Some time ago, I found a kit to make a small scale carpet in the thrift shop. For €1.50, I couldn’t leave it behind even though I wasn’t sure how much fun latch hooking was going to be. It’s got 12 colours to make up a scene of a baby elephant and its mother on the plains. Finished size was 40×40 cm so it really wasn’t a large project. It stayed behind in the craft room for some months before I decided that it would be a good ‘no think’ project for these brain-dead end-of-the-year weeks.
Turns out that latch hooking is one of those things that I do actually enjoy because it doesn’t require too much attentiveness. It really stimulates my ‘must finish this’-attitude that I also suffer from with cross-stitching. As such, I can be entertained for hours but forget to do other useful thinks like drinking water and eating lunch.
Latch hooking works by having a sort of thread frame that’s painted in the colours of the threads. You fold a corresponding thread around the latch hook, then pull the latch hook through the frame. The little ‘latch’ opens, and you put the double thread over it and pull back, effectively making a knot around the frame threads. Then repeat that.. an absolutely insane amount of times. 40×40 cm is still maneuverable, but I wouldn’t want to tackle anything bigger, I think. The frame is quite stiff and I managed to rub my left pinky and ring finger raw before I figured I’d put some plasters on for protection. But no matter, after a few days of hours of latch hooking, I got myself some very cute and fluffy elephants.
Once I finished the last blue thread, I had to figure out what to do with it. The instructions say to fold the ends inward and sew down. While that seemed sensible, I still wanted it to be just a little more useful. So I decided to make it into a fluffy elephant pillow. Some white poly fabric was employed for this plan. I basically made a pillowcase and then hand stitched it to the back of the carpet. So now I’ve got an extremely pettable cushion. I also have a fair number of bits of yarn leftover that I don’t have a clue what to do with. So if you have a suggestion, let me know!
