More alternative hooking

Thankfully I finished the areas in Got Wool? that use non-wool fabrics. It's been a creative venture, but I can see why wool 'won' as the preferred fiber. More on that later! For now I am moving to the center block where I have drawn a ram from Tricia Travis' herd out at Country Gatherings in San Antonio.

When I was out at her place last February, I took a picture of her ram. He has enormous horns and tons of beards and long hair. So my picture of him is going to make a fantastic subject for the use of roving and fleece. Tricia's ram is black, so I will need to reverse colors since I want a dark background to go with the rest of my rug. So the ram I hook will be white to make him pop out against the dark background I have planned.

Two weeks ago, in preparation for this day, Lurie and I drove out to a fiber store and I purchased a bag of dyed roving and sheep hair. The woman kindly showed me how to card wool so I could blend my colors and create 'yarn' in my hand (without a spinning wheel). I am grateful that I took a fiber arts class in college twenty years ago because at least I was familiar with the concept of raw wool, carding and spinning so I wasn't completely overwhelmed with her lesson. Once I figure out what I'm doing with all this raw wool, I'll get back to you with my 'evaluation' of raw wool as an 'alternative' fabric for hooking.