Back to the Man Cave Rug

Since Chum is hooked (not bound yet tho) and nothing planned (yet) to go on my frame thought I'd better work a bit more on my son's Man Cave rug which is to be a Christmas gift.  Here's where I am.

I've ONLY 6 months to finish this and it isn't quite half done yet.  Yeah, I know there's plenty of time if I stick with just finishing this rug.....but there's so many rugs I want to hook and temptation to start another 'between' is calling me. 

My plan on Man Cave is to do the border, then top lettering and hook background toward the other beer mug.  I'm not happy with the background on the bottom left and part of the darker outline around the pool balls. 

As I was concerned on having enough of all the same color value of blue added some darker value blue into the mix.  But now not happy with the way the background looks, particularly on the left bottom.   Rather than reverse hooking at this point will just finish the rest with the wool colors that work best.  If then I run short of the good colors will pull loops from here and there and 'make it work' as Tim Gunn of Project Runway would say.

Have a great evening and happy hooking, quilting or stitching....whatever floats your boat.

Saundra