Rug Of The Day - Midnight Clear

It's Christmas in July!  Let's cool off with some Christmas and winter designs for the rest of the month.  

Midnight Clear

Adapted from the design of Lori Brechlin/Notforgotten Farm

Hooked by Kris Miller

This rug design is available in two sizes and I hooked the larger size.  It is probably my most favorite rug that I have ever hooked!  I mixed a lot of different cuts in my hooking...#8.5 and #9 for the background, #8 and #6 for the lettering, and #6 and smaller hand-cuts for the snowman and parts of Santa's face.  I decided that I couldn't make the fur on Santa's robe white because it would conflict with his beard so I used a very dull sage-khaki plaid.  The snow on the ground was hooked with a light khaki plaid.  Because it is a night scene with a dark background, I didn't want to have the snow appear too bright and besides, snow can have shadows on it at night.  I had to do a subtle pop-out line around his boots because the brown blended with the dark sky (unless I pointed it out to you, you probably wouldn't even notice).  My favorite little detail is the snowman in the pocket.  I hooked a striped wool vertically...I wanted the pocket to look like a little patch pocket that got sewn on later.  I thought that the tabs around the edge of the pattern should definitely be red and green but I made a plan in my head to use only left over strips of wool.  I dipped into my huge stash of noodles and pulled out a variety of strips.  I made a pile of green and a pile of red and just made a random mix to fill in the tabs.  So much fun!  I bound the edges of the rug with a crochet finish, using the background wool and a #8 cut.

You can find the pattern here (large size):

https://www.spruceridgestudios.com/product/midnight-clear-30-x-38/

and the smaller size here:

https://www.spruceridgestudios.com/product/midnight-clear-24-5-x-31/

If you are used to hooking with wide cuts, I would recommend the larger size.