New Rug Hooker

I had a visit from an old friend Laura Schram who brought her friend Barb up to the store to get some hooking supplies.  Barb has been knitting and doing other crafts and took to rug hooking immediately.  She is shown below trying out different hooks and frames.  It is amazing how you know immediately which equipment is right for you.  Barb liked the first hook she tried and a dozen hooks and tries later, she still liked the first one.  Laura sat and hooked with us and we had a very nice morning.  Thanks for stopping in Laura and Barb.


As promised, below is a pillow I hooked in a Diane Stoffel class last year.  It is Biscuit as a puppy and I gave it to Carl for Christmas. I apologize in advance for the picture quality.  At some angles it shows up fine, others it looks like a black blob.

 This was one of my first attempts at shading and here is what I learned from Diane.  It has nothing to do with color......it is all about value.  So my black lab pup has no black in her at all.  She has purple, navy, grey, green, brown.....but no black.  Diane had me think about everything in light, medium or dark value.  Then as long as the value was right, the color didn't matter, I just mixed.  Deciding where the lighter values should go was the biggest problem for me.  Lighter values to help the leg show up better, the shading in her face, were all easy for Diane to see.  Me.....not so much.  I just followed her instructions and it came out fine. Now I have done several more primitive shading projects and am starting to get how it works.   Looking at pictures to study the shading and indentations in faces and forms really helps.  As with anything, the more you do, the easier it gets.

I really felt like a grown up rug hooker after this little shading project.
Maybe I am ready for a shaded rose......yeah, maybe NOT.


See you next time,
Janice