Totally-Hooked Rug Hooking Escapades: 2009

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

More From Recycled Project

I managed to get a little done on my recycled project today. I cut off the waist band and dyed that in the same dye bath of Prochem Chili Pepper. Today I took some Heather Green Briggs and Little Heritage 100% wool 2 ply worsted weight and stitched a blanket stitch around the entire waist band. I kept the button for decorative purposes. Have a look.

More to come on this project....
I have been having an interesting learning experience the last few days migrating files from old computer to new one...@#$#%$??&*&!!!!! All is good, NOW! I am also learning to deal with Windows 7 - I am a PC too! Hope you are staying warm wherever you are.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Recycled Project

Ok, first I took a size 16 recycled skirt. A Pink skirt. Then it was washed and dried in the dryer, with the hope of felting it up nicely. It looked like this ...after I took the ripper and the scissors to it.

Then, I overdyed about half of the skirt with 3/4 tsp. Prochem Chili Pepper. Now, it looks like this. A really lovely rich red color.

I'll be back with more from this project later....

Monday, December 21, 2009

Happy Winter Solstice!!!!

Happy Winter Solstice!!!

Light a candle and celebrate the coming of the light!

I will be whipping my Rooster rug today....still trying to finsh off old projects.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Holidays Are Here....Finally!!!!

I have the next two weeks off from my full time job! YAY!!! Except, now I have a miserable cold. How is it that the body knows when you are going to slow down, take a break, pause??? This is not the first time I have been "under the weather" during the holiday season....it seems to be a perennial gift from the kids I work with. Oh well, nothing lasts forever as we all know.

Tomorrow... is the Winter Solstice! This means that the light will start to come back, oh what a blessing that is. It has to be my favorite day of the whole winter! Even though it is the shortest day - longest night, it means that...days will get longer, mornings will be brighter, coming home will be less eerie, and walking in the park with my Sophie will be more pleasurable....in the light.
I am trying to find and finish some projects that have been waiting for attention. Here is a Punch Needle piece that I did to experiment with a night sky.

Living On The Edge
Punch Needle by Tony Latham

Design by Deanne Fitzpatrick

I used the largest Cameo needle with Paternayan tapestry wool yarn, one strand at a time. I dyed the colors to work with my own color palette.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

New Dye Colors.....Samples

It is snowing again here in Montreal. At least, it makes everything white and bright again. The city workers basically vacuum the snow away...not really vacuum, but they do blow it into giant trucks and haul it away so as we can still get around the city streets and sidewalks.

I recently purchased some new Prochem washfast acid dye colors. I have been dying samples of my new colors, a practice I started whenever I get new dyes. This gives me an idea of what the color will look like using my water. There was a time when I resisted buying new dye colors, thinking that I could always make what ever color I needed with my basic dyes. However, I have found that I like to have lots of colors on hand. I liken it to when we were kids and we got our first BIG box of crayons with 64 or more colors. It makes me excited to go into my dye kitchen and play with all of these colors and the possibilities of what I can create are endless.

Here is a sampling of some of my most recent colors and some other colors that were waiting for samples to be made. I dyed over a swatch size (3.5" x 12") natural Dorr wool using 1/128th teaspoon of dye. Remember that our computer monitors are all different, so the colors will vary from computer to computer, however you may get an idea of what the color looks like.

Reds

Yellows, Oranges, and Neutrals

Greens

Blues

Thursday, December 10, 2009

SNOW!! means time for rug hooking......

The SNOW arrived here in Montreal with a wallop! We received a total of 28 centimeters; just enough for it to be a challenge to navigate the city. Luckily, I commute to and from work by subway.

With all of this snow around it is a perfect time to surround myself with lots of wool. This weekend is the regular monthly Hookin of our local hooking group called - Les Tapissiers de St. Henri / The St. Henri Rug Hookers. We usually meet the second Saturday of each month, with the summer months off.

We would be happy to have you join us anytime....Our fantastic LOGO is designed by one of our talented members Louise de Tonnancour.

The St. Henri Rug Hookers were fortunate enough to have had Amy Oxford http://www.amyoxford.com here in Montreal for a Punch Hooking workshop this past October. I have been spending some of my creative time in the dye pots - one of my favorite activities. I have been in the process of planning and dying for my first punch hooking project after my learning piece. Here is a sampling of some of my recent colors.

It has been a fascinating learning experience to dye with wool yarn. These samples are dyed over Washed White Bulky, a 4 ply 100% wool yarn from Briggs and Little woolen mills in New Brunswick - http://www.briggsandlittle.com Interestingly, my usual formulas do not give the same results over the lanolin rich yarn as the same formula on wool fabric. I am excited to start my new project, however, I am trying to finish off some current projects before I start my punch hooking.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The final and last of the three featured artists at the Hooked in The Mountains Rug Exhibit XIV this year was Gail Duclos Lapierre. Here is a small sample of her rugs.

Geometric Runner