- Day 1 of rug hooking: Putting the pattern on the backing
- Day 5 Rug Hooking Progress
- Day 5 Rug Hooking Continued
- Day 7 Rug Hooking the rose
- Day 10 Rug Hooking Progress
- Day 22 Rug hooking the scrolls
- Day 35 Still rug hooking the scrolls
- Day 36 My temporary rug hooking set up
- Day 38 of rug hooking: Resolving the Large Leaves
- Day 44 of rug hooking: Rose improvement
- Day 44 Georgia loves my hooked rugs
- Day 050 Rug hooking all weekend
- Day 65 Rug Hooking Progress
- Day 94 Finally got to hook!
- Border progress-Cat’s paw
- Day 94 How to hook crooked loops not straight ones
- Day 99 Circle Border Under Consideration on Room-sized Rug
- Day 275 Progress on border and scroll
- Hooking the circle border
- Day 281 I spent the 4th hooking!
- Back on the border of the room-sized rug
- Day 372 Rug Hooking Progress and Jack
- Day 381 Measurements
- Day 425 Thanksgiving weekend, some progress
- Day 434 Background
- Day 436 Organization
- Day 440 Almost done with center
- Day 442 Center DONE. . . well, almost
- Use and Abuse of Hand Hooked Rug
- Day 1200 Border Design Finalized on Room Sized Rug
- Day 1207 First shot at the final border
- Day 1223 Hooked Rug Border Evaluation
- Day 1232 Hit and Miss Corner on the Room Sized Rug
My focus for the last two years has been to “get crooked.” I thought I had made a breakthrough with Karen Kahle at Sauder Village in 2006. I was working on her Antique Rose Runner during the lunch break. All the other students were off eating and I was so excited about what and how I was hooking that I decided to work through lunch.
A woman came into the classroom to see what we were working on. I sat on the far side of the room. When she made her way to me, I stretched out the backing so she could get a better view. “Nice,” she mumbled. I then explained how I was concentrating on making everything crooked. She brightened up and said, “Oh, it is supposed to be that way.”
She probably felt sorry for me. This poor hooker can’t hook a straight line!
I love this story because that week changed my hooking dramatically. I explained the feeling to my friends as “hooking naked.” I had no cares about what row I was hooking in. I grabbed whatever color was on top. I turned my brain off and hooked away. I had that rug finished within two weeks of coming home. I usually return from camp with less than a square foot hooked.
I applied this mind set to the design of this rug. The four corners are slightly different. Nothing is perfect. But when I got to hooking the boundaries for the hit and miss, I hooked three rows in perfect alignment. I was unhappy about the look, see the post for Day 35! It took me this long to figure out what was wrong. This is one reason I always move out to the borders ASAP.
I decided to use the line I drew for the edge as a guideline only. I wavered three holes left and right at random. Then I hooked another strip on each side for the three rows I wanted. Much better. You can see the crooked rows in the post for Day 094. In Day 065 you can see how much of the straight stuff I ripped out.
I don’t have this rug in my rug gallery on my website yet. I will let you know here when it is up and ready. www.cindigay.com
