But first I'd like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2026.
Now to my rug review which is inflated by one. That is because the last loops of the rug below weren't hooked until 4 days into January 2025. So felt guilty adding it to my 2024 count since it wasn't completely hooked in 2024. The first rug finished January 4th was Magdalena's Animal Parade adaptation. My next project was another big antique adaptation which I named Animals Great and Small.
The Deer Torsos adaptation was next on the frame. Then decided to hook one third of a triptych patriotic antique rug, the Eagle section. Again, another antique design was chosen to hook for my kitchen, the chicken pair with food bowl. Robin had a lot of fun with my hooking of this one and I did a bit of reverse hooking. Since Lauren was attending an event where she'd be doing some 'scrappy' hooking I decided to challenge myself too, at home. Am not too pleased with my puny border design. I believe the angled hooking directions altered the shape of what used to be a square piece of linen. Appears that I was following the leader....Lauren, again. She said her next project was going to be Ezra's Farm, a design by Cinnamon Creek. So what does a follower do but follow. 😉 I did take some creative license and put a little patriotic flavor in mine. A birdie told me that daughter-in-law love wished for a snowman rug for Christmas. Since I'm selfish and only like hooking what I want, the Christmas gift was started in August, plenty of time for me to have it done by Christmas and have time to put it away when not in the mood. This is my design and was made specifically for my girl Cathy. The label on the back says just that. Surprisingly it was finished way before Christmas and was fun to hook.
My next project was an antique adaptation commemorating a personal historical event. A few of my paternal ancestors came to America (Baltimore in fact) on sailing ship The Ark. There were originally two ships which sailed together known as The Ark and The Dove. My family were on the Ark so I hooked that ship's image on the antique rug. This is my adaptation which hangs on the wall.
Back to the animals ~ another antique adaptation which I named Farm Menagerie.
Then after posting one of my antique rug shows Lauren and I decided to do a hook along with a design I called 'Hearts and Squares' in the blog post. What started out to be just the pair of us, Lauren thought it would be more fun with more people. Turned out 12 people joined and Hearts Hook-along was born. This is my drab rendition but you can view what 10 of the 12 have accomplished HERE.
The final hooked and bound rug of 2025 was the Geometric and Floral antique adaptation below. When designing my adaptation from the original, a couple elements were removed, making it more eye appealing to me. Someone wanted me to draw a pattern for them but I declined as it was a bear to draw my own. But boy do I love the rug. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the dozen rugs is inflated due to the first rug which needed 4 more days' hooking into 2025. Lauren suggested that if the count bothered me that much perhaps I should say only 11.25 rugs were hooked in 2025. That girl is always thinking.
Wishing all of you a happy and healthy 2026. Remember that happiness must be grown in your own garden. For me, hooking rugs is the seed.
Saundra
