Rugs can get facelifts too

Have you ever hooked a rug and it bugs you every time you walk by it because you know it needs something done to it to make it better?  But, since the rug has been hooked and walked on for years and you have new things to hook you just don't bother doing anything about it?  Well that has happened to me.

This is a pattern by Karen Kahle which I loved and since I was sold by the colors she had in the pattern I tried to hook fairly close to her color palate, that plus the fact I was still timid in doing my own color planning and figured why not just follow her
colors.  So here is how I hooked it and I was happy...... for a while.  As you can see the value in the background and border are too close.  The rug really needed a beauty line or dividing line between the border and the background.  But hey, it was done and I'd moved on to many other rugs and had more patterns on the frames.

But then I realized I'd never be truly happy unless I put that line in.  So I got some #6 wool strips and cornrowed a green that would work between the border and background.  Voila.... mama was happy.  Well, at least happier.

Actually there still is something I'd like to change in the rug but not sure that will be done.  I'd like to change the color of the white rabbit and would make it a little darker, not as dark as the rabbit to the left nor quite as dark as the background so it gets lost.  Hmm, come to think of it maybe it is okay like this after all.

And, the photos were taken with two different cameras, as well as one being on my back porch in natural light and one inside the house with a flash.  So there is a difference in photo color presentation as well.

Now, I have another rug which was hooked in 2005 which needs a similar face lift and perhaps one day I'll take care of that one too.