Now that my wool room is organized again and I've even vacuumed up the wool dust, I was finally able to put the Magdalena Dog on the frame and begin hooking again. Yesterday I had full intentions of posting a picture of the rug, took a picture and then because the picture showed the flowers as more orange than red, decided to pull out loops and hook more so I'd have a little better color plan.
You would think that with all the yardage of wool I have in my stash that I'd be better at color planning. I'm always second guessing myself and feel inadequate even when I try to do it by the color wheel. I have a friend Shari Lutz who is a natural and everything she hooks looks wonderful and well thought out. And frankly don't think she puts in a lot of effort out doing the color planning. She just goes to look at her stash, grabs this and that, cuts it and away she goes.
So here is what the rug looked like yesterday.
And below are two different camera settings that I just took as they each show the rug in a different light. And darn if it still doesn't show the flowers as more orange but believe me when I say it is red in person. This time it is staying put.
Next photo is the other camera setting. And I do see something I'm pulling out ~ under the dog is a blue/green row of hooking and that will come up as I want to put the neutral color there and have decided that I will add the blue/green in some quadrants of the rug.
My plans are to make it a sorta scrappy and echoing rug as Magdalena originally did but not with the color choices she made. Normally I try to stay true to her colors but use what I have available from my stash. This time I'm using a little more color and that is why I'm having a problem.
Oh well, if I don't like it can always pull out wool and re-hook. And, the rug isn't all that big and could always hook another. I say that but have never hooked the same rug twice.
I've not really made a lot of headway with my new project but I am savoring every loop I pull. Plus, I'm in no hurry to finish it as there is no deadline. Well, I say in no hurry ~ but I wanted to hurry and hook at least some flowers before I posted a picture so it would look like there was progress. Yet, since life gets in the way ( you know the boring stuff like vacuuming up wool dust, dog hair, laundry.... yawn...) then I didn't get as much accomplished as I'd hoped.
I'm still working thru what wools to use on what I have here (uh, like I don't have enough to choose from). For this Magdalena I'm not going to try and emulate what she did for her original. I did try to keep close colors to her other three rugs I hooked.
However, I am trying to make the rug look old and like it was hooked using wools that 'She' had. Heck, all women like Magdalena used whatever they had.... they had to use it up, make do or do without. Just love the areas of change of color in the body of her animals and this dog.
Moving on to newer grounds. Well, Magdalena Briner rugs really aren't a new project for me since I've got at least 3 under my belt. But am getting ready to hook this beauty now. This is the original by Magdalena but I'm not doing the original size of 36 x 45. I'll hook a much smaller and quicker to hook piece. I've been wanting to hook this design for quite a while since seeing the smaller version that Barb hooked in Ligonier.
Meanwhile, I've still a couple rugs to bind and am soaking black binding tape to bleed out the black dye now so it doesn't happen to the rugs should they get wet. It is amazing how much dye comes out of just a warm soapy soak.
And tried so hard to work on a rug that I'd started about 3 years ago and ended up hating pulling loops. HUH? Me? Hating pulling loops? I liked the design, I didnt' like the wool I was using. Yeah, I was using some undesirable wool, thinking that placed here and there it would not be noticed. HA! It looked like hell.
So for now I've stuck the wool and pattern aside and will pull out all the wool around the undesirable wool and put it away for some time until ready to tackle it again and with all good wool. So it just doesn't pay to use crappy wool even tho you like the color, as it just doesn't position right and I wasn't happy.
