The Hen Rug is Started!

Every Wednesday, I take my daughter to chorus. Yesterday was not like any other Wednesday, yesterday was the day I started hooking my new rug while waiting for her.
I packed my new lap frame (which my lovely husband made for me, I will tell you more about it another time.) I took all my hand cut wool strips that I had dyed for the project. We took the bus, then walked, and I dropped her there. I headed to the local cafe, ordered a coffee and a blueberry muffin, and sat down to hook.

I started by hooking a heart, seeing what I could do with my muted jewel tones. See, I had an idea that I wanted the colors to look like they were bright and rich colors but as they would appear at night, being lightly moon kissed. After all, chickens roost at night!

This night idea really came to me yesterday morning as I was looking at the colors, and wondering what I was going to do for the background. At first I considered a safe neutral, but safety is not my thing. I thought a grey could work, and was about to settle on that, when the idea of the night blue came to me. As always, impulsive, I pulled my dye pot out, grabbed some recycled vintage wool fabrics, in light grey, greying celadon, and even a plaid in navy and white, mixed a little bit of "night blue" , and over-dyed the fabrics.
I ended up with some variations of married night blues, some a little bluer, some a little more teal, and some almost black, and some grey blue. I have started playing with the background already. I am so happy with it!  

In my little Rhode Island Red's world, it is night time!

I am really enjoying working with the hand-cut strips, their slight variations in width really add a dynamic feeling to the rug, and maybe also a more authentic appearance. I just love the naive charm of this rug! I really hope I will have some time today to rug hook!

Kalon is Finished

Kalon, my little heart is finished. I had a great time hooking this design. I planned but not too much! I made most of my decisions as I was hooking. I love the freedom that gives me.

I dyed recycled woolens from vintage skirts, and used them in the heart. There are no new wools in it. Somehow this makes me happy. There were some plain wools, and some textures. I really like the contrast of the two. The contrast adds a lot of dimension to the work. I did not outline any of the forms as I preferred the soft transitions between background and forms. Rather I used the directional possibilities of rug hooking to create a background that would follow the forms. I lined the back with a piece of soft brown wool, and whip-stitched it snugly against the edge of the heart.


I am planing on creating a pdf of the pattern and offering it as a free pattern on this blog. I hope to have the pdf ready in a few days.

Have a great weekend, and happy hooking!

I See a Rabbit Looking at Me

The Kalon heart design is almost completely hooked, and this morning as I sat on the couch sipping my coffee, I started thinking about what to hook next.

My coffee cup became my inspiration.

As the words of the famous children's book resonated in my mind: "What do you see? I see a rabbit looking at me,"  I started doodling, some hearts, some flowers, and a rabbit full of mischief staring at me.

I am thinking of a circular design, but these are just thoughts at the moment. I am sure the design will evolve as I redraw it, and then as I hook it.

What's in a Heart

When I started designing Kalon, I was inspired by a type of embroidery from Brittany, a region of France, called Glazig.

Then, as is always the case, as I started to draw, the design evolved and adapted to rug hooking. I placed flowers, branches, a heart within the heart. As I was designing I considered balance and movement. However, I did not realize that there was a more subtle reason for my choices. One so deep I was not even aware of it, until on Friday evening, when I stepped away from my hooking to look at the heart, it dawned on me.

I placed five flowers within my heart, one for each of my children.  The three flowers buds on the right, under the protective branches represent three of my children: my two teen boys, as close to each other in the heart as they are in real life, and then slightly to the side,  my 10 year old daughter.

On the left is a single blue flower bud, under a protective branch. This is my 8 month old baby boy.

In the top left corner of the heart, the bud has transformed into a glorious blossoming flower. That is my oldest daughter, who has left the protective branches, but is still within my heart, and will in a few weeks give birth to her first child.

I knew this heart was special to me. I put all my love in it.

Blossoming Heart

Today, I just want to share with you the progress on Kalon, my heart design. I had a little time to hook yesterday. I added stems and leaves to the flowers.

I used vintage, recylcled wools to hook both stems and leaves. Both textured fabrics had been over-dyed in the same pot of green.

The stem fabric is a very subtle plaid, while the leaf fabric is a chevron. The almost solid plaid seems perfect for the simplicity of the stems. The contrasting texture of the chevron gives the leaves a certain glow.

I cut some more strips of wool from my hand-dyeds. I am proceeding slowly, laying colored strips here and there, making sure that I like their color before hooking, enjoying the time it takes to create.

I am hoping to have a lot more rug hooking to show you on Monday. Have a great weekend, and happy hooking!

Resistance is Futile

Yesterday happened almost as planned. I drew the heart design for Kalon on primitive linen.

I cut some 1/4 inch strips of wool.

And then, instead of following my plan, and working at finishing my Moshimer rug, I thought, I'll just hook one little flower, just one.

Then I started wondering what a blue purple flower would look like.

It seems that at that point I lost all self control. One flower led to another, until they were all hooked.

To sum up my day a la Bridget Jones:

Goals accomplished: 0
Fun had: tons!

The Magic of Colors

Yesterday, I hand-dyed some woolens. I started with a cream base from a recycled skirt. I had RIT dyes at home. My goal was to create bright colored wool for my heart design, Kalon.

I plan on using the hand-dyeds in the circular shapes. I placed the wetted fabric on plastic wrap, and applied the colors. I then rolled the fabric into a  burrito and cooked it in the microwave for 5 minutes. I have no precise records. I just mix the colors as I go.

I created this piece using wines, reds, yellows, peach, and a touch of aqua. The close-up shows the aqua a little better.

I dyed a`second piece with more reds and still the magical aqua.

And then a section with navy blue, and muted purples.

They all look so wonderful together!

 I still have some work to do on the Moshimer rug, so I might just draw the Kalon design on my linen, and precut strips today. It will be hard to resist pulling a few loops!

I hope you will try to dye some woolens too. There is something magical about how the colors come together in a piece of wool.

Every Good Hooked Rug should Have its Greens

To go with my pinks, I needed some greens. I picked some more fabrics from my stash of recycled vintage wools, including the dark chevron I had rejected yesterday.

Making green I find is always hard. You don't want screaming green, not too yellow, not too blue, but not too brown. For this green batch I mixed a golden yellow with a little navy blue.

I got a lovely range of greens as they combined with the plaid and chevron patterns on my wools. The piece on top I decided to throw in the dye pot as an afterthought. I am so glad I did. I am particularly fond of it. It came from a vintage Pendleton Woolen Mills skirt, and based on the style of the skirt, I would say a 50's skirt. It took the green so well. It will add a lot of punch to my heart design. I will probably use it as a touch in a leaf. It will make it look sun-kissed. The best part for me is that I love how my greens go with my pinks. 

In the middle of the pinks I stuck a little piece of  aqua blue. I think it makes everything pop. I will have to dye some more of it.

I hope I will have some time today to continue working on my Moshimer Hooked Rug. I have given myself the goal to finish it before I start hooking anything else. Do you ever give yourself a goal like that? I think I need a little encouragement from you to meet this goal.

Tickled Pink

I have more dyed wool fabric to share with you. Today's dyeing session is maybe not as exciting and miraculous as yesterday's marbling session, but  I still love the results.

Once again I picked some fabrics from my stash of recycled woolens. I really like using recycled wool as opposed to new wool. The wools have a vintage charm, with unique patterns, and even though they are of similar thickness, the slight variations add dimension to a hooked piece. I also like the fact that using recycled  wool is closer to the original intent of the craft.

Because I had pink tones in mind, I picked fabrics with browns and creams, or tan in them. I actually did not  put  the fabric with the larger, darker chevron in this pot. I decided to keep it for a different color. The chevrons were a little too dark to give the more subtle look I was after.  Using fabrics with softer browns allowed the pinks to be more subtle, with an old rose feel. My goal was to mute the textures, and use the differences between the cream and tan ground to create variations in my married rose fabrics.

I love the aged pink look. I can see lots of uses for these fabrics, can't you? Next I will be dyeing some greens. I plan on using all these colors to hook a heart I have designed.

There is a lot to say about this heart, but that will have to wait until later...