new and old

While I may be whining about being done with the cold and ready for spring this sudden surprising relapse into winter finds me happy and excited. 

Our beautiful New Mexican desert is transformed into a winter wonderland! The clouds were chasing over the mountain, everything looked so fresh and bright and somehow full of promise! I guess you can call me a desert rat now  - after seven years in New Mexico! Moisture - be it snow or rain - promises growth and  flowers in the spring - soon!!

When I'm at home I rush through chores just to get them done quickly. Then I can allow myself to get back to knitting on my sweater. 

The body is done, pieces assembled and I managed a perfect neck binding. The first sleeve is halfway done, I'm getting there!

While I was rummaging through some drawers the other day, I found this small hooked piece, a zippered pouch, which I had finished some time last fall.

I am so pleased with how it turned out, but I must confess, the hand stitching annoyed the heck out of me.

The hooking part was really fun - a managable size and just letting go with various materials and enjoying the play with colors.

 I had dyed the red and purplish grey for the backgrounds and the rest is a mix of strips, yarns and various fabrics, whatever I found that worked together! 

If you have never worked with other materials in your rugs - I can highly recommend it!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the fireplace! Be well, friends!

Blue Changes

A little while after I was done with my dyeing yesterday I found some forgotten strips, that I should have thrown in with everything. In the end this turned out to be a good thing because it gave me the chance to really compare the old to the new strips. 

When I looked at the mellowed out wool pieces on the drying rack I was initially disappointed because besides evening out the shades I had also tried to go altogether lighter and I thought it did not happen.

But once I compared them side by side - above two strips are the new blues (one of them originally a houndstooth) - I found a real distinct difference!

I am very happy with the result!

Won't have a chance to pull some loops until tonight, it will be exciting to see!

The Quest

Do you as an artist feel like one day you will be There? You will have achieved your goals and your work will be perfect? I seriously doubt that there is one of you out there who answers yes to that question. I am sure that even the teachers among you will be the first to tell me that they never stop learning. 

Since I started my journey into rug hooking three years ago a whole new world to express myself has opened up. I fell in love. Rug hooking gives me a creative outlet where I need to slow down. I have to pace myself, think about my visual goals and how I can achieve them. And oh boy, is there much to learn.

I wanna tell you about my biggest learning experience in 2012, which at first sight may seem minor, but  makes a world of difference. check out the two pumpkins, ignore the different frames. Anything click?

Omg - first go (above) I hooked a solid brown stem. Nice enough. Teacher told me it does not work, because I have a dimensional pumpkin, so I pulled out just a few loops, added some checkered brown (below) and 'bam' - there it was, my biggest "yes, I get it!" of the year - such small changes lead to making it right - wow! Can you tell that I am still in awe..?!

(yes, this is one of my UFOs and I will transform the pumpkin soon into a little pillow!)

At times I knit, spin and sew more, but the urge to pull some loops is great and grows with time. The internet feeds to that. When you browse the blogworld, you see so many beautiful creations that inspire, just look at my bloglist on the side!

 The other day I threw all of my three unfinished rugs on the floor so that every time I walked by I got the visual input and was reminded to think about where I wanna take them.

In the end I focused on the large rug with my kids drawings. I dyed up blue woolens for the background. Not sure if the color would work I started working around my first finished motives.

 This morning in our small rug hooking group we discussed it, because I just wasn't sure.

 Turned out my blues were too busy, as a background too distractive from the kids designs.

So we jumped into action and went from piles of woolen blues, some white and a tad bit of green...

 ....... to the dye pots...

...and got this!

 Shades of a more uniform lighter blue!

I ended up "marrying" all my blues and yes, I did pull out what I had previously hooked.

Now I am not-patiently-at-all waiting for my new colors to dry so I can pull the blues!

What are you learning these days? 

Life happens

Where oh where to start.....

Well, since the last post was about Rudi, let's continue with my after-Valentine's Day rug hooking project!

Once there was a little heart, which was hooked for a little girl...

The little heart was made just after Valentine's Day and the little girl loves it very much, because she collects hearts. She put it right on the little cabinet, where she keeps all her other little hearts.

Not the end!

I made another heart, this time a small mat measuring about 7 x 7 inches. I added a little bit of mohair and sparkle, but still - not my typical colors, can you tell? I think it turned out great!

My teacher-guru Cathy named it heart of my hearts.

The little loveliness will travel with us to Germany in May. A perfect little Mother's Day present for Oma!

As you may remember, I have been teaching some knitting classes. One of them for this lacy shrug made of Be Sweet bamboo:

Gorgeous, right? - No, I am not just talking about the shrug. Lisa is my favorite model, she is fabulous!

Another class coming up is for this ballet wrap, but finally ladies' size! It is not quite finished, but it will look just like this! It is knitted from softest alpaca silk and I cannot wait to wear mine!

If you are in Albuquerque and you are interested in this class get in touch with me! There will be two sessions of at least 2 1/2 hours on Tuesdays, May 8th (11.30) and 22nd (11.00) at the Yarn Store at Nob Hill.

Happy knitting and happy spring!

Rudi

He landed in the snow this morning!

There is still quite a bit of snow in our shady backyard, so this was the perfect backdrop.

Hooked in mainly #8 strips he rises to the occasion, measuring glorious 21 x 18" and thus being the largest mat I have hooked so far.

He will be a Christmas wall hanging and I will probably get him out of storage in September and keep him up until pool season, LOL.

But... isn't he adorable?

coming in for landing

Can you imagine my delight when on Sunday I went out to the garage to check the yarn stash for a suitable match for the binding and found this little treasure?

It almost looks as if it was dyed in the same dye bath with the wool for the antlers!

Took me about three hours to do my stitching all the way around, but now Rudi is blocking! I'll give him until tomorrow to rest, then you'll get to see him in all his off-seasonal glory.

Until then, just one more shot with sweet Ikie, okay?!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

for the love of wool

Does this ever happen to you, that you have to laugh about yourself? It sure is what I am doing right now!

I knew this was going to happen... I should have been working on Rudi's edge. My teacher-guru-mentor-hero-friend Cathy showed me a new-to-me technique, beading, and it was coming along nicely. The girlie was very approving, too!

But then there was Valentine's Day and the day after that I took a class with Cathy and started...well, I bet you guessed it - a heart!

I am still learning, so this was again an interesting process, seeing what the red checkered fabric would look like once it is hooked.

What will it be? It's a surprise for a certain girl in this household, who has a small collection of hearts. So, psssst! I will show you soon.

I have also been knitting. This has been a bit of a procrastinated project, that should have been done earlier since I will be teaching a class for it:

I have named it the Uber Earflap Hat, because it has such a nice fit that covers your head where it should and looks nice, too. I will teach this class at the Yarn Store at Nob Hill (here on Facebook) on Wednesday, Feb 29 from 11.00 to 1.30.

If you fell in love with the hat and cannot live without knitting it: I designed the hat and have the copyright for this pattern. It will be available for sale at the yarn store at Nob Hill after I have taught the class. You can also purchase it from me for $ 3.-, just pop me an email!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

fanclub

If you are allergic to cats you might click away at this point, because it is all about my furry friends today.

They do share my passion for all things wooly and sure look adorable in the fluff!

Munchkin and Ike take turns with their naps in the pile of dyed roving on the couch.

Ike never fails to find new wooly nap spots - skeins of yarn in the studio in this case!

And then there is hooking - looks like an almost finished hooked mat is irresistible.

Lots of floor space, but it's got to be the mat!

The mat is on the frame? Who cares - let's get on it!

You get a glimpse of Rudi - I am working on the border now and I am getting close to the end - patience, my friends, picture will follow when I am done.

The other day I got a treasure chest in the mail. Well, actually it was a package from my friend Ulrike with belated birthday gifts (lots of wonderful wooly goodies!) and again the furry guys were all over it.

Silly Ike even stole one of the cute little mohair chicks - I guess he took it for a mouse!

Last, but not least some hooking without cats! Here is my eye of New Mexico.

You may remember that I am working on a response rug project with my friend Amy in Virginia. When I had completed the addition to her mat, I had to start a mat that will be mine in the end. (Finally I can talk about this here because she has received the package with this.)

I wanted to incorporate something about New Mexico, because we both not only share a love for rug hooking, but for the Land of Enchantment as well. We see New Mexico with similar love, through similar eyes, this is how my idea evolved. I am very happy with the result.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

colors and loops

This is what I have been spending my time with. I have dyed loads of spinning fibers for the yarn store at Nob Hill. Didn't my bathroom look pretty?

The first load has already been delivered, mainly rambouillet fine wool, and there will be some more mystery roving coming, that I still need to bundle up and label.

Ike always enjoys when the fibers are out. He picks a napping spot right on top of the fluff. Always.

Dyeing the fibers brought me to another UFO, which slept in the closet since last Christmas season, yep, twenty-ten.

Somehow this is a repeating pattern in my life... I get to a holiday and wish I had started hooking a holiday theme early enough to be done by then, but I have not! I had started Rudolf about 2 weeks before Christmas and put him away when I took down the Christmas decorations, nose and face only were done.

I have decided to finish him now and dyed the purple and blueish white woolens for him.

Last night Lewis asked me, why Rudi's antlers are purple, choosing his words quite carefully (he did not want me to be offended and/or think that he doesn't like it). I told him I chose an unexpected color to add that extra interest. - That he asked showed that it is doing its purpose, right?!

Rudi will be ready next Christmas. Maybe I will hook a little Valentines mat in March?

still counting

Not much has happened in regards to my optimistic UFO plans, but we do wanna start the new year with a good laugh, right? So here is one that definitely belongs in the category what-was-I-thinking.

Beautiful super soft yarn, though...

It sits next to the couch ready to be frogged.

This dress top for the girlie in my favorite orange is done, ends woven in, straps attached.

Skirt fabric is picked (the one on the right), still needs to be attached. You see my good excuse why I could not get to work on that - ironing board occupied!

This vest should have never ended up in a box. But it did. I finished it in two hours. TWO!

It is awesome, long, fuzzy and soft.

Comes with the perfect vintage button, too.

Last but not least these coasters, that are meant to be a gift for a friend. Not really UFOs since I have not been working on them for long.

I had originally meant to use leftover noodles, but in the end that did not work. My selection did not have enough variety, and some of the colors I stripped specifically for this.

For twenty-twelve I wish all of you lots of time with color, fabric, string or whatever makes you tick, for creativity, with your art.

And I wish you love in your lives, lots of it!