Rug Hooking

 I spent my crafty time in November, December and January working on this hooked rug.  It was a class by my friend Kim at Nampa Farm Girl Creates.  She also does custom dyed wool.  These are all her hand-dyed fabrics with the exceptions of the pinks.

 There are also other fibers and techniques which are somewhat easier to see before the background was added.  The dark blue buds are a fuzzy acrylic yarn.  The dark stems are either nubby hand spun wool, or some upcycled wool from second-hand wool jackets.  The lower stem has crochet cotton over strips of wool. And the pink centers of the blue proddy flowers is a multi-color yarn.

 My original plan for the background was the upcycled dark green.  Then I was going to do black.  In the end, I went with a custom-dyed very dark purple with some variation in color to give the background more movement.  It was the right decision.  I also borrowed a page from my quilting experience and alternated widths on the background to add some interest.

My plan is to add a dark purple batik for the back and make this a large pillow.

And just when I swore I was going to quit being a hooker, I decided to re-visit this rug that I started 10-15 years ago to use up some cheap blue cotton that I didn't like anymore but couldn't bear to throw away.  I can't say that I really love this technique, but have enough time invested to justify a finish.

But I did pull out an old quilt project last night.  I've been following the temperature quilt-along at Twittletails and decided to finish mine from 2016.  I was done through week 30 and cut out 6 more weeks last night.