Rug hooking creative stitches: Shagging

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 stiff for me so I enlarged it into the entire lower right area. In a prior post, Hooking a Birch Tree, let the wool do the work, I began hooking in this area and experimenting with the technique. I add in loops of regular height using the wool for the path. I liked the shagginess of it.

Once I started trimming the loops, I liked the contrast of the wild part at the bottom. Time will tell if it stays. For now, I’m moving on.

I hooked more on the tree and sky, finishing the upper right area. I have not added any other wools. I continued to use the two spot dyes I dyed up earlier. Looks like it may be OK just the way it is.

I added a small patch of flowers behind the trunk of the birch tree. It helps to give the birch tree a sense of distance and it balances out the blue in the lower left. I hooked this using two #4 cut strips at the same time, twisting and turning them so the green and blue did not line up perfectly. I used two different greens and so far, two different blues.

Here’s what the whole piece looks like so far:

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