Duplication

Duplication

Is this a good thing or not? In some ways it can be great....if we're working on the background of a rug and we run out of a color that we are using it is nice to be able to duplicate that same color and go on our merry way.

But, what if we just CAN'T get that same color? That's when we have to dig in deep and use our imagination and figure out a way to make something else work. I've learned this lesson the hard way.

One of my first rug hooking teachers told me to buy enough wool to cover the area I wanted to hook 4-6 times. Well, me, being the thrifty gal that I am thought I could get by with 4 times the amount........WRONG!!!! I started a big rug....one of the first ones where I dyed all of the wool myself. And low and behold....I ran out of my background color and had at least one more square foot of the background to hook. I tried to order more of the base fabric and the company was out, so I had to get another wool that was CLOSE. Of course this affected the dyeing and the colors were different....mind you not GOBS different, but they were different enough that I couldn't continue on.

What I had to do was go back and pull out random strips of the original wool and hook in some of the new wool. Well, that was a great lesson! It taught me that whimsey makes for a better rug and that I also need to plan on getting 6 times the area that I am going to hook. Here is that rug in one of my earlier posts.

Now speaking of duplication....someone on here noticed the clematis picture on Dulcy's blog and commented that she'd love to have that color wool.....here is something that came out of the dye pot yesterday and is really fairly close. This Clematis wool can be found in my Etsy store a little later today.


These days, more and more, I'm relying less on dye recipes and more on my creativity. I tell my students to get what they like, because I can't guarantee that I will be able to re-dye some of the wools that I bring to the store. This, I think, has also led them to be more creative as well and look more at values of colors rather than just colors. Learning what colors can work together is such a valuable tool. Here are a few of the fun colors that I came up with on Saturday.
We're going to be grillling out and having Mojitos by the pool today, so I probably won't get these listed on eBay or Etsy until late tonight or sometime on Monday.



Two of my student/friends got a chance to go to a rug hooking class with Karen Kahle and I think they learned tons about value! Hopefully they'll post their finished pieces on their blogs when they get them completed. If you click on Karen Kahle's name it will take you to her Flickr page...just gobs of drool worthy photos.....I see myself doing one of those proddy rugs...I've fiddled with proddy as an embellishment, but would love the brainless task of just making a large one to use up lots of my odd pieces of wool. Perhaps in one of my future posts I'll do a proddy tutorial for ya'll.....drop me a line in the comment section down at the bottom here and let me know if that is something you'd like to see on here.

Perhaps I'll start one of those soon....yeah, like I need another project....I still have the Truvy rug to complete....maybe I'll work on that today. And then I bought a cute little top for my niece, Madison, and she wants butterflies on it and dangly whispy things hanging from the bottom of it. How fun is that going to be ?! I just love making girly stuff!!

Okay....I've rattled on long enough....here are a few pictures from this morning's garden.


















Go forth and be creative,
Tammy