Rug retrospective 2009: Alternative Fabrics

This year I joined Phyllis Lindblade's Rug Hooking Merit Program and have started on the wonderful adventure of hooking rugs to fulfill requirements in different categories. I have been mainly working on two of the categories: alternative fabrics, and color/dyeing. The alternative fabrics rug, Got Wool?, has stalled after finishing all the alternative materials. It awaits the final wool border, but since the border consists of black background and autumn leaves, I can't get excited about finishing it until next autumn when I feel the joy of autumn around me. But wow did I learn a lot, including that wool is the superior rug hooking fiber. I understand why it won the battle of fabrics. Although other fabrics can lend interest and shine and texture to rugs, most are messy and difficult to work with. Patience and a broom are required.

I did enjoy working with roving and fleece. I loved the process of palm-spinning yarn to hook with, although it was labor intensive and took time. The lanolin on my hands was warming. I promise to post soon about the entire process should you ever care to try it yourself. The hooked results are fabulous, especially if you decide to blend roving colors to allow for some shading effects.

Top left block: hooked with polar fleece
Bottom left block: hooked with crushed velvet
Top right block: hooked with non-wool yarns
Bottom right block: hooked with stretch velvet
Top border: hooked with combination of all of the above
Middle block: hooked with roving and fleece

Rug retrospective 2009: Dyeing

The biggest thing that has impacted my rug hooking this year is the creation of a full palette of colors and the development of the Palette Dyeing technique. The idea is to have a full range of colors that are all related to each other like the paints on an artist's palette. Beginning with the creation of three "primary" colors (red, yellow, blue: left photo), I blended these formulas to create the secondary (orange, green, purple: middle photo) and tertiary colors (red-orange, orange-yellow, yellow-green, green-blue, blue-purple, purple-red: right photo) on the color wheel.

In the end, I had twelve colors in my color wheel, all dyed in eight graduations. I discovered that the first two graduations are really tints (color plus white) and the other six are graduations of the pure color. When I added black to the color, I ended up with shades (of red: left photo), and when I added gray to the color, I ended up with tones (of orange-yellow: middle photo). When I combined complimentary colors in my dye formulas, I ended with with fantastic neutrals (right photo).

My process is laid out on Rug Hooking Daily in a rug camp called Palette Dyeing. We have 78 campers, and I am hoping in the new year that more and more of the campers will post pictures of their palettes and hooked color wheels. When I spoke to my sister Tiffany, she said that she has created three primary colors that she loves and has dyed her secondary colors which have turned out just right for her. She wants to finish her tertiary colors over the rest of the break. I will probably return to the dye pot tomorrow, since I need to create one more neutral and then redye some of the colors I have already used up in my hooking.

Rug retrospective 2009: New Ideas

2009 brought with it a healthy wave of new ideas and new rug initiatives including the already-mentioned TEN MINUTE CHALLENGE. The first milestone of the challenge is fast-approaching: the six-month drawing for one of my pocket purses. We will continue with the challenge, and a second drawing mid-summer.

In the summer, a number of women from the Stash Sisters who cannot meet during the weekdays due to work schedules, got together and decided to open up a hooking circle at a local church (Bethany Christian Church on Westheimer) so we could hook another Saturday each month (the third Saturday 11-3). We call ourselves the Kirby Hooking Circle and we have had a wonderful time hooking together. We are a casual informal group with no agenda other than providing a space and time for rug hookers to gather and hook together. On June 26, 2010, 9-4, we are organizing a Midsummer's Hook In, complete with vendors and a rug challenge. The challenge is to hook a sun and/or moon in a 12" by 12" mat or similarly-sized project (approximately 144 square inches). Our theme is from Shakespeare who wrote in The Midsummer Night's Dream: "The object of art is to give life a shape." Contact for more information: Lurie McAdow (luriemcadow@aol.com).

Another new idea this year was to create a space for virtual rug camps on the internet hooking network, Rug Hooking Daily. Three went up in the fall (hopefully more people will set up other camps this next year): a sketchbook camp led by Heidi Wulfraat; a rug hooking merit program led by Phyllis Lindblade; and a palette dyeing group led by me. All of these camps are wonderful and provide a way to learn more about rug hooking while at home. Each camp allows the campers to move at their own pace and is open to new members at any time. Joining is as easy as signing on to Rug Hooking Daily and clicking a button to join. The expense is whatever materials the campers purchase to complete the projects.

The other initiative this year was to try to hook a monthly meditation rug using the monthly theme provided by my church. This rug has been difficult for me to get underway, but I finally am getting a handle on it over the Christmas holiday, although I am having to reformulate my concept for my rug. The dual colors isn't working, so I am going to turn it into a color wheel rug where each month is going to represent one of the colors on the wheel.

Rug retrospective 2009: Rugs finished this year

As the new year approaches, I am going to be posting some rug retrospectives.

This year has been amazingly filled with rug hooking. I hadn't picked up a hook in five years because my life was so busy with a new job, a new home, and a new baby. Being new to Houston, I had no idea where to find other rug hookers.

That changed when I saw the ad in RHM for the Stash Sisters, an ATHA guild that meets the first Saturday every month in Humble, Texas. I showed up for my first meeting in February and used the time to become reaquainted with my rug Transfiguration (then unnamed) which I had begun to hook on a trip north in August 2008. I met a group of wonderful women and struck up the beginnings of new and meaningful friendships that day.

I came back the next month, with no progress on Transfiguration over the month, but continued to hook on the rug at the meetings. In April, I attended the Stash Sisters' hook-in, met more area hookers, and decided then and there that I needed to get serious about hooking again.

So I started up this blog to chart my progress and to write memoirs about the rugs I had hooked already. I had no idea about the fantastic community of on-line rug hookers out there or the wonderful people I would meet through my blog. Or the direction that my blog has taken. To encourage community and rug hooking (and keep it up myself!), I initiated the TEN MINUTE CHALLENGE and also started the PALETTE DYEING rug camp on Rug Hooking Daily.

The TEN MINUTES a day has paid off for me. What rugs have I finished this year (plus some cup coasters, not pictured)? Dimensions and other information can be viewed under the GALLERY button above.

More retrospective later...