February's Snowy Hook-In

The snow was coming down at a pretty steady rate yesterday but that didn't stop the dedicated Wild West Hookers who showed up at the Park County Library. I was the only local hooker so I must thank the other four who traveled the treacherous frozen highway to enjoy a day of hooking.

Barb and Craig Pearson are always such a delight to have in our group. Barb was working on her own design taken from elements of Laurel Burch's art. She uses a size 3 cut, and for those who don't know, that is a strip that is 3/32nd of an inch wide. That's really narrow! And she hooks with it perfectly!

I adore the cats and the dogs she has tucked in the flowers in her design. Her background fabric was dyed by her teacher using all the colors the teacher dyed for the rug. The dyes were watered down, and gently poured on the background wool with a tablespoon. It's such a great idea, and the background fabric will automatically "go" with the rest of the rug since it is the same colors but a different value. When finished, this will be a large pillow for a bed.

Carol Messerli is on the very last edge of her rug too! I am so proud of the progress she has made. This is her first big rug. She is a beginner hooker. She chose all her colors and I suggested, well more like insisted, that she use the natural windowpane wool from Dorr for her background. Patty and I had seen the windowpane in a rug by Pat Horn at the rug show when we were at Prairie Rose Rug School last August.

 

As you can see, she only has one more corner to hook and this beauty is hooked. She is thinking of spinning her own wool, from sheep she raised, into yarn and doing a crocheted edge for the finished edge. It is such a creative idea for such a beginner.

Carol's next rug is going to be an elk. I can't wait to watch that rug unfold.

Patty Tyrrell is almost finished with her "Cat Tails" rug. I think she is keeping it a secret until it is finished, which will be very soon. She took the pink heart out after seeing it on the blog and completely changed  the wool she used. It is the PERFECT wool for the job and I can't wait to show you the picture. Next time.....

I (Sylvia Gauthier) went back to my Black Dog rug that I had started before the Button Basket. I struggled so much with the outer border. You can tell by the 4 different designs drawn out with marker. Thank goodness I have a selection of different colored markers. I finally got so frustrated that I pulled out all of the background behind the dog and dyed a different color. I drew a free-hand vine design, and started hooking. The other borders were all scrappy borders using a multitude of different worm colors. I hated every one of them. Now I'm just going to keep on hooking until I can get this rug off my frame.  I loved hooking the dog. The rest of the rug, not so much.  I can enjoy it now and only hope that my son enjoys it when it's finished. It is his dog Buck so my son Randy automatically assumed it was his rug.

I didn't get a picture from Patty of Craig Pearson's Mola rug he is working on. Next month I'll get one though. Craig makes wonderful hooks, which I should post pictures of on here. Everyone who picks one up seems to have to have it. They fit perfectly in your hand.

We had a few visitors and two seemed VERY interested in hooking rugs. I hope they both join us and enjoy rug hooking as much as the rest of us do.

Post written by Sylvia Gauthier