Edith's rug: day 3

Here are the 5 rags plus 1 yarn I am using. in addition, not shown here, is a good quality tomato red woollen coat which Aggie never liked.
Reading from left to right:
1. pink tweedy coat, EBay
2. Russet knit sweater, EBay
3. Fuchsia coat, EBay
4. Orange scarf, EBay - good colour but I am a little worried about the yarn, may be too fragile. I am doubling it up.
5. Alberto Ferretti skirt of Edith's
6. Dyed unspun wool, EBay
Total cost of specially purchased items: £28.85
Hessian: £3.50
Tools: reusable
Total cost of materials: 32.35

Edith's rug, second day

My plan is to use the red rays as guidelines, filling in the gaps inbetween with a hearty variety of pinks and oranges.
I don't like the dayglo orange. But here's the thing: the joy of rag rugs - this type, at any rate - is that if you don't like a colour after you have started using it, you just pull it out and put in a different one. Fortunately I acquired a nice sludgy autumnal orange and a very clear orange - both woollen cloth - which more than amply replace the dayglo orange (taken from a cheap sweater).
This rug is already acquiring a very organic feel to it, despite the fact that the fabrics used for it are from not particularly organic sources such as Marks and Spencer, Next, Primark and Alberto Ferreti (Edith's favourite skirt...now that she is coming out of her illness, thankfully it does not fit her any more so we can say GOODBYE to it.

Sourcing materials

Buying the tools was the easy bit. Now I am having quite a job sourcing materials to turn into rag rugs.

I would be glad to hear from anyone who has any ideas for sources...or even who feels like donating a few bits and pieces themselves.
I have raided everybody's cupboards. I think there are a few suits still left in my DH's wardrobe which he's hoarding away from me, even though he never wears them. While I'm working out my cunning plan to release these suits from captivity and rip them to shreds I have to face the fact that I must go elsewhere for my stuff.

So far I have...

• Put messages on local Freecycle lists. Result: about four nice replies, mostly people who say they will bear me in mind when bagging up charity-shop items in future. And one who said, yes, come and get my bag of stuff ASAP!
• Sent messages round to friends and various groups I am a member of: for example, the West and North West London Doula UK branch. Results: very promising. Lovely doulas are always keen on any kind of recycling activity and several emailed me straight back.
• Left messages on Facebook and Twitter. Results: nothing so far.
• Explored dumps and recycling depots. Results: disappointing. The guys at the local dump (ever noticed that the blokes who work in dumps are always so nice?) told me, regretfully, that they are absolutely NOT allowed to let me root around in their big textile bin. They have to lock it up every night. "The Poles come and raid it otherwise." (Er...how can they tell if they are Polish just from CCTV footage?) There is a big textile recycling depot tantalisingly near me and they aren't answering their emails.
• Checked out the times and days of regular car boot sales near me. Crikey, I had no idea there were so many! Hounslow on Saturday mornings; Chiswick Community College and Hammersmith Grove on Sunday mornings. Many, many more. I am looking forward to my first car boot sale.
• Bought stuff on Ebay. Ridiculous! I am paying postage for everything! And the first thing that arrived was a Wallis jacket which I liked so much I decided to wear it instead. Well, it was only £3.99...

PRODDY small project 2: sunflower bag

I

I bought 4 of these plain hessian bags from Jenni to decorate and possibly give as gifts. This is my first effort. It is a little lopsided but not so's you'd notice. Not sure I want to work much on these bags; I hadn't realised that the hessian is backed with plastic which makes pushing the proddy through even harder work than it is normally.
I've put this bag on Etsy.com for sale. Etsy.com seems to be an enormous site populated by craftspersons far more clever than me so I may have just lost the twenty cents (US $) insertion fee on this; I can't imagine anyone ever finding my little bag among the mountains of stuff there, most of which is in the USA anyway.
For this flower I used scraps donated to me by www.emmalovesretro.co.uk who lives round the corner.
My hands hurt, especially the ball of my right thumb. That bodger is a bugger.
Today I collected another bag of discarded clothing, nearly all bright cottons, from a kind neighbour who saw my plea for unwanted textiles on hammersmithandfulhamfreegle@yahoogroups.com.
Thanks Cheryl!

Edith's rug

My first hooked rug is for Edith. She wants it in red, pinks and oranges. She also wanted some purple but I've vetoed that. I think it will be quite garish enough.
I started by hammering a nail into the carpet in the living room, tying a piece of twine to it and using this as a "compass" to draw radiating lines across the canvas which was spread out a few inches away.
Then with my rotary cutter, ruler and self-healing board ("You aren't making scratches in our table, are you?" says husband) I cut lots of strips from a red wool coat of Aggie's which she never liked. Using a round 25cm embroidery frame I hooked a ray pattern in red and plan to fill it in with pinks and oranges.

Starting my first hooked rug

Jenni's advice is to NOT mix fabric types (wool/cotton) when doing a floor rug. As I only plan to do floor rugs I'm taking this advice to heart.

EQUIPMENT: I am now a hooker and a stripper

It's just over a week since I went on Jenni Stuart Anderson's rag rug course and I have so far purchased:
Bodger
Hook
Speed shuttle (useless until I have a large frame..have requested one for Christmas)
book by Jenni
rotary cutter
non-slip rule
self-healing mat
Rigby stripper I found second hand on Ebay - what a find!
2 different embroidery frames
Hessian  5m
Hessian bags for making into Xmas presents
bargain coats, sweaters on Ebay (must stop doing this)
Aluminium ruler

I have also located several weekend car boot sales locally and a textile sorting facility at Park Royal - who haven't answered my emails yet, blast them.

The nicest thing is that I sent out an email to the Doula UK sorority appealing for old clothes to turn into rag rugs. Got lots of emails back. Everyone loves the idea.

Jenni Stuart Anderson's rag rug course

Over the summer I became a bit disheartened with my toothbrush rug. It is a slow business and creates a lot of dust. I signed up for a rag rug course with Jenni Stuart Anderson at Hackney City Farm. Ten of us sat in a barn made of straw bales and learned how to prod and hook. I found an inexplicable enthusiasm welling up inside me and it is no exaggeration to say that ever since I have been unable to think of ANYTHING EXCEPT RAG RUGS. Strongly suspect some kind of displacement activity going on here...linked to worries about kids, money, my NCT diploma, depression, menopause, money again...

At the course we were each given a piece of hessian and I decided to make a round cushion cover. I now have to turn it into a cushion which is the boring part.
My hands hurt. Having sliced off the tops of 2 fingers hasn't helped.