Are you struggling while rug hooking pictorial rugs? This book can help. Some of you picked up the book when it was available for the first time at Sauder Village in August 2015. Many of you found it on the website, but I've never announced that it was available ... until now. The book more …
Welcome to the Rug e-School
Lessons, tips and tricks about traditional rug hooking.
How much yarn do I need to whip my hooked rug?
test June 2016 update: I cannot get the calculator embedded into the website. Click this link to visit it in another page. If it ever stops working again, please let me know. In case you are curious, here's how to do the calculations yourself: Width + Width + Length + Length = Perimeter …
Rug Hooking Rules: What you MUST do
Ready for some rug hooking rules? Just one: Do what you think is right. It really is just that simple. This is an art form. Does the painter get criticized about how the brush is held? Do people turn the work over to check the back? NO! Give yourself permission to be a little "wrong." There is no …
How to use a value finder to choose rug hooking wool
Choosing the right wool is all about choosing the right value. Color is important, but value is what makes it work. Look at these wools I pulled off the shelf to hook a pine tree. Will they work? The colors look right, but are the values right? One way to check is with a value finder. As …
How to rug hook a sunset sky and water using specially dyed wool
How to hook a regular sky I use an easy method with my specially dyed sky wool to hook a normal day time sky. The method is described in detail in Pine Trees, Grass and Sky. This method does not work for our nighttime sky on this project. This sky does not have any shading, but the …
Dyeing sunset or sunrise sky for rug hooking
I received a call from Rhonda Smith about dyeing wool for a sunset sky. An image popped in my mind. I asked her to mail me the photo she had in mind (colors do not always translate well in emails because everyone's monitor can show colors very differently.) When it arrived it was remarkably …
Oak and Acorns Rug Hooking Pattern
Just in time for fall. I imagine each leaf hooked using 2-24 different textures. Here are some ideas I came up with. I choose three different wools for each leaf. You can use more or less. I had to make a decision just to get the ball rolling. Double outline and fill This was the way I …
Finishing a hooked rug – zig zag or not?
My rug hooking workshop schedule has been very full the last few years. I enjoy teaching so it was a joy, but it did not allow much time for musing. This summer I've had time to slow down and think. One topic that has been whirling around in my head has been rughooking finishing. To zig zag or not …
Dyeing wool using the season’s hottest colors using PRO Chem dyes
Have you noticed some years you can find all sorts of things in your favorite colors and other years you can't find anything? Is there a conspiracy? Yes. So if you can't beat them, join them. Dye your wool in the latest most desirable colors. These are the fall 2012 forecast colors from …
Rug hooking the background on Primitive Roses stair riser
Rug hooking the background can be the least interesting part of rug hooking. So I've developed a way to be sure I finish the background and don't lose interest. I figure that every strip I hook now is one less strip of background I'll have to hook later. I hook background as soon as I can, often …
Primitive Roses stair riser rug hooking pattern
This stair riser pattern has the same rose and bud motif that I used in a design I worked up for my class at Sauder Village this August with Barb Carroll, Chicken Hook a Doodle Do. I wanted to start gathering my wools together. Do I go dull and primitive or my usual style with a little bit …
Nature’s View Rug Hooking Footstool Pattern
This pattern idea came to me when I was finishing a footstool. That footstool, Annie's Flower Power, shown here, has a hit and miss border that completely and beautifully disguises the corner seam. What other patterns would do that? Something with a vertical element. Hmmm.... Then I thought of …
