I got crazy with my Color Crazy locker hooking kit! You saw this project as a work-in-progress a while ago. Now I am finished with it, even working the ends into the back!
This is a companion kit to Theresa Pulido’s book Locking Loops. Meant for a beginner to get their feet wet in this uncommon craft, it contains every single thing you need except for scissors!
I am a recent convert to Theresa Pulido’s books and supplies. Honestly, she’s doing this right. I rave about the book Locking Loops here, and wish that I’d stumbled across her publications before the others I have previously purchased. Working this kit, with its pre-cut strips in four colors was my second step to falling in loopin’ love with everything about her stuff!
What I liked about this kit was the freedom to create my own “pattern” or use no pattern at all. Beginners sometimes hesitate to try an entry-level project because the design is not to their taste. Problem solved!
The kit is sold in combination with the Locking Loops book, and the kit’s instructions are brief but refer you to the appropriate instructional pages in the book. This is a good thing, because the pictures and step by step instructions in the book are fantastic!
Doesn’t it make a great mug rug for my little espresso cup and saucer? There SO should be espresso in there! The finished mat is about the size of your average pot holder, and indeed, I find that cotton locker hooking makes for a wonderfully insulative hot pad.
I found there was the perfect amount of materials in the kit to complete the project, too. The canvas mesh background was precut to the exact size needed, which is good because that stuff can hurt your scissors and be awkward to cut, something a beginner shouldn’t have to worry about. Once you’re “hooked” (haha) on locker hooking, it’s a minor detail! The locking medium was bulky weight black yarn and there was just enough… just. Was it so well-planned that there was no room for error? Possibly, but then again, not a lot can actually go awry with the locking medium. Using a different method of changing strands, where you have to weave in every tail at the end instead of tying knots, could make it a close call though. I don’t usually tie knots, but I wanted to follow the directions and I’m glad I did it that way! As for the fabric strips… aaaaaah!
The fabric strips in this kit were cut from batik. Batik is a finely and tightly woven fabric, dyed with a process that colors both sides of the fabric almost equally. These are very nice features for locker hooking fabric — less fraying, less bulk, and no color changes when you strip folds back on itself when pulling a loop through the mesh. Cut strips do fray while you are working with them; that’s just the nature of them. But cut batik strips fray less than other cut cotton fabrics will.
The colors were fabulous! A non-traditional navy: moody midnight blue, a deep rich turquoise, a muted but edgy lime green, and a saturated bold gold offered everything a good color scheme should offer. Variety: a range from lights to darks, from warm to cool. Color sense: this is a nice little wedge of the color circle, making it a wide-reaching but true analogous color scheme. Harmony: all the exact colors of these fabrics play nicely together; none are too muted/dusty or too clear to coordinate with the others. Happy color-obsessed me!
I decided to take advantage of the freedom to create my own pattern, and devised a plan for a plaid. I soon realized I had misjudged the amount of midnight blue I would be using, and had to abandon the plaid about 2/3 of the way done. I admit it was a dark-blue intensive pattern, and that this kit for beginners isn’t intended to support a flight of fancy like this one — there would have been no running out if I had gone for any of the suggested random pattern ideas!
I had literally less than an inch of midnight blue left after making the last loop! I whip stitched that end down onto the back with needle and thread because there was no way to secure it underneath other loops. This is the way I secure ends sometimes for a variety of reasons. Here’s the back, with the arrow pointing to the tiny scrap of blue strip I had leftover…
Now what to do for the last third of this mat, since I’d over-designed my way out of dark blue strips? I had plenty of gold left, one of the most abundant colors in the kit but not one of my go-to colors when offered greens and blues! To balance the interest and detail of the plaid, you see that I came up with these small squares set in a field of the gold. I had comforting lengths of leftovers of the blue and green colors, and still plenty of gold. I like the way it turned out a lot!
I think it looks good from every angle!
So would I use a Color Crazy kit again? If the project was drool-worthy, yes, for sure! But guess what? Color Crazy offers precut strips in different widths in a variety of fabrics, including a plaid and a satin-like one! I will definitely keep this source of fuss-free, prepared locker hooking fabric in mind! (Although, from seeing my fabric stash in my ~studio~ before pics, you know I have enough to locker hook carpet for my whole house and then some LOL!)
In all honesty, I will tell you that Ms. Pulido sent me this kit for free. But I would not change a word of what I said had I bought it myself! A bunch of “hooked on” and “crazy for” puns come to mind — let’s leave it that I am a sincere fan of her books, the Color Crazy website, and this kit! I just wish I could decide which fabric strips to order first!
Happy (Locker) Hooking!
Gail
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