Rapture - Assessing the Pattern

One thing I did with my Art Deco Peacock Rug that really helped was to get color pencils and color a line drawing of the pattern.  It really helped me visualize where I was going with the rug and see how balanced the colors were.  Coloring the drawing also helped me figure out what lines went with what.  (Hasn't that happened to you?  You are hooking away and run into a line you can't figure what the heck it is).  This step was easy enough for Art Deco Peacock--there was a line drawing in the book.  For Rapture I had to create my own.


I spread the pattern on the floor and then got an overhead shot of it from my 2nd floor loft.  I printed the jpg out on plain paper, then used the copier to enlarge it to fill a full 8.5x11 page and printed that out in black ink.

Rapture - Jane McGown-Flynn - 72 x 44

Maybe I should have ironed it first!  It worked out anyway...


The colors are not an exact representation of the colors I plan to use, but it helps define the elements.  As I was coloring it I thought there were too many roses on one side and not enough on the other.  I quickly realized that some of what I thought were Morning Glories were actually rose buds.  The rug is not exactly symmetrical, but it is balanced.


At this point, it is a good idea to run a pencil firmly down the lines marking the edges of the pattern to ensure the pattern is drawn straight.  It can be annoying (and sometimes impossible to fix) when the pattern is drawn crooked and you don't discover it until you have a lot of hooking in.


Now I'm rather to start some wool gathering and dying.