The first part of 2010 I have really been focusing on my true crafty love, crocheting rugs. I've been adding a new rug to my etsy store just about every day and it has really been paying off - I've been selling more and getting more inquiries about custom orders.

My first actual order from these inquiries was for a 3.5 foot diameter round rug for a nursery. The customer told me she wanted it in pastel pink, orange, green and yellow with yellow being the main color. I ran down to my craft room and pulled some fabric to show her and create her a custom listing in my etsy store.

Making custom rugs is really fun for me, but it makes me anxious too. It takes a long time to complete a rug this large and at about this point, 2.5 feet in diameter, I got nervous and stopped to e-mail her my progress. I was worried that maybe this layout of colors didn't make it look like yellow was the main color. Fortunately, she was pleased and told me to go ahead and finish it.

I finished that orange stripe last night and finished off the last rounds of yellow this morning. Can you believe that the last three rows around took an entire full sized sheet?

I hope it looks good in her nursery, I'll ask her to send me a picture of it in there and if she says OK, I'll share it with you here.

Now what? Well, I've got two brown and white sheets downstairs that told me they want to team up to be a rug, so I'm off to cut them up and crochet them!

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, but I do love all the pink and red candy displays. One thing I hate about Valentine's Day is the "stuff" you can buy for your Valentine - for example, I saw a Valentine-themed plastic toy snow globe for 99cents at a store. I said to Aaron, "I wish people would stop buying this stuff so that they'll stop making this stuff." That little plastic toy costs so much more than 99cents when you think about how much the person who made it got paid (very little) and how much it cost in energy to get it here from China.

Anyways, why am I telling you this? Well, one of my rugs was featured on a blog of a company that has figured out how to make biodegradable garbage bags. They complied a list of functional, pretty, and eco-friendly gifts you might like to give your Valentine. Check it out! Also, they believe in their garbages bags so much they are willing to send you a free sample, which I'm going to do for sure.

I crocheted two rugs yesterday and here they are:

Blue Swirl Crochet Rug


Mocha Vanilla Crochet Rug

Crocheting these rugs was a nice distraction from the mess that is going on in our basement. Despite getting a new sump pump, the basement flooded and is now stinky. I attacked it with a steam cleaner today and thankfully nothing in Aaron's office or in my craft room was damaged.

Seems like forever since I've made a kitty rug. I got a huge piece of black and white striped seersucker fabric that was perfect for one, so here it is!

Black Kitty Cat Rug

And this rug reminds me of stars in the night sky. I just some fabric that I must have had for over 2 years - finally used it! It was a weird texture, nylon and spandex I think, it felt like swimsuit material. Anyways, I had that navy and white fabric along with a polyester piece of navy and white that I wasn't too excited about either. Last night a light bulb went on, pair them and swirl them so they make a big navy and twinkly white design. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out! And I'm so pleased that I was finally able to use those two pieces of fabric!

Twinkling Stars At Twilight Rug

Also, some good news. I just found out this morning that I was accepted into the Indie Craft Revolution craft show in St. Louis this March 13-14 at the St. Louis Artist Guild - so stay tuned for more details about that as it gets closer.

A new rug that I love! I'm not a huge fan of yellow, but this rug is just so cheery and bright that I smile when I look at it!

As always, it is available for you to purchase in my etsy store here.

Another new rug!

I had this blue and green and white patterned piece of fabric for just a few weeks (it is another piece I picked up in Mt. Vernon on our way home from holiday visiting). I really liked it and wanted to use it. Not only is it a great color combination, but Fruit of the Loom was stamped on the selvedge. I didn't know they made fabric for sewing! I thought they were all about the underwear. Anyways, I still had leftovers from that Clothes that Never Were rug and I thought this might make a good addition. But, something about the colors was just off and I didn't like it. After I took this picture, I went down to my fabric stash and found a peacock blue bedsheet that was a perfect match to the blue in the pattern. A little cutting and crocheting and voila! A new EKRA rug.

Just look at all that blue/green/turquoise fabric! I pulled that all off my fabric shelves, for some reason a lot of it has accumulated. Gotta remedy that!

This rug was made entirely of polyester fabric remnants collected from thrift stores. I was thinking of naming it "The Clothes that Never Were" because presumably, all those pieces of fabric were originally purchased with the intention of making a beautiful dress, skirt, blouse, or whatever. That never happened, but they were made into this sturdy-as-heck polyester rug in beautiful watery blue tones. I listed it in my etsy store this morning here.

I'm in the middle of a rug crocheting marathon! It is too cold to pour resin, I'm not interested in mosaicking right now, so I'm attacking my fabric stash. I've been cutting and cutting fabric into yarn and crocheting like crazy - there is a layer of linty fabric dust in my living room to prove it! Here are two of my latest creations (and also new style of photographing them).

Black and White Rug - made with two of Aaron's old t-shirts, black and white striped bedsheet, and a black and white fabric remnant.

Gray and Grey Rug - made with one of Aaron's old t-shirts, a gray velour remnant given to me by Mary Lynn of Dayshift during a destash session, and a black and gray patterned fabric remnant that I picked up at the Mt. Vernon Goodwill on our way home to Carbondale from visiting family over the holidays.

I found this fabric as a bed sheet at The Thrift Store right here in Carbondale. I love the light blue and red combination.

I crocheted it into a set of 3 nesting bowls available in my etsy store.

Today was a long day, and is still going. I have a lot of organizing, labeling, and packing to do to get my consignment stores restocked. I was pretty much down to no stock after x-mas and took a break from making stuff. Break's over! Back to work!

I had so much fun making my Tide Pool Rug that I went back to my fabric yarn bins to see what other treasures were hiding in them. I found these red and orange balls.

Here is a close up of the finished Fireball Rug.

And the whole thing.

Are you enjoying the before and after pictures? I'm enjoying showing them off! The comments on the blog still aren't working, but if you become a fan of EKRA on Facebook, you can leave comments there.

It is a new year and therefore a time for resolutions. This year, I want to take more "before" and "after" pictures of my work. I love looking at other people's before and afters, but can never discipline myself to stop and snap a quick picture. Not in 2010! This will the year of documented makeovers.

Last night, I pulled out all my fabric yarn scraps in blue and aqua and turquoise. See, down there on the bottom, I started the rug - but was able to stop before all the balls were used up.

Here is the result that I call Tide Pool Rug:

I love making rugs like this with all the scraps because 1. you don't know what it is going to look like until it is finished 2. picking the order of the colors as you make it is really fun and 3. it is very satisfying to use up all those bits of fabric yarn.

A close-up.

And, as always, it is available for sale in my etsy shop.