Rug blog central

Just a quick note about a feature on my blog: Rug Blog Central.  It is found in the sidebar: a tan box that contains links to rug blogs. If you scroll down to the bottom of the box, you will see "view all".  If you click it, it will take you to page with all the most recent posts from each of the blogs listed in the box.  If you click any of the titles of the posts, it will take you to the blog itself where you can leave a comment.

If you know of rug blogs I am missing, please leave me the link in the comments.  I would like to create as complete a list of rug blogs as possible.

That'll do farm

Andrea from Brighton Woolgatherings has a new integrated website and blog for her sustainable farm that raises not only produce but also fiber (alpacas and goats).  It is called That'll Do Farm.  Andrea offers Sit-N-Knit and Sit-N-Hook days at the farm.  So if you are in Northeast Ohio, you might want to contact her and stop by for a spell on the farm.  It looks like a wonderful place.

If you are a subscriber to her blog or have it in your favorites list, her address has changed to http://www.thatlldofarm.com/.

Photo: livestock from Andrea's website

Some neat new features

I thought it would be fun to share some of the features I really like about my new website.  The one that "sold" me on squarespace as a webhost was its gallery feature.  Check out how neat it is by clicking in my menu bar my rug gallery.  The page displayed should show thumbnails of my rugs in a neat square grid.  If you want to see the whole rug or read about it, click the thumbnail.  A big picture of the rug should now be displayed with information below it.  Also below it is a thumbnail navigation.  Click any of those tiny thumbnails, and you will be taken to a bigger version of the rug.

How neat is that?!

Welcome to my new virtual rug studio!

I finally completed the internet move that I started to work on six months ago!  I am so glad that you have followed me over to my new online rug studio.  Due to the recent flood in my home, I have not put the Red Jack Palette Packs of wool up for sale yet.  But once I get the remodeling done and can find my wool and dyeing equipment again, I will put up a page of the 67 colors that can be ordered.  So watch the menu bar under Shop for Wool and Supplies.

I have duplicated my Followers badge which gives you a direct FREE subscription to my blog and all its resources.  Just click the join button in the sidebar.  Or if you prefer to subscribe using a reader, I have placed an RSS Subscription button below the Followers widget.  If you have my old blog on your own blogroll, I would appreciate it if you would update it with my new address since I won't be posting to the old address any longer: http://www.redjackrugs.com

Note my new Rug Blog Central in the sidebar.  If you scroll down and click VIEW ALL, you will view all the most recent posts conveniently in one document. 

Have fun looking around my new virtual rug studio as I celebrate my "virtual-rug-studio warming"!

Moving soon...

I've decided to try and make my move over to my integrated blog and website soon (www.redjackrugs.com). I won't have all the Palette Wool up for sale yet...the flooded house has put me behind schedule. BUT the rest of the website should be functioning by the end of next week. This means that I am going to be found at a different web address (www.redjackrugs.com)...so if you are a follower of my blog, you will have to visit me at my new blog address once I make the transfer. I will put up a big post here, so you won't miss it. I will put up a FOLLOWER widget on the new blog site so all you have to do is click it to subscribe to the new blog address. I will keep my old blog here with a link to the new one, but I won't be posting here after I make the transfer. Wish me luck!

Red Jack Palette Wool drawing

Congratulations to Ginger from Primitives by the Light of the Moon and Phyllis of Rug Hooker! Both of you have won a packet of Red Jack Rugs Palette Wool. This give-away was drawn from among the many responses I received last month about the packaging of my Palette wools. I received very good feed back from all of you, which I have used to create my wool packs. Each pack contains a full quarter yard of wool, in eight pieces approximately 3" by 16", ready to cut into strips.

When I am finished creating my dyes, I will have a complete color wheel available and every mixture of the 12 colors on the wheel possible, for a total of 53 colors each available in 8 different values. This is a totally new concept in rug hooking: to have a complete set of 'kinship' wools all made from three original formulas (my own red, yellow, blue dyes).

I decided to approach my rug hooking as if I were a painter. I started with my three primary dye formulas. I blended the three to create the twelve colors on the color wheel, then I mixed each of the twelve colors with each other to create a full palette of 53 related colors, just as if I were a painter squirting paints on my palette board and mixing them together.

I have packaged them in 8-Value Packs; Single Value Packs; Medium Value Packs; Primitive Packs; Texture Packs; and Dapple Packs. So I have been doing more dyeing and packaging than rug hooking lately. I am trying to put together complete information about my Palette wools for my new website Red Jack Rugs which I hope to have up and running by June 3, the first anniversary celebration of my rug blog.

Here is an example of a slide I put together about one of my colors (Michigan Agate) and the packs that will be available.

When I get all my colors into this slide format, I will put them up on my new website and make an announcement on my blog here that they will be available for purchase. Packs will be $15 each.

Patterns by Dixie Cox

Dixie Cox, my friend here in Houston, has started to sell her patterns on line. She is a terrific designer with some new ideas for rugs. She has just posted 35 new designs. So if you are looking for a pattern (on linen or not), you might give her site a click. Green Woman Rugs. The entrance to the on line shop is found at the bottom left hand side of the home page. It took me a while to find it, so be sure to scroll down.

Blogger has added static pages!

Check it out. If you are on blogger and want static pages...finally blogger listened and we can put up to ten static pages on our blogs. Go to the dashboard bar, click "edit pages" and add your pages!

Some advice from Deanne Fitzpatrick about advice

I want to link to a post that Deanne put up today and I just read. It is so soulful that I have to pass it on in case you missed it. It is about differences in our artistic styles and how to seek and give advice and feedback about the rugs we hook.

Checking in...

I've been spending most of my rug time lately on creating the new web site which, when I get access to my domain name and can transfer it in a couple of months, will be http://redjackrugs.com/. Can't wait. I'm having fun creating neat web pages and folders for all the instructional material. But it is time-consuming.

I have made progress on White Tiger Beauty. Finished his nose and snout which was tough going...more on that when I post a picture of the hopefully finished piece soon.

I also have to go across the street and buy a mug and hook my mug mat for the Stash Sisters mug and mat exchange a week from Saturday.

Also I promise to take photos soon of the needle felting process to share with those of you who have never tried it but would like to. I found it very simple and very pleasant...and no poked fingers or blood! There is a trick that T.J. showed me...it is all in how you hold your hand.

Domain name frustration

This is another report about my transfer to a new web space for my blog and expanded web site.

I made a big mistake. Before I found Squarespace.com, I was toying with Wordpress.com. Because I thought I was going to go with them, I registered my new domain name (redjackrugs.com) with them. This means that they take my domain name and register it with an external registry company.

Well, now I need to transfer that name to my Squarespace account so that will be my new address and take you to my Squarespace site. BUT Wordpress registers its users' domain names in such a way that I cannot not point it to a new account. What I have to do is transfer my domain name from the registry that Wordpress uses to another registry company that will allow me to redirect the address away from Wordpress to Squarespace. And guess what, I can't do this for 60 days. It's a rule in the internet register world.

So how frustrating is this? The way Wordpress registers domain names makes it impossible for you to point the name to any internet space you want. It will only work to point to Wordpress blogs. So my domain name has been restricted to one host. To fix this, I have to transfer my domain name to another company and then link it to my Squarespace location, but I can't do this for two months.

So my advice, if you are looking for a new internet host and want your own domain name, do not do register it through Wordpress.com unless you are absolutely sure you are staying with them. Go to another registry like those provided by Network Solutions or Nettica. These will allow you to point your domain name to any host at any time.

What this appears to mean for me thanks to my ignorance about how internet hosts actually operate is that my move to my new Squarespace web site is not going to take place until my 60-day period is over and I can transfer my domain name to a new registry company.

More on Squarespace.com

Wendie and Jennifer asked me to provide more information about my journey over to Squarespace.com because they too are thinking about moving their blogs to a web platform. So here is my two cents for what it is worth.

Blogger is not working because it will not allow static web pages to store information. I made an adjustment to the html code to provide temporary static-like pages and a menu bar, but it is cumbersome and I can't format it to appear like I would like.

Wordpress.com (I haven't checked out Wordpress.org which I am told is different) allows for pages and tabs, but these are not actually static web pages. It is little better than what I have been able to create in my html on Blogger. Moreover unless you can find a template with everything set the way you like it you have to go into the CSS code and change things, and the only way you can do this is to pay Wordpress.com $14 a year. Once you pay, they open up the CSS code for you to adjust. But if you want to do more than alter colors which amounts to changing some numbers in the code, you need to know what you are doing. Which means that you need to spend time reading books and attending seminars, which Wordpress does provide. If you want a real website, then you need to go out and get a web site host and attach your Wordpress blog to it. I tried this and could not figure out how to get the blog to appear like the web site. In other words, it was not clear to me how to integrate the blog and web site. And you have to pay annually for your web site host and these aren't cheap.

After several days and much frustration, I abandoned Wordpress.com. That is when I found Squarespace.com. It is exactly what I wanted. I had complained daily to my husband...why can't these companies provide us with an integrated web site and blog that we can create ourselves by clicking on colors and font styles and dragging around elements on the page until we are satisfied with our creation? So I was delighted when I found Squarespace.com which is exactly what you do. I signed up for a 14-day trial, and have imported my blog with no problems, put up my archives, my tags, created several cool static pages, created a fantastic banner, etc. What is best of all is that Squarespace.com provides Support Tickets. I can send in a question and within two minutes a real person responds with a real answer that fixes the problem or answers my query. It is unbelievable customer service. If you are considering making a similar move, I highly recommend taking them up on their 14-day free trial and play around with your own web site, and get your blog imported (it won't effect your Blogger blog which will stay put until you delete it) and see what it looks like in different templates.

So my decision has been made. Tomorrow I buy in. The basic package is $8 a month. But I am going for the $14 a month package because then I can obtain a unique URL and get enough space for all the great photos I plan to upload in my rug gallery.

I'm moving...

my blog to another platform. I have been frustrated with Blogger because I can't create an integrated website and blog. I also have not been happy with the tinkering I have tried on Wordpress which does not allow me to easily create the website I want. Ease is the key and I think I have found a platform to host my site. It is called Squarespace.com. There is a monthly fee (unlike Blogger which is free), but I think given the ease of web design, it will be worth it to me. I have a two-week trial period during which I am experimenting to make positive this is where I want to go. This will mean that I will have to change my URL and it means that your subscriptions are going to need to be relinked to my new URL. This is not something I can do for you. So when the time comes and I move over to a new space, I'll post the link and leave up the old Blogger site so you can easily find your way to the new location and subscribe to it if you still want to follow my blog.

Dixie Cox has a new blog and website

Check out the wonderful new blog and website just put up by Dixie Cox, a creative designer and rug hooker from the Stash Sisters. Believe it or not, she just started rug hooking last summer! Her website is Green Woman Rugs.

Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading my blog and sharing your rug hooking and your own blogs with me over the last year. It has been a blast and I have learned so much about rugs and color in the process. So many new friends have come my way that I feel honored to be part of this "virtual" rug community. I can't imagine my life without rug blogging (or rug hooking).

My wish is that the New Year will ring in true and good for you, and that you may hook at least one new rug and finish at least one of those UFOs tucked under your bed in 2010!

Want to wallpaper your RHD page with your rugs?

I've been experimenting with wallpapers for my page on Rug Hooking Daily. My most recent experiment for the Halloween season was to paper my page with Mr. Bonz. I've been asked how I did that.

Here is what I did.

1. In your photo program, crop the picture or part of the rug that you want to use as your wallpaper tile. Whatever it is, it will be repeated or tiled in the background of your page, so consider natural borders.

2. Export your photo (my export command is in the drop down menu under File) to your desktop. The export function should allow you to pick the size of the file and the quality of the picture. I usually go with jpg, medium quality, smallest size.

3. On My Page in Rug Hooking Daily, in the left hand column click manage My Page.

4. Click change Appearance.

5. Click All Options.

6. Locate the camera icon next to Side Image. Click.

7. Upload your photo by browsing your desktop and clicking the photo you want to use.

8. Click "tile".

9. Scroll down and click Save.

10. Wait a minute for the image to come up as your wallpaper.

Blog update

I worked on loading more pictures and information into my Gallery (see button on the menu bar above). It is not all of my work, but shows the pieces that I have good digital pictures of. Some of my early work I gave away and have only terrible snapshots to remember them by. Oh well, live and learn.

I continue to develop the Virtual Classroom (see button on the menu bar above). I will be adding new materials to the VC as I find them on the internet. Last night, I began loading in some links to print books. It is just the beginning of that process. If you have links to books, particularly those you have self-published, PLEASE send them to me so that I can include them. I am trying to get a page put together that will be a useful internet resource for rug hookers to locate and purchase educational materials.

I am also considering developing a series of short U-TUBE videos on Palette Dyeing. It may take me some time since I have never done anything like this before, but I think it might be fun to try.

Welcome to Mary Pasquerette, a new rug blogger

A warm welcome to Mary Pasquerette who today started her rug blog Wooly Bear Woolens. She sent me the link to her first post so I've added her to Rug Blog Central (in my sidebar). I look forward to reading future posts on her life and rug hooking in Maryland.

How many hookers are there who read blogs?

I just discovered the "followers" widget on some other blogs I read, and thought, neat, let's put one on my blog too. Then I can see all the faces of other hookers and friends of hookers every time I post.

To subscribe to this blog, or any other, just click on the "followers" gadget in the sidebar. Follow the simple directions (less than 5 seconds!). And what will happen is every time you open your dashboard account on google or yahoo, all the blogs you subscribe to will have their posts there for you to view! It is like creating your own internet newspaper, but with all the things you want to read or check every day.

So please subscribe. I get excited every time I see a new hooker show up in the sidebar. I know there are a lot of us out there!