Where rug hooking wool meets imagination
Today I moved my attention to the area in the lower right. Jane Halliwell Green does a technique called shagging. It’s related to proddy or sculpting. I’m not sure how she came up with the name, but it reminds me of shag carpeting. I hooked a double row like she recommends, but it was too [...]
Today I had a few moments to hook, but no brain energy to scour up the next few colors. I decided to get some of the sky hooked. The method I am using is described in my book, Pine Trees, Grass and Sky.Hooking in the sky loosely helps to make the project move faster and [...]
If you haven’t tried this yet, you’re in for a treat. This is a great technique for beginners because all you need is a container large enough to hold the wool, several dollars in pennies (don’t be stingy here), water, and non-sudsy ammonia. Add time and you can change the most obnoxious wools into the [...]
Hooking the leaves on any tree is more about observation than it is about hooking. Really spend some time, or at least an hour or so, looking at trees. This hour will save you hours of hooking frustration. Hooking the leaves on a tree is all about finding the shape that will give your tree [...]
I used my specially dyed birch bark wool to hook the birch tree. Just simple hooking here. I cut the darker part of the wool in a #5, the lighter in #7 and simply hooked it. I did change the shape a bit. I used to have a birch tree in our backyard. It was [...]
It is easy to get overwhelmed with the decisions you need to make for rug hooking if you do not have the guidance of a teacher. Especially for children’s rugs, consider outlining everything in a nice dark wool, preferably a texture. Then you just have to fill in the blanks. Sally used this approach for [...]
This method is also the easiest way to finish a hooked piece for other construction such as a tote bag or the wool edges can be turned back around the edge of the rug for a “Show” finish. See other examples at the end of this post. Finishing a pillow can be extremely difficult if [...]
I recommend this method to beginning dyers. It gives you a chance to alter wool without buying commercial dyes. This method will make recycled solid wool more useable. Put your wool in a pot and fill it with enough water to cover the wool. If your pot is large enough you can add all the [...]
The typical rug photograph is not square. With some adjustments using Photoshop, you can really improve the photograph. I don’t do this procedure every day so I usually have to review the steps. The tutorial by Larry Boch is the simplest and most visual I have found on the internet. The basic steps are: Turn [...]
I found this video by Jane Halliwell Green and knew I had to share it. Beautiful even loops are not an advantage when hooking landscapes or pictorials or anything else found in nature. The straight even lines that perfect loops create are distracting and do not look natural. I’ve been teaching a method where you [...]
The text of the series on footstool construction has been posted, but images for the last post and all the videos are still in progress. I will be offering for download a PDF with all the steps in one place once all the instructions are finalized.
Please note that the current instructions will probably change a bit as I work through this process.
Need an invite? Just contact me with your email address. I'll send it right out. This is a great site for inspiration!