New home office art -- including my finger-knitted wall hanging!

Well, I finished the finger-knitted wall hanging that I blogged about earlier here.  Overall, I'm really happy with it -- flaws and all.  It doesn't look as neat and pretty as Anne Weil's piece on her blog Flax and Twine but I know where I made my mistakes.  It now hangs over a shelving unit on the wall above my desk in my home office.  Actually I'm kind of excited about making another one in specific colors to hang in my guest room.  It's relaxing to finger-knit and I feel much more knowledgeable about making and using the hula hoop loom now.

However, I also just framed a signed print from an artist that I've admired for some time now.  Ray Ferrer, who states that he 'traded his MFA for a spray can' has some of the coolest art I've seen lately. His official website is called Emotion on Canvas and he has an Etsy shop, UrbanWallArt.   How Ray creates his art is one of the most interesting things to read about.   He only recently began offering signed prints for those of us with lighter wallets.  I purchased the print below -- signed by Ray -- and I love it.  People don't always realize who the subject is -- it's Cyndi Lauper.  So, please check out Ray and his sites.  You won't be disappointed.  Oh, and Ray does commissioned work, too.

Cyndi by Ray Ferrer on my office wall.

 

Almost finished with my finger-knitted wall hanging...

Full view.

Well, I made a few mistakes here and there (live and learn) but, on the whole, I'm pleased with my first attempt at making a wall hanging (or rug) from finger-knitted yarn.  Here are pics of the piece still on the loom (in this case a hula hoop) with a close-up of my work. (Don't look TOO close!) 








One problem I encountered that I understand now had to do with using extra bulky yarn.  I finger-knitted all of the yarn remnants using the four finger method.  For yarn as thick as the black extra bulky yarn, I should have used one-finger finger knitting or simply crocheted a chain from it in order to get it closer to the thickness of the rest of the yarn.  That's why you can see the white stripes of  the tee shirt where I wove it under and over.  Most of the yarn is pushed closely together to the point where the tee shirt strips are invisible (except for the center).  Next time I'll know better.  I'm probably going to go ahead and finish it off the loom as it stands now.  The finished piece measures approx. 15-16 inches on the loom but will be a little smaller after I've tied everything off and pushed the rounds closer together.  I even kind of like the white stripes on the black yarn.  Oh, I should mention that the small piece of yarn hanging off the front towards the bottom of the work is just a marker to tell me that I'm weaving over the doubled piece of tee shirt loops.  It comes off when I'm finished.

Close-up before removing.

I'll post here when it's actually finished and hanging on the wall of my home office.  After that, I'm seriously thinking of making one for the guest room in the colors I've used in the room.  The walls are painted in Benjamin Moore's Spring Bud (a very pale earthy green) and I have accents in yellow and white, etc.  So I thought I might attempt a small wall hanging by finger-knitting the various yellows and greens with (maybe) a bit of white thrown in.  I'll see where it takes me.

Once again, I'd like to thank Anne Weil from Flax and Twine for the wonderful instructions and pictures on her blog for this project.  She inspires me to not only try these projects but to, ahem, improve as I learn.