work on this rug purely to exercise my artistic muse... to engage and create beauty. I always have at least one rug going which serves this purpose... and I have another in the wings when this one is done. It will have more "pure" colors, and will both look and feel sensual (silks, satins, etc.)

click for full sized image

This picture is a "2-fer" - It shows two similar rugs of a similar size, each is about 18" across.

The one on the left is a jeans rug obviously. I've not worked on it for a long time... what you see is pretty much 2 week's work on it. Then I started running out of jean material, having just finished the "Cheryl" rug. That situation has since been radically rectified- since I started more aggressively seeking to save clothes from an ignominious and eternal entombment in landfills, about 1/2 of what I've rescued has been jeans of various colors and sizes. I could probably make 8 jeans rugs with what I have now, at least half with leather centers as with the "Cheryl" rug, as I've also rescued several torn leather jackets. I probably will do that for my next jean rug, given how effectively the two materials worked in the afore mentioned rug.

The one next to it is my coat rug. You'll notice the addition of a navy coat as every third strip.

Art is still the primary reason to work on rugs such as these, but these unique materials have their own significance. In the case of jeans... there's nothing more "Americana" than blue jeans. In the case of the coats, its to prove my contention that with this craft, I really can come close to making a silk purse from a sow's ear. The material is brutally hard to work with. The center is wool and made me itch (Tess can't even touch the rug!), all three tend to fray out, etc. Stitching it takes a lot of work and burns a lot of stress off.

In that sense, both rugs are very similar. I don't have wood to chop or weeds to whack as I did when I lived locations more rustic and less populace, so these serve as physical stress relief for me. To some extent, any kind of rug does that, but these heavy and obstinate fabrics are uniquely well suited to rug making as the physical working out of stress. Indeed, if I keep making jeans and coat rugs, I'll wind up looking like Popeye gone goth!

Both rugs- like the 50s one above- are ones we'll either give to a friend for a major event, or try to sell. (Unfortunately, I'm the world's worst bargainer... I can't haggle my way out of a paper bag... so if anyone out there is an ebay or arts fair expert, I'd love to be mentored!)

So you see, I always have multiple rugs going... rugs to please the eye, rugs to sooth the soul, rugs to take along to the doctor's office or pharmacy.

The long promised videos of us talking about our Anniversary Rug

2008-02-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

Click for full sized image

I've been wanting to do a video series with my wife where we talk about this rug since I finished it during her last hospitalization. This morning, I said to her, "Honey lets do it" and we did.

For each video, I have both the high res but slower speed Veoh version, and the lower res but quicker for slow connection Youtube version. An extra in this post is the ORIGINAL version of part 2. When we first shot it, it ran too large to upload to Youtube, so we quickly reshot it, watching the time more closely. Thus, for video 2A there is only the Veoh version.

Part 1- Tess' show and tell

Veoh version

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Youtube version

Original Part 2, Veoh only
We both talk about the rug and the clothes and love behind it

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 2 reshoot
We both talk about the rug and the clothes and love behind it

Veoh

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Youtube

Administrativia: The contact form & Please send questions and suggestions for improvement of tutorial videos

2008-02-16T06:08:00.001-08:00

On email and the comment form

I added a comment form to the bottom of every page. I tried to put it in the sidebar, but the widget wouldn't fit no matter what I did. The verification code can be a ROYAL pain... it took me 6 tries to get it right.

You can always send me email to the dedicated email address I posed earlier. When I have the time, I'll modify the image on the page header to include it, but right now... that somewhere below sorting my ties by color and length on my list of priorities.

Please send suggestions for how I can make the beginners' tutorials better

Two people over at Youtube have had some very helpful suggestions, but I've just not had a block of time to put into it which has coincided with my wife being well enough to assist with the camera work.

So until then... keep the comments and questions coming! Really- no matter how picky or seemingly trivial, I want to know how I can make my tutorial videos better and more useful. When those planets do align, I'll incorporate as many as I can.

(One bit of "behind the curtain" info for you though- I do NOT have software which is capable of editing and adjusting the brightness, sound, etc., on videos, nor a machine which has the "horsepower" to run said software, so... if those are issues, we'll do our best with where we shoot the videos etc., but our hands are pretty tied on this count.)

So post them here as a comment, send them to the email, use the comment form, what ever...

How do people chose the fabrics, colors, designs, and themes? - EG, why I paused my 50s rug, and why I'll be back at it

2008-02-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

First, a little fun- Hilde inspecting the 50s rug and the new material for it... which she then proceeded to scrunch up into a nest... for the story and a picture without the dog blocking the way, see below

Each artisan has his or her own favorite way to make these rugs. Some use bands of similar colors, some bands of contrasting colors, some get very involved and create patterns or designs such as swirls [see my "Berger park rug" for one of my only and definitely my best example of this], others are more free form. REGARDLESS of the artistic plan behind the rugs, most rug makers I know like each rug to have a theme of some sort- baby clothes, clothes from a particular era or person, etc.

This makes sense since most rug makers... what ever other reasons they do the craft... share these two common motivations:

To use (recycle if you will) clothes or other items which are no longer suitable for their original purpose.
To create something which represents a person, era, theme, etc.

As I get the chance to post more of the videos of my mother telling the stories behind her rugs, you'll notice that these two themes always play a role in hers. One rug she showed us has the graduation gowns of several of her grandchildren, another the coats her mother wore, and so forth.

I like to refer to these rugs as "memory rugs" and they are one of the most popular kind people make. My "magnum opus" anniversary rug is of course just such a rug.

Some people even like to take clothes which remind them of a BAD time in their life- say, the clothes given to them [or left behind] by a lover or spouse who later hurt them- and make something GOOD of it. They like the idea of getting pleasure out of something which had been painful.

From this you can see why my mother and I (and doubtless others) refer to this craft as our "therapy." Besides the innate psychological benefit of the artistic endeavor and the benefit of "doing something with your hands" there is something incredibly satisfying about converting "trash" to treasure. This is about as close to making a silk purse from a sow's ear as you can get!

(On "art therapy" I should note that it is indeed often used with people suffering severe psychological or medical problems. Indeed, it is a key element of the holistic approach of the Diamond Headache Clinic.)

Regarding my general artistic approach

I've made so many rugs over the 30+ years I've been at this that I've tried most all the various approaches, but my favorite one is the free form abstract one you see in my Anniversary Rug and my 50s rug. I used to try to plan my rugs out from the center to the final stitch, but I found that added too much stress, and I do this to relieve stress, not create it.

Credit where its due- Tess helped me develop the particularly abstract technique I usually employ now, and I love to get her input on my rugs in progress. Tess has exquisite taste, plus, she actually knows the names of the colors I'm using, *grin*

Astounding as it may be to those who know me from other spheres of life, I don't really have the vocabulary to describe what's going on in my mind when I put these colors together. I use contrast and congruence of color and tone extensively, but someone trained in art could explain why- say- the colors I chose for the 50s rug work so well. I also like to incorporate repeating patterns or themes in an almost fugue like way, but again, it would take someone more versed in music to properly express it.

What it comes down to... to get a bit metaphysical on you... is I try to "feel" the Dao [or "Tao" - basically "inner way"] of the rug, and as I add a new color, I assess whether it is of the rug's Dao or not.

The pictures below show this in process. I'd somewhat stalled out on the 50s rug because the balance of things... the contrast and congruence... was starting to show signs of running out as I ran out of some of my earlier colors. Then today, I rescued several items which- as you can see in these pictures- will work very well indeed. So I'll cut them up and keep going. The coat rug is a nice concept- and I hope someone will like it such that I can either give it to a friend or sell it- but this 50s rug is a thing a beauty, and with a sick wife, my struggles in one of my classes, the horrible stories on the news of IEDs and gunmen run amok in the local suburbs, I could really use some more beauty in my life right now!

Click for the full sized image

PS- Besides the dedicated rug email shown in the picture in the previous post, I have added an email contact form to the blog. It is the lowest item on the left sidebar. So please feel free to contact me with questions, suggestions, etc. It gives me as much joy to spread and share this craft as it does to practice it!

Radical idea- an email address which WORKS | The "Febreeze" did the job | Rug circles?

2008-02-13T05:51:00.001-08:00

Grrrrrrrrrrr............. after I posted that last night, I tried sending myself emails... unsuccessfully. So I finally buckled down and created a good dedicated rug making email address.

I used the "coat rug" at one week as the background for it.

It turns out I don't need to ditch my latest rescues after all- the "Febreeze" and "Lysol" worked after all.

None the less, if you're a beginner in the NE IL or NW Indiana area, and would like some help, or some easy mat'l to work with, email me. I've got enough sheets now for my wife to stay happily rugging for at least 2 years.

In my dream world... we could even get a "rug circle" going... sorta a folksier and less intense version of "stitch-n-b~tch". Again... if you're in "The Region" and game, let me know. If you're not, then you don't understand, so don't worry about it.

Any rug makers want some "rescued" sheets and blankets? -or- Any way to get rid of smoke odor besides soaking something in "Febreeze"?

2008-02-12T18:10:00.000-08:00

I found some perfect rug material destined for an ignominious home in a landfill and saved it from that fate- 2 blankets, a sheet, and a blanket which was coming apart (so I finished the job and it yielded two sheets.)

The problem is- the unwitting donor was a MASSIVE smoker, and tobacco smoke is a major trigger for my wife's migraines.

I've "Febreezed" and "lysoled" them heavily, but I'm not optimistic that it will reduce enough of the smoke odor for me to be able to work on them.

So... if any of you rug makers would like them, drop me a note at the address in the image above. If you're local to Chicago that'd be easiest, but if you're elsewhere, just pay shipping and they're yours.

One sheet is royal blue, twin
One blanket is white, twin
One blanket is camouflage, twin
The "converted sheets" look like they're queen size

The reason I think these- especially the sheets, would be ideal for beginners is that they make for nice long strips, the fabric doesn't give or stretch or fray. You do need to use very wide strips- maybe 2 to 3"- but they're exactly what I recommend for beginners... especially after my disaster in trying to give my beginner rug maker wife corduroy to use, *grin*

The blankets are a little tricker- you need excruciatingly thin strips- no thicker than 1/2", and the joints tend to rip out if you're not careful, but they make wonderfully cushy lush rugs.

All of the sudden... I'm almost done with my "50s / pastel" rug

2008-02-04T04:44:00.000-08:00

This is the rug I've been working on lately. It started out as a way to use the scraps from my "magnum opus" anniversary rug, but it took on a life of its own.

The salmons and purples were ones allocated to Tess which she decided to not use in her current rug.

Many of the colors which start showing up from row 7 onwards are things I "rescued" from going into landfills. As I've found new items, any which would work with the chromatic or tonal theme of the rug, I've integrated into it. In the last couple of rows, you'll see a couple new ones appear which I just came across in the last few days. The new burgundy was a covering of a beat up couch left outside my friend Snark's place. The dusty rose striped strip, a battered bathrobe. Going back a few rows, the really bright salmon was the lining to a ripped and stained coat. (When we are given or I find coats, sweaters, etc., which someone could use, we find a way to donate them. Often my MiL Barb gives them to the cold homeless folks she sees by work. We don't want to give them directly to people here, as that's not using good city schmartz.) (I really wish we had some sort of collective here where people could take items- not just clothes- which are usable but which they no longer need, and other people who donate could take them.)

So... if anyone fancies this, speak up now, and tell me how large you'd like it to get. Else, I'll probably take it up to about the customary 26", and decide whether I want to go to the trouble of trying to sell in ebay or etsy, or just keep it around until we have the occasion to give it to a deserving friend.

When I'm done with this rug I'll start another similar rug- I have one gym bag filled with cut fabric, and another with fabric which has been prepped (zippers removed, etc.) but not made into strips.

These colors are VERY much not our idiom, which is why I'll be either selling or "gifting" it, but this has been immense fun. Maybe somebody with better knowledge of music or art than I have could tell me what I'm doing, what the unifying theme is. I know I'm doing some sort of tone play- using complimentary and contrasting tones, but I don't know the technical terminology... I just know it looks AWESOME. Its also fun to work my new "discoveries" into the rug as I go along.

Q&A on rugs coiling up, buckling, cuping up, etc.

2008-01-30T18:05:00.001-08:00

A youtube viewer of my videos, Rona, asks, "when making a rug do they tend to coil? or am I doing something wrong"

They do tend to cup up, this is very common, especially if you pull your stitches tightly as I do and my late grandmother did. She did hers so tightly she had to put piles of dictionaries on them for months to flatten them out.

The basic reason why this happens is that as you spiral your way outwards, each row is longer than the previous one. With my rugs, I've found they tend to increase by about an inch for each row on a round rug.

To address this, you need to add extra stitches called "doubles" or "duplicate" stitches, where you pass through the same bottom/base loop twice. If you don't, you wind up with a very thick stocking cap! (In fact, just for fun, I once made a stocking hat for our dog using very thin strips and this method.)

Generally, you need more double stitches early on- in the first 7 to 12 rows (when the rug is smaller than 16" across) than later.

For the first few rows, you might need doubles every other stitch.

Generally I recommend doing a double stitch every other stitch the first 4 to 6 rows, every third stitch the next 4 rows, and then go by feel.

This will vary by how tightly you stitch and which kind of material you use. The most fool proof method which I'll demonstrate when my wife is up to helping me do a video project is this: Look at the angle your needle is making between the baseloop and the top loop. If it is leaning backwards more than 30 degrees, its time for a double stitch.

Some people have trouble gauging this though, so a similar method to determine whether its time for more doubles is to just put the rug on a flat surface. If you can't make it lie flat easily, with very little effort, then you need to add more doubles.

If you are using a fabric which has spandex or a lot of give to it, you'll need to use a lot more double stitches, up to twice as many, which is one of many reasons I discourage beginners from using these materials until they are more confident with the technique.

Similarly in the opposite direction, plastic bags and very sturdy denim can be most unforgiving... they don't flatten out well.

If you have any more questions about this or any other issue, please post them. I love questions from you- it helps me know what I should be posting about, and helps me refine my teaching technique.

Q&A on rug starts, continued

2008-01-29T06:36:00.000-08:00

This picture is of the BACK of my "magnum opus" Anniversary Rug, the one shown in front view, B&W, in the letter in the Chicago Tribune.

Click on it to make it large- see that "v" shape, with the tail coming off the top left? That's a "fix" I did because the material I used to start this rug wasn't sturdy enough. As the rug grew to immense size, I noticed it was tugging pretty hard at the center. So I reinforced it using the same technique shown in the video series with my mother.

The moral of the story... even if you plan to use something with a loose springy weave for most of the rug, make your start (up to at least 5 rows) from a fabric which does NOT stretch and is very sturdy. Your basic cotton poly blends in a normal dress shirt or sheet work great, or you can even go with something more rugged like a light denim or men's dockers style pants.

I have gotten some more great questions here and on Youtube, and I'll be working to answer them both text and video. Thanks very much! I love getting questions, it helps me refine my teaching technique, and tells me what you need! I'll do it with my wife, since she's just learning to make the rugs herself, so she also asks good questions.

Q&A on how to start a rug, and which materials to use, carried over from Youtube

2008-01-28T03:36:00.001-08:00

Over on Youtube, a person on viewing both my starting a rug from a braid and starting a rug using the half hitch method had this to say on the braid video when I suggested the half hitch as better:

I saw that one first but didn't strike home until I saw this one. Couldn't quite figure out where you were going with the half hitch.. why it was "easy". Makes sense now. (scurries away to find hubbies old t-shirts to practice with)

First off, some historical background: This being a folk craft, the way it was taught and handed down in the past was by expert rug makers mentoring novices. This usually involved the mentor MAKING the first half dozen or so rug starts. The logic was... once you get comfortable with the stitch, once you get used to the fact that you can make "mistakes" and it will self-correct, you can better cope with making that great leap from a chain stitch or a braid to a regular row. I was making these rugs for almost 10 years before I did my first start.

I still think this is sound and is the best way, but over the years I've been teaching this, even though I can knock off a start in the time it takes me to walk the two blocks to the grocery store (and yes, I do stitch and walk at the same time... one of these days we'll have video of it) and have offered them to anyone who wants them, I found that anyone who wanted to learn the craft wants to know how to do it from start to finish.

I've struggled with how to teach this for years (I've been making these rugs over 30 years, and teaching the craft over 20, and mind you... I just turned 40), and its only recently that I decided it was plausible. To key things went into this:

1) The advent of inexpensive high quality video cameras (and if you've only seen the Youtube versions, wait till you see the Veoh versions below... Veoh streams at full D1 analog TV quality!)
2) I made a concerted effort to forget what I knew in terms of how its "supposed" to work, and come at it fresh.

Now... on to the issue at hand about starting rugs. While I do think the series of half-hitch knots is the best way to make an easy and strong start, really the best way for anyone is the one you can "grok"- grasp and put into effect. (Objectively speaking though, braids and half hitches will give a stronger center than a chain stitch.)

Which ever method you use, the trick is always the point at which you go from your start method... which ever it is... to doing the stitch. And that is pretty much the same which ever you use. You need a thumb loop and a base or bottom loop. How you get the thumb loop and how you decide which is your base loop is utterly irrelevant.

For the first stitch, just go through the first base loop and twist the thumb loop over.
You'll probably need to go through the same bottom loop for your second stitch, and after this, it should look almost like a normal stitch.
By the third stitch, which you can probably do on the next bottom/base loop, it will look and act like it should.

The other tricky thing is, for the first few times around the ends, you'll need to do triple or even quadruple stitches, and early on in a start, especially for a round rug, its not uncommon to need to do a double stitch every second or third stitch. When I learned, I asked my mother and grandmother for a mathematical ratio (so many doubles per row, decreasing at at a given rate for each succeeding row) because I always mix science with my art, and art with my science.

And if you would find that helpful... then here ya go... until the rug is well established, do a double stitch every other stitch for the 2 rows, then every third stitch for the next 2 rows, and so on. If doing an oval rug, that only applies to the ends.

That's not as exact as it sounds... it depends somewhat on how tightly you stitch and whether or not you use fabric with give, but I'm assuming (and dearly HOPING) a beginner isn't going to try using old pantyhose for his/her first rug! (Old hose make lusciously beautiful rugs which feel like you're walking on moss, but they are a devil to work with... you can't overpull or underpull or else it cups and pulls and ruffles...)

And speaking of fabrics with some give... my correspondent spoke of using T-shirts. They make fine rugs, and they're the sort of clothes most people have a pile of which should be recycled. (I'm wearing one such at the moment... the armpits are stained and are starting to come open, but... I digress.) Two major things to keep in mind when using fabrics which either have spandex or an open weave such they stretch is...

you will need to cut your strips up twice as wide as if you were using- say- an old dress shirt or bedsheet.
you do need to be careful to not pull the stitches too tightly, or else the rug will cup up into a basket. If you do find yourself pulling tightly, you can compensate by adding more double stitches.

When possible though, the best material for a beginner to work with is an old bed sheet or an old shirt or dress made of a cotton poly blend with NO spandex. You can cut nice long strips with these, you don't have any tension issues to worry about, they slide through the loops easily, etc.

(I thought my poor wife was going to stick her needle through my septum when she came to her next fabric and it was cut from a lovely purple pair of corduroy pants! Cords are as heavy as jeans, but the nubbies make it stick to itself like velcro! )

Here's the high res Veoh versions of all my recent toothbrush rug tutorials and stories:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Welcome Readers of the Tribune - How to use this site & video: the most fun you can have recycling!

2008-01-27T06:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome readers of the Chicago Tribune's Home & Garden section. I'm glad they saw fit to publish my note about my "little craft", and I'm glad you're here.

The best way to use this site is to click on the keyword which most interests you. This blog is a mixture of tutorials, pictures, and stories of what went into the rugs, etc.

Rescued from the landfill for rugs- Veoh high res version

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Rescued from the landfill for rugs- Youtube low res higher speed version

Three rug stories by my mother and some tips too

2008-01-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

I asked my mother to tell the story behind some of the rugs she made. I shot this in D1 quality but at a lower frame rate. One is a rug she made from her mother's old coats. Another is a rug she made of her old dresses A third is one she made of her old bathrobes (I remember going shopping with my father to buy her those!) She also discusses a bit of the technique of doing color block rows.

(The photo is 2 years old of her down at Berger Park holding the rug I made for Berger Park.)

Online Videos by Veoh.com

The problem of lint

2008-01-15T04:40:00.001-08:00

I post my rug videos on several services and on my other sites, and on one of them the following comment was left after my previous video on starting a rug with the half hitch knot:

the half hitch was used for macrame! I should be able to do that! [Rug Goth] do you guys have a problem dealing with the floating fibers? I have been waiting to work on my rug until I can sit out side on the porch because the fibers really fly about the room. I have it all over my clothes, the chair I'm sitting in and I feel as though I'm breathing them. Maybe it is just eh material I'm using?

My response:

I'm not surprised- its the basic knot behind many crafts. Yeh, this is MUCH easier and quicker way to get a good start than the braiding or chain stitching most rug makers use.

Funny you should mention the fiber problem. One of the videos I have from my trip back to your 'hood is of my mother talking about my Grandmother- the rug matriarch who got us all going on this- who refused to use cotton or linen after a while, and used only cotton poly or synthetics for just that reason.

Its also something of a matter of how you cut it. This makes a big difference in, say, working with jeans or cords. If you cut with the natural grain of the fabric, it will fray out a LOT less.

Broadcloth, your light weight cotton poly blends as used for men's dress shirts, clerical shirts, many blouses, etc. doesn't fray unless you go out of your way to make it do so, like cutting diagonally across it!

T-shirt and jersey mat'l doesn't either, though you do have to cut your strips extra wide- at least double the normal width- to account for how stretchy they are.

Generally, the tighter the weave and smaller the fibers, the less lint. I used a few strips of a very coarsely woven shower curtain (think burlap) a few times in my anniversary rug, and I had one strip left over which I worked into my new "remnant/romper room" rug, but that was just too much for me.

Since I swiffer and vacuum several times a week to deal with the dog hair and grime (we have all wood floors- if I don't keep up with it, it feels like we're living on a beach!) , it doesn't usually bother me, but that stuff lost about 1/2 its width after an inch and half of stitching!

Plastic bags and pantyhose of course yield no lint, so if that's your "prime directive" go with them.

Bed sheets are great too.

Dockers type pants/slacks, anything remotely like denim, is going to give you a fair amount of lint.

Perversely, even though Grandma preferred synthetics, after the shower curtain the worst lint problem I've ever had was with some really tacky old K-mart special "dress pants" from the 80s. The weave was loose, the fibers thick, and being synthetic, they stuck to everything like glue. I think I finally consigned that stuff to doggy-bed purposes too.

Tutorial & video: The easiest method to start a rug & chosing colors

2008-01-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this idea when I was tying off a little trivet I made while my wife was in the hospital. I noticed that the series of half hitch knots I made around the hanging loop looked for all the world like the normal row... much more than braids or chain stitches do.

My wife is home from the hospital now, and as she's learning the craft, she was watching and filming it.

My papillon Hilde makes a cameo.

At the end I give some guidance about how I chose the colors for a rug- I start with the start, and follow the "dao" of the rug from there.

Hilde my papillon always wants to be involved with the rugs I make, even the starts, so she provides comic relief!

Text tutorial

Take a thick or heavy strip-in the video I use the button holes strip from a blouse- this will be what you tie around, like the green pole in the picture.
Splice a piece of rug material to it, and from the splice end, start tying a series of half hitch knots until you have a long enough start-
* For a round rug, anything under 6 inches should work, but 2 or 3 inches is sufficient.
* For an oval rug, you'll need one much longer
* For a square or rectangular rug, you'll need a start as one long as your longest edge.

When you have a long enough start, create a loop around your thumb
Insert the needle through the SECOND loop to the right, and use the first loop to the right as your "top loop". You won't have a "middle loop" on this stitch, but you will the next, don't worry!
Twist your thumb loop over, and voila, you're stitching a rug!

For the first stitch you'll probably need to do a double stitch, but after that you won't need to do any more than normal.

Going around the ends the first few times, you may even need to do a couple of triple stitches.

Youtube version

Veoh- Highest Res

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Advanced Technique: Mending a rug made weak by wear or by canine chewing

2008-01-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

When I was last home, my mother wanted me to show her how I use the same basic technique as is used to make the rugs to mend them.

Though these rugs are durable and are known to last DECADES, sometimes due to a weak fabric, a thin strip, loose stitching, or canine chewing, holes and weak spots develop.

The videos

In high quality Veoh only... if you have trouble with viewing them, try them on Google Video or Youtube.

Mending a rug, part 1

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 2

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 3

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 4

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 5

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 6

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Part 7 Final

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Rug making tips from my sister

2008-01-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

My sister is also a master rug maker, though she does things differently than I do (she stitches more loosely, etc, calls it a pick not a needle, and so forth.) When I was last back home I asked her to share her wisdom and encouragement, and here it is!

Online Videos by Veoh.com

A video "tour" of my magnum opus rug, the "Anniversary Rug"

2008-01-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a video tour of my magnum opus, the anniversary rug. I've been trying to get good stills to do it justice, but I've not been satisfied with the detail and color rendition yet, and since I've been promising to show you the finished product for some time, here you go.

Each rug has its own beauty both aesthetically and practically, but Tess and I think this is the most beautiful I've ever made. The design of it was free flowing but you'll notice some repeating elements / colors which unite it together, rather as the repeating theme unites a fugue

So the rug has four parts or stages:

The center which features solid rows,
The main body which features two types of rows:

The first alternates solids and prints
The second alternates solids so that different prints do not overlap each other, row to row

The final stage which returns to solid blocks of color which do not form complete rows but whose length represents and approximates the prominence of those color elements in the previous two stages
The final black finishing row, which echoes the solid black center and provides a visual frame.

It all sounds so planned when I talk about it that way, but in reality it wasn't. In fact... the center wasn't even planned to be our rug! Several of the solids were clothes I wore back when we met and I had a 33" waist, but the rug was initially planned for a friend, and was made up of the handiest congruent colors I could grab when we had to vacate our apartment for a few weeks because the water and heat had gone out and we had to make an impromptu visit to my mother's. The friend wanted a different color palette however, which was fine with us, as by then Tess and I had fallen in love with it. It was at that point we decide to make it a "remembrance rug"- we were nearing our 12th anniversary, and the center worked GREAT with the clothes from that era we'd been saving for just such a rug.

The next stage- the massive main body-I pretty much made up as I went along. I'd pull out an old piece of clothing, hold it up against the rug, and Tess and I decided whether or not it worked.

The final two stages were more carefully planned, to make sure it would finish off as beautifully as it'd started. I even lugged this beast on the "L" and bus to consult with Tess in the hospital room, since though I was making the rug, it celebrates OUR love and life together.

Generally most of my rugs are very "free form"

I throw together 20-30 pounds of clothes (the amount it takes for a 22-26" round rug) and decide what will work together. As I go along, I just try to follow the "dao" of the rug... I let it tell me what will look best.

To do otherwise would take something which is a relaxing stress relief for me and make it work. Some rug makers do much more elaborate designs, and should someone want to pay me enough to adhere to a tightly planned design, I'd do it, but otherwise... I just go with the flow.

The most elaborate design I've ever done is the "Berger Park / Lake Michigan Rug." If I've not posted pictures of it, I'll do it sometime soon so you can see what a more precisely planned rug looks like.

When my wife gets home from the hospital (at current projections, late this week, but this is one of her mist intractable migraines ever, so I'll believe it when she's home in my arms) I'll get a video of us talking about the various clothes which went into it- the dress she wore when we got engaged, my honeymoon silk bathrobe, etc. Maybe I'll have some stills which will do it justice by then.

The high quality Veoh version

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Should you have trouble with the Veoh version, look for it on Google Video or Youtube. I've been trying to upload it to the latter all day, and it hasn't worked yet.

Tutorials: Finishing a rug, finishing off a solid color row

2008-01-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

Background: I was finishing the rug made of the clothes my wife and I wore when we wooed and fell in love 13 years ago, and as she was in the hospital, and the rug celebrates our love and marriage, I lugged the huge rug down on the L and bus to finish with her.

(In a future post I will show detailed pictures of this, my "opus magnum" so you can see more detail. But for ease of people finding tutorials about various topics, I'm keeping those sorts of posts separate from these.)

When I was doing it, she wanted me to explain how you finish a color band row or solid color row, and as I had the camera along to take stills of her with the rug anyway, I recorded my final stitches and tying off of the rug while explaining it to her and answering her questions.

The lighting gives a spooky or film noir overtone, but I think the video is made better by my wife's interaction, as while a brilliant linguist and utter genius, she's just started doing this craft.

Finishing a row of one solid color

When finishing off a row of a given color or pattern, it is best to overlap by a few stitches so that the color is joined when the rug is viewed from any angle. This is especially important when the row is the final row of a rug, as in this case.

High res Veoh version

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Low res Youtube

Tying off the rug

When you're done with your rug, there's any number of ways to tie it down. The stitch is incredibly resilient, it isn't going to unravel or pull loose regardless. Still, this is how I usually do it.

I do the last few stitches very tightly (even for me)
I use a thinner strip or a graduated strip for an even blending of the end of the row into the preceding row.
For the final stitch, I pull it down as tightly as I can,

I run the strip in a basket weave pattern (over under) for three loops along the row,
I do three loops in the other direction along the previous row
And finally I tie it off using two half hitch knots (see previous post about these.)

Again, don't worry, do what ever you want and what ever works for you, but this technique will give you a clean visually attractive finish.

High res Veoh version

Online Videos by Veoh.com