Abigail's Chocolate Kisses Finished

Here is the photo I promised of Abigail's "Chocolate Kisses" pocket pack. She loved it, carrying across the street to The Chocolate Bar tonight, where she ate Oreo Cookie ice cream!

July 2009. 4 and 6 cut wool and yarn. Original design inspired by a chocolate love stamp.

Chocolate kisses hooked

I just finished the fringe on my nieces pocket pack, Chocolate Kisses. I have to bind yet and make the 10 by 10 pack. But I'm done for now because my sister and her family will be here in two weeks for a visit. So I need to move on to hooking Madison's frog tonight.

"I love chocolate"

The chocolate kisses pocket pack mat is coming along. Worked on it last night and added some rose details to the edges since the design was feeling incomplete. I am liking the embellishment that this metallic yarn is giving the elements. I am going to go back to Michael's today and pick up some different yarns to experiment in other pocket pack mats. Hum...the possibilities!

Loopgram: Hooking with yarn

My sister and her family will be coming to Texas in mid-July to visit us. I have two nieces about my son's age, and when they saw his Woof backpack on this blog, they wanted one too. I am going to try hooking them "Pocket Packs" - 10 by 10 mats to attach to small purse-like packs I will sew.

So each of my nieces has told me her desired design. One a frog with a dragonfly, the other a chocolate kiss which, she said, I can hook white if I don't have silver wool.

Now I have gray, but gray isn't silver. So what to do? I went to a specialty yarn shop thinking metallic yarn. They had none. So over to Michael's where yes! they have metallic yarn.

I have never hooked with yarn before, and after working with it last night, I have a new appreciation for all hookers who use it as their primary wool-of-choice. Yikes it is tricky to use. I found it too thin, and easily pulled out each time I tried to ply a new loop. When I tried hooking one row after another consecutively two strands apart, it was impossible to see what I was doing and the yarn flattened out and was very hard to deal with.

So this is what I found with some experimentation. First I used two strands of yarn at the same time, twisting them onto the hook as I pulled it through the backing. I hooked one row across, another row about three fibers away from the first, then back across between the two rows I had already hooked. Hooking in this trench helped me be able to keep my loops high enough and it was easier to see what I was doing. I don't know if it shows well in this picture, but there is a metallic thread running through the yarn and it makes the hooking sparkle like foil on a chocolate kiss.