www.littlehouserugs.com
Creating Heirlooms
Featured Rug of the Month
November 2011
Haleema, 27.5"x34.5"
Designed and hooked by Judy Taylor
The story of this rug is kind of long, but pretty fun. Haleema is in Indian name, meaning "gentle and patient," which seemed totally appropriate for this tame sweetie. But I didn't start out wanting to make an elephant rug at all.
It all started with my new book, Joy of Hooking (With Yarn!). Among other photos and images that were needed to illustrate the book, I wanted lots and lots of photos of yarn, as many colors and textures as I could put together. Here's one that was used in the book:
So the pictures turned out pretty well, then I was left with this fabulous multi-colored yarn array, each small skein measuring 1-2 oz. I didn't like the thought of just dispersing these skeins back from whence they came, so I thought a much better and more fun option would be to design a special rug to show off all of these varied and interesting yarns. Here's the rug:
Box 'O Crayons, 69.5"x24.5" (This rug was featured in July.)
OK, that was fun. But what to do with the leftovers?
Leftovers from Box 'O Crayons, tied end to end and wrapped in nine large skeins.
Those same leftovers, overdyed.
Neat! I thought the Crown of Thorns pattern would show off these unique colors:
Crown of Thorns, 36"x22", feaured in August.
Wonderful! But what to do with the leftovers?
What else? Overdye! I overdyed this batch with Mahogany dye.
Cozy Rose, 22.5"x32.5", this one was featured in September.
I separated the reddish yarns, into piles of dark, medium and light, and hooked the background of Cozy Rose with the dark in the outer border, medium in the middle background and lighter yarns in the center. I brought in new yarn for the flowers and scrolls. But don't you know, I ended up with leftovers.... Overdye!
I overdyed the Cozy Rose leftovers with Colonial Blue, and used them for the penny background in the Haleema rug.
So from this to begin with...
To this....
To this....
To this....
All from the same yarn!!!
This was such a fun challenge, I hooked all of the rugs in the space of six months.
Told you it was a long story! Moral of the story-- never give up on your leftovers!
Do you have a rug you would like to see featured on this website? E-mail me! Every rug has a story and we love to hear all about them. If your rug is featured, you will receive your choice of our rug hooking totebag, or a half-yard of linen free! Check out our archive to see all the many rugs that have already been featured. Then send your photos!
