So I have also been dyeing, since I am coming along in my rows onto colors that I don't have in stock.  Pictured here is probably my absolute favorite of all my colors, Black Orchid 146, that I just hooked into the 10th row (Blue row).  It is a combination of my blue dye and my red-orange.  A lovely purple that I find myself wanting to use in everything I hook.  Maybe I will make it my signature color.  Hum...

Pictured here is the red color wheel family: 201 (red), 202 (red-orange), 203 (orange), 204 (orange-red).  These are some of the wools that I will be putting into my kits for the Glorious Color Caddy we will be hooking at Sauder in August.

I am so grateful to Marguerite Evans who has lent me her frame and Sondra Ives who dropped it by my home this afternoon. 

I have set it up and already started to hook the final 1/4 of the rug.  I have four more rows to complete and I will be finished with this rug. 

I need to dye three more colors before I can go on much farther with hooking this rug.  I hope to get to do some of the dyeing tomorrow afternoon after I pick up Alexander from school.  Since it takes me about four hours to complete the hands-on part of my dyeing process (then I let the material sit overnight in the dye bath), I have to be home for a good chunk of time to do it.  I should be able to get two of the colors done for the Constellation rug, and another one of the twelve new colors of my second Starter Palette that I am preparing for my Sauder class project.

QUESTION: Can anyone point me in the right direction for instructions on transition value dyeing?  I don't want instructions for dip-dyeing transition, but for creating gradated values that move from one color to a completely different color (like from yellow to purple).  I have been experimenting with this, but not with any real success yet. 

Wow.  I am impressed.  This is not just another version of Rug Hooking Magazine.  This is trendy.  This is edgy. This is wonderful.  There are videos, pictures, sketches, stories, chats, and more. This is rug hooking pushing the boundaries.

I am so happy with this online magazine, I can't say enough about it.

Here is the link to sign up if you are interested.

http://www.rughookingmagazine.com/content/rug-beat-1-year-4-new-issues

Seventh Annual Hankamer Hook-In

American Legion Hall

1704 South Main, Anahuac, TX 77514

 JOIN US FOR ONE OR TWO DAYS OF FUN!

Friday, March 2, 2012 – 9:00 – 5:00 pm and Saturday, March 3, 2012 – 9:00 – 3:00 pm

WONDERFUL VENDORS: A Nimble Thimble – Katie Hartner; ONE RUG TWO RUG – Carrie Martin; COUNTRY GATHERINGS – Trisha Travis; DESIGNS BY DEBORAH – Deborah Neslage AND THE STASH SISTERS

VENDORS! DOOR PRIZES! FUN!: No Silent Auction This Year; Rug Show open to the public, Saturday – noon to 2:00 pm; Hookers bring your rugs and show them off

• One day of fun for a happy hooker - $20, includes lunch
• Two days of fun for a happy hooker - $40, includes lunch

Reserve your place by February 15, 2012

Mail checks to Sondra Ives, 4522 Merrie Ln, Bellaire, TX 77401

Payable to The Stash Sisters

Questions??? Sondra Ives (713)665-7749, twoives@swbell.net; Pam Herrington (936)258-7828

Name __________________________________________________________________

Address _______________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip ______________________________________________________

Email _________________________________________________________________

Friday ________ Saturday _______  Both Days ______ 

Amount Enclosed  ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________

DIRECTIONS FOR NEW LOCATION

From I-10 between Houston and Beaumont, take exit 810 which is the 563-Anahuac exit.  Travel south on 563 for 6 miles until you come to a 4-way stop.  Turn right onto Miller Street and continue for .8 miles, turn left on Main Street and travel .9 miles.  Turn right at the large green cannon.  You will see the brown American Legion Hall on your left as soon as you turn.  Parking is in the front.

I am measuring my progress by the rows I finish and I am now working down the 8th row.  That means that I am almost 3/4ths finished. What holds up the show is when I come upon a color that I don't have dyed in my stash anymore.  So I dyed a couple of colors last night and will work on a few more in between other commitments this week. 

On the dyeing front, I have started to dye up a second palette which I am going to be using as my Starter Palette for my dye classes.  The recipes will integrate into my primary palette, so that means I am creating a subsidiary palette that will give me another full range of colors to complement the 67 I already have.  These are the basic Starter recipes that I included in the Revised Edition of my book, The Wool Palette.  I have quite a bit of yardage of the Starter Palette to prepare for my Sauder dye class this August, so I am starting on it already with a yard of 201, my Starter Red.  I liked how it turned out; just took it out of the pot so will post pictures another day.

Just for the record. It is fascinating hooking the Palette Constellation rug because I am getting to double check all my colors.  When I see something off in the progression of color, I am going back and redyeing to see if something was off the first time around.  What I am finding is that when the dry dyes go into solution, that blue dyes are unstable.  If they sit in solution much longer than a week (and then they need to be refrigerated) they turn gray.  When you go to use the old solution, the blue dye has turned into something else.  So this means that any recipe that uses a blue dye of any sort is vulnerable.  I have not found this to be the case with any other color which all seem to last quite a long time (not refrigerated) in stable solution. 

I was at a lost for what rug to put in my shadow box since I have nothing yet hooked for January.  I went upstairs and rummaged through my box of old hooked rugs and came upon a little rug that is perfect. 

It is the only rug that my mom hooked for me.  She and my sister started hooking two years after I began the craft.  At the time, I was living in another state, so I never really got to hook with my mom before she died in '99.  The last year of her life, she designed and hooked Fawn for me and gave it to me for Christmas in '98. 

When I look at Fawn, I am drawn to the sweetness of the animal and the boldness of the flora she encounters.  I am also struck by the  the fawn as she stands alone, her mother nowhere in the setting.  The metaphor is not lost on me.  Only a few months after receiving this mat, I stood alone, my mother gone from this life. 

Yet the mat leaves me not with feelings of loneliness or abandonment as you might imagine, but feelings of strength and direction.  Like the fawn standing proudly on the bank, I can journey confidently in this world on my own.  This confidence was shaped in me when I was a child by my mother who loved me deeply.  So I am comforted by the mat, with the traces of my mother's hand that cut and hooked each strip of wool and worked her initials into the corner.  In this mat, she is still here and she has left me with a powerful message whether she intended to or not.

In this New Year, if there is a mat that needs to be hooked for someone, hook it and give it.  Our time with each other is shorter than we imagine.

As some of you know who have been following my blog, for the last year and a half I have been working with color in my hooking in order to create a simple procedure to hook gorgeous portraits.  I call the procedure VIP (VALUE INTENSE PALETTE) Hooking. 

My sister is the first person other than me to put my procedure to the test, and wow, the results are stunning!  All I did was share the five color hooking principles with her, and three months later, she was done with this fantastic over-sized portrait of Madison.  She brought the rug (Madison) to my house at Christmas and it knocked my socks off. It reminds me so much of the famous portrait of The Girl with A Pearl Earring by Vermeer.  Madison is captured by her mother in this hooked piece better than any photograph could.  She is a true Mona Lisa.  Tiffany hooked it in a #6.  It is about 2 feet by 2 feet, and bound with Canadian Show binding procedure.

Here is a picture of my sister and her daughter holding the rug in front of our tree. 

Santa was good to all of us, but me especially.  Wade and Alexander gave me a Snap Dragon frame for my stand.  I declare it to be the Cadillac of frames now that I have been using it the last couple of days.  Here is a picture of me hooking my Palette Constellation Rug on the Snap Dragon frame.  It is getting BIG and finally I have a frame that can handle it!  My goal is to finish this rug by the end of February.