Latch Hook Rug...work in progress

I told you yesterday that we are camping and I brought some projects with me - one is this latch hook rug kit and I gotta say please stop me if I tell you I'm going to start another latch hook project again any time in the foreseeable future!!! I have owned this kit for years (yes, years!) and because I like to start projects but not finish them I did about 1/16th of the thing years ago and then put it away in the craft closet for a very very long time. When looking in my craft room for projects to bring with me I saw this kit and thought to myself 'hey, perfect project for camping' and spent the whole day working on it. Hours. Easy! Fun! Quick! it says on the box...

• easy - yep. 
• fun - hmmm, that's debatable. 
• quick - absolutely a lie. 

First of all - the yarn comes in little bundles and the colors are all mixed together. What a pain. So I spent some time dividing the colors into separate baggies to make that part a bit easier. The pattern is color and symbol coded, so every square on the pattern has a symbol (like + or *)  and you look at the chart to see which color corresponds to the symbol. Separating the colors was my first hour of the project - good grief. 

Have you ever done latch hooking? It is simple once you get the hang of it. You need a latch hook tool, and the kit comes with small lengths of yarn that you tie onto each square of a canvas (using the hook). Wrap the piece of yarn around the tool under the latch, insert the hook and latch into the appropriate square, wrap both ends of the yard into the hook and close the latch, pull the hook back thru the square and yarn loop which makes a larks head knot. Then go to the next square...there should be instructions in the kit, here's a few pics I took to show you:

wrap a piece of yarn around the hook under the latch part, hold in place with your finger

push the hook and latch thru the appropriate square (match color to symbol on the pattern)

put both ends of the yarn in the hook and close latch

pull the hook back thru the square and the yarn loop on the hook,  then tighten the  yarn knot

the pattern says to do one row at a time but I like to work in sections instead. The dark lines on the pattern usually indicate rows of 10, I do a block of 10 at a time and mark out the rows I finish with a highlighter so I can tell where I am easier. in the above photo I've done 2 rows across and 10 rows down, my fingers are showing you the block on the pattern that I am working on.  the highlighted areas are completed. 

my helper, as usual, fell asleep on the job :)

after working for hours - oh yeah, "quick" is how I'd describe this project. 

this is how the yarn comes, all mixed together. 

This is obviously a work in progress but it's what I'm making right now so thought I'd give you a peek - this kind of project is hard to blog because it takes SO long to complete!  I try to "make" something every day and these things just hold me down LOL.

PS: I have no idea why I even bought this kit. I'm not a big fan of roses, this thing is huge, and as Dave noted yesterday when I had it spread all over "it's not even our colors". I thought to myself "we have colors?" Hahaha! I'm pretty sure I'm going to shorten this to a big pillow size instead (less than half of the canvas) and be done much sooner than later with this project! I'll show you when it's finished (unless it gets shoved back into the closet again - wait, no...I'm finishing it or giving it away).