Welcomed Guests

I have finished hooking my Welcomed Guests rug!  This is a design that is adapted from Ann Willey's artwork and sold through Spruce Ridge Studios.  Every time I drew up this pattern, I knew that I wanted to hook it for myself.   I loved the whole process of choosing the colors and I really sped through my actual hooking.

If you remember from a previous post, I decided to let the rug tell me what colors to use.  That can be a bit risky at times because I feel like I am going to "hook myself into a corner" and not be able to figure out how to fix it.  In other words, I worried that without a pre-decided color plan, I might end up choosing colors that didn't work harmoniously in the end.  However, I think I was triumphant this time in making it work!

One thing I learned from this rug:  Even though I thought I was choosing  bright colors outside of my usual color palate, the dark background calmed everything down and made them work.  If I had chosen duller, darker colors, they would have been absorbed by the dark background and not had the same impact.

And believe it or not, the thing I struggled with the most was choosing the right textured wool to hook the hair on both people.

The greatest joy is when you are able to learn something new or different from your hooking! What did you learn from your last rug?