What I'm Hooking Right Now...

Lately I've been trying to get back to my rug hooking. The evenings are getting cooler and it's getting darker earlier. It feels more like fall which makes me want to sit down and hook in the evening when the day is done! I'm actually hooking two projects at the same time. I switch back and forth, depending on my mood; if I'm tired...or inspired! When I want a nice easy thing to hook, I work on Lion and Lamb.

I am mixing three neutral textured wools for the background. The mixture gives so much more interest to the background than if I just used one. I like to work on the background because it doesn't require a lot of thinking...just cut up equal amounts of the three wools, toss them together in a plastic bag, and pull out strips randomly to hook. I hook round and round, echoing the shapes of the leaves and the animals....a great way to get a nice soft movement to the background.

Here's a close-up of the lamb...I used a nubby textured off-white wool and outlined with a soft gray boucle.

Here's a close-up of the lion. I am really pleased with the way his mane hooked up. I used a gold striped wool and cut it along the stripes. Then I hooked the wool in, being careful to place the stripes in such a way that they didn't blend with each other too much. Voila!

This whole rug has nice soft neutral colors, just so restful and lovely to work on. Ahhhh....

Below is my second project! I've been hooking on this a lot lately because I have had so many delightful ideas running through my head! I've decided to let myself have some fun and go a little crazy with colors and techniques. This is Smell My Feet, one of the newest patterns adapted from a notecard by Lori Brechlin/Notforgotten Farm. I fell in love with this little witch's hair! It's just so wacky and wonderful! This rug really gets my creativity revved up...

Getting back to my rug hooking frame has made me take inventory of all the unfinished rugs that are waiting to be completed. I tried to count...not figuring in the rugs that were completed but not hemmed (hey, the hooking part is completed, right?)...I determined that I had 5 unfinished rugs. Oops! Then I ran across another one in my wool closet so that made 6! It's OK, I know I'll finish them at some point. I love them all and they are just waiting for me to come back to them.
So how many unfinished rugs do you have? It's OK, you can confess! No one will know! Take part in my poll. It will be fun to see what the results are!