Even good ideas often don't work

Unfortunately the button eyes did not work for Scare-Jack. When I put them on, they overpowered his face and the rug. They were all I noticed about the rug. So I took them off and reassessed.

Since I am trying for an embellished fun stand up piece here, I have now tried appliqued eyes. Do these work?

As for the shape, I had originally planned to run a line around the piece roughly shadowing the elements. But as I started to do this, I was not in love with it and kept wanting to put the rug away and not finish it.

Then my friend Lurie (and fellow TEN-MINUTE RUG HOOKER) gave me a fantastic idea for the final shape of the piece. At the last Stash Sisters guild meeting, she suggested a tombstone shape. What a great idea! Since I want it for a stand up, and to finish it like a pillow, a tombstone shape it is!

Button eyes

My plan from the start was to give Scare-Jack button eyes. As his face was hooked, I realized that he needed yellow triangular eyes. Finding buttons the right size, shape and color was going to be a problem no doubt.

So I decided to pull out my son's crayola clay and make them. I patted a ball of clay flat the width I wanted. Cut out two triangles. Stabbed two holes in the center with a chop stick. And voila, in two minutes I had two button eyes ready to dry and be painted another day.

Sondra's progress on her tote

Sondra Ives sent me some pictures of her progress on her Fanciful Flower tote so far. I was so excited about her creativity, that I asked her if I could post a couple of the pictures even though it is not finished yet. She kindly agreed.

Here is a photo of the whole tote top. Notice how she sewed a piece of linen foundation fabric in the center instead of four wool fabric blocks, so that she could hook the toad from Mr. Toad's Garden. She then appliqued by hand a lily pad under him. She used unusual fabrics for the dragon fly's wings, and embellished the sunflower with a bee button.

But the neatest feature I think is her needle-felted cattails. Wow. She needle-felted them directly on the top. I saw them in person on Thursday at the Stash Sisters meeting, and they are beautifully done.

Needle-felting is new to me. Five years ago, when I took my leave from rug hooking because I had a new baby, I don't recall anything about it. I am hoping to learn how to do it from one of the women in the guild since several are very good felters.

As the women finish up their totes, I hope to get their permission to post pictures of their work here. It is impressive indeed.

"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.