The Wool Palette: REVISED EDITION with STARTER PALETTE RECIPES, 115 pages, step-by-step instructrions for creating 67 kinship colors from three primary dyes, over 60 full color photos and illustrations
St. Nicholas Value by Value, ATHA Newsletter 186: 12-13, December 2010/January 2011
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 05:23PM Check it out. Sharon Oppengard's Santa Flip designed by Frank Bielec, Martha Lowry's Christmas purses, and my piece on Alexander's backpack are all featured in this newsletter - all with Houston associations!
Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 10:42AM 
I sewed the back pack and attached Woof for Alexander to it on Friday. I don't like sewing my hand hooked rugs directly into the seams of bags or pillows because if the item is damaged or needs laundering it is a mess to try to unmake the item and preserve the rug intact. So I bind off the rug as if it were its own piece and then attach by hand whipping the rug to the face of the item as pictured.
Here is my son Alexander happy to be carrying a bunch of "sleep buddies" (=stuffed animals) in his pack on Saturday as we walked over to the french bakery for breakfast.
Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 09:41AM 
I finished Alexander's rug last night. In a week's time! This is the quickest piece that has ever come together for me.
It is a small-10x14" and I will make a small back pack for him tomorrow and attach it by hand on the pack.
Alexander picked out the dog that he wanted via a number of pictures on the internet of chihauhaus which I used as a guide to draw my pattern. He picked out the colors from my wool closet, including the background. He wanted his name on the pack and also the name he gave this dog "Woof." We added a gecko because our dog Maggie loves to chase the geckos on our porch and we thought it would be fun to have Woof following the scent.
The piece is hooked in 4-cut, mostly recycled wool and textured plaids. I used some new wool dyed for other projects. The background piece I purchased about five years ago for another project (an Azeri rug) which is no longer in the works. I threw away the Azeri rug after so much frustration with executing the pattern in terms of color that I couldn't complete the rug. So I am happy that this blue wool finally found the rug it was meant for.
I hooked this piece for Alexander to mark and celebrate his "graduation" from pre-school and entrance into kindergarten in August.
