Rug Hooker's Hollow and All Things Fiber!

"Dancing Sheep" Hooked Purse

2010-01-13T12:53:00.000-08:00

"Dancing Sheep" Hooked Rug Purse

Purse is 14" wide by approx 12.5" top to bottom. Design was taken from a Searsport Rug Hooking design on a large rug I hooked right after I started hooking and decided it would be cute on a purse. All hand dyed wools on cotton rug warp. Lined with calico fabric with added pockets on the inside and magnetic latch. I hooked this in #'s 6 & 8 cuts on cotton rug warp. The strap is leather and came off of a Dooney & Burke purse that I own. I've decided I can just keep hooking these purses and since I can only carry one purse at a time I'll just move the strap to whichever purse I want to carry at the time! No need to buy a new strap or make a strap for each purse - strap problem solved!

"Maine at Midnight" Hooked Purse

2010-01-08T13:11:00.000-08:00

"Maine at Midnight"

Another purse in the making and now ready to start the sewing. Designed by me while looking at the night sky very late one night here in Maine while waiting for my dogs to do their business before going to bed for the night - the first photo is my drawing I sketched out at a rug hooking get together in about 10 minutes from my drawing in my sketch book! I decided to try for a very primitive style rather than something realistic since I was not sure exactly how I could begin to duplicate the dark night sky with one million stars sparkling away and the trees set again it. Occasionally I could glimpse a small amount of color cast by the moon so figured why not just give the trees more color so they actually showed up better. This purse will be a bit larger than the other purses I have recently finished at 11.5" x 15.50" and put together slightly different than the yellow purse or the bunny purse. I plan an expansion band around the sides and bottom along with a zipper in the top. The wools are all hand dyed except the fabric that creates the swirls in the sky which was a plaid in navy, dark reds and a light thin stripe of sky blue. Hooked on rug warp with #6 and #8 cuts.

"The Patriotic Wave" Hooked Purse

2010-01-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

Another purse ready to be put together....I'm going to be doing a lot of sewing to get all these purses I keep hooking finished! Heaven knows when I'll use all of these gems but I just seem to be "hooked" on purses right now. They are the right size, fairly quick to hook and give me a great opportunity to use up left overs and explore a variety of ideas and techniques so I'm going to keep hooking them until I'm tired of them! Size of purse when finished will be approx 14" wide by 15" deep. This purse will be just like the yellow "Dancing Sheep" purse when completed. To understand the construction take a look at the yellow sheep purse. The lining will be inserted, after I sew the necessary pockets to the lining, and then using a blind stitch sewn in by hand. Hooked with all hand dyed wools on cotton rug warp in #'s 6 and 8 cuts.

"Bunny & Gumdrops" Hooked Purse

2010-01-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

"Bunny & Gumdrop" hooked purse is 12" x 12.5" and lined with navy calico with a small creamed colored pin dot. This was a great project to use lots of those very small amounts of left over hand dyed wools. The bunny is hooked with a kinky over spun natural gray/brown wool yarn with the hooking pulled high for the tail....very slow process and I'm not sure I like the idea of doing a whole lot of hooking with yarns! This purse has plastic rings and the leather strap I have on the yellow purse (above) is moved from one purse to another when I want to carry a different one. This was actually the first purse I ever tried putting together using hooked rug pieces and it was quite a learning experience.

Checkerboard Sweater

2010-01-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been so absent since October but have been very busy even though I have not been posting my projects, between my knitting, painting, rug hooking, Christmas, family and friends I've been swamped for weeks!

Above is my most recently finished sweater done using the technique of two handed knitting colorwork and employing the weaving in of the carried yarns on the inside to eliminate long floats. I knitted this in the round using steeks, cut up the front when finished, picked up for the band and attached the sleeves. The yarns are all handspun and hand dyed, by me, and the sweater is very warm to wear which is certainly nice since I live in Maine and winters are pretty chilly here! The buttons are Knit Picks' "Harmony" buttons which I think worked out very well. I had this sweater finished months ago but because I could not find buttons for less than $10 each that I liked I kept holding off finishing the band until some idea for buttons that worked with this sweater presented itself. I just could not justify $70 for buttons! One day I was shopping on-line and discovered that Knit Picks was making buttons from their left over woods that they make their Harmony knitting needles from and thought "WOW" Eureka and so affordable!

Boundweave Purses

2009-10-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

I wove this material, more like a rug rather than material, in Boundweave several years ago and decided to make two of them into purses as a trial run to put together some hooked purses. The smaller purse is my carry along bag with all my extra goodies for rug hooking and knitting. The larger bag is just for "fun" to carry when going casual!

The second flat piece is another Boundweave sampler after it had come off the loom and was cut and serged which will become another purse eventually.

"Cotton Candy" & "Fire in the Sky" hand dyed socks

2009-10-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Recently I dyed several skeins of Knit Pick's "bare" finger weight yarns and this is just two of the pairs of socks that I have knit from my day of yarn dyeing. These are so much fun to dye, easy and fairly quick and always interesting to see how they knit up. Frequently when I am dyeing wool for some of my rug hooking projects I'll put several skeins of wool yarn to soak and play around with dyeing them at the same time my wool pots are simmering. If you like to knit socks besides rug hooking and are in the process of dyeing wool for your next rug or mat then dip a few of those colors and squirt onto some "bare" sock yarn and have fun!

"Love Rug Hooking" Pillow

2009-10-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

I have just finished hooking this piece which is 14 x 22 and will be a pillow. All hand dyed wool except the blue background which is a natural plaid off the bolt in a primitive #8 cut.

"Black Bird of Happiness"

2009-09-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

My recent rug hooking project completed using all hand dyed wools. This will be a chair pad for my oak antique desk chair that sits in my kitchen at my desk. Mat is approx. 20 x 20 inches on linen.

"Through the Looking Glass" rocker set finished!

2009-08-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

"Through the Looking Glass" chair pad

2009-08-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Chair seat cushion top to go with the maple rocker chair back pad finished - now all I have to do is put this together. In the meantime, I have piles and piles of wool strips to sort through and get into color piles for the next project and see how much I have left and what to do for my next project. There must be a better way to keep these strips from getting into such a mess, right? Any one have any clever ideas then let me know, ok?

"Through the Looking Glass"

2009-08-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Chair back for my antique bird's eye maple rocker - just finished! The size is approx. 15" x 25" in all hand dyed wools, my design and hooked by me....on to the seat cushion now.

"Stars & Squares" FINISHED!

2009-07-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Since none of my hooked rugs go on the floor then they have to be designed for placement on a piece of furniture some place in my home. The above pictures show how this rug fits on my family room sofa - PERFECT! I am so happy this is finished and now I'm off to design one to fit on the back of a Shaker style rocker....ta da!

"Stars and Squares" rug update

2009-02-24T06:12:00.000-08:00

Been a bit slow at keeping this blog up-to-date but this is the most recent photo I have of my progress on this rug. I have finished the right-hand side and most of the left and will post the final photo after the edging has been done. This has been a monster to get finished (45" x 96") and I think I'll try doing a bit smaller project next time, LOL!

Rug Hooks & Storage

2008-09-13T10:26:00.001-07:00

Struggle with all those rug hooks, particularly the ones that are not magnetized and wind up all over the place? Well, here is what I came up with for a solution. An old fashion floral glass dish with frog insert (has holes), fill it with rice and shove those hooks into the holes. Works like a champ! Hooks are always where they should be.

"Stars and Squares"

2008-09-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Stars and Squares" was designed a year ago in 2007 by me and is a number 8 cut, 45" x 96" and when finished will go on the back of my sofa in my family room. I've gotten a bit side-tracked with other projects (like painting) and just haven't gotten back to this but tonight will be the night to start again!

Still working off that pile of left-overs that I think will never go down! To be fair I've actually added more to that pile to get some of the colors I needed for this rug and I'm praying I do not run out before the rug is finished. There is a combination of hand dyed and purchased plain/plaid/designed straight weave fabrics hooked into this rug.

"Chicken #2" Pillow

2008-09-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

"Chicken #1 Pillow"

2008-09-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Chicken #1" is a pillow using a Polly Minick design with my choice of wools in a #8 cut.

"Carpet Bag"

2008-09-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Carpet Bag" was designed and hooked by me to make a bag to drag around all my rug hooking supplies when attending workshops. Bag will be 20" x 22" when put together. All #8 cuts and still using up leftover wool strips from previous projects.

"Kaleidoscope"

2008-09-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Kaleidoscope" was a workshop designing geometrics taught by Sandra Brown held at Searsport Rug Hooking. The piece is approx. 24 x 24 in size, designed by me and it has all hand dyed wool strips in #8 cut.

"Barnyard"

2008-09-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Barnyard" was designed by Searsport Rug Hooking, modifications designed and hooked by me with my choice of wools in sizes #4-8. It is approx. 20" x 50".

"Circles & Squares"

2008-09-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

"Circles & Squares" is approx. 28" x 39" and was designed and hooked by me using leftovers from "Rufus" and "Midnight in Maine."

Midnight in Maine

2008-09-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

"Midnight in Maine" was the 2nd piece I've ever done. I designed this rug for a workshop that was being held at www.Searsportrughooking.com with Polly Minick and started in the workshop in 2006. That's me in the second row holding up the painted linen with the beginning of the rug. I had such a mess designing this rug, no extra linen and so to solve not being able to see where I was going with this rug I took acrylic paints, after all I am an artist too (dah), and painted the darn thing - what did I know, but it worked just the same. Now I'm a bit more careful with planning out my designs ahead of time and then transferring them to the linen.

"Rufus"

2008-09-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

"Rufus" is a pattern that was designed by Searsport Rug Hooking, is 25.5" x 31" and obviously hooked by me with my choice of colors and a few changes to a couple of the hearts. Finished this rug in February of 2007.

"Running Rabbit" Bench

2008-08-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

"Running Rabbit" (my name) is a design by Searsport Rug Hooking, hooked by me with my color choices in #8 cuts. Husband built the bench for this cute combo. This project was my very first rug hooking project!