~*Keeping Busy*~

but still never as busy as I would like to be...

Hello Dear Friends!

Oh, I do hope you are all staying safe and warm!  We have very chilly temps here right now... so cold that school has been canceled for the day.  I've been out to check on all our critters... to make sure they are warm and that their heat lights, blankets, and straw are good.  Last night, I really didn't sleep well... I was so worried about all of them.  They are safe... and they seem very happy today.  The sun is shining, but brrrrrr is it cold!

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I have been keeping busy... but there are so many other projects I WANT TO DO AND THAT I NEED TO DO!  

One project at a time... or, for me, one project until my mind wanders away to work on another...

I have decided to keep a rug working on my loom as much as possible.  This is rug #2 this year (the 1st rug was in my last blog post).  This one is being worked with the same 1 inch fabric strips... but the warp is a thicker, mop~type thread.  I replaced the reed for this rug... making the threads farther apart.  So far... weaving is about 23 inches long...

The tension for this rug is not cooperating with me too well.  Weaving was taught to me many, many years ago.  There is a lot I've forgotten, but hopefully will learn again.  Mistakes are being made, but that is all part of learning.  I am enjoying the process of weaving.  It is nice to get back into it.

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A very dear friend of mine, artist Kris Saia, texted me a few weeks ago.  She told me she was throwing stuff out... cleaning things up.  She had thrown this away... and then dug it out of the trash thinking I may want it.  I made arrangements to pick it up that afternoon!  I was excited to get it!  A partially hooked rug, wool, hoop, and rug hook!

 

Kris took a hooking class from Judy Cripps many years back.  This rug was started... and never finished.  Kris decided it wasn't her 'thing'.   

I wanted to save the hooking she had started... but the rug sat in the hoop for some time causing the hooked parts to need re~hooked...

 I carefully reverse hooked the rug...  Judy Cripps told us at our hook~in once... that any reverse~hooking should be done from the backside.  Turn the rug over and pull the loops up.  This will keep from damaging any backing or ripping the wool strips.  These strips are very wrinkled from being hooked for so long, I may just keep them for pillow stuffing...

 Next, I used the backside of a hook to smooth the Monk's Cloth back in shape... (All of this was done with the rug stretched on a frame.)

 When I turned the rug back over... I was surprised to see a snowman where the house was!  The rug seems to be a mix of talent... from both Judy Cripps' drawing and Kris Saia's drawing!  That made me SMILE!

I turned the rug back over... and retraced the pattern.  Since this piece of cloth fit so well on my large gripper frame, I decided to punch the pattern with wonderful yarns from my buddy Ginger of Primitives by the Light of the Moon... or Prairie Moon Primitives.  (Ginger is on Etsy too!)  After the pattern was traced... I took it off the frame, turned it over, and punched it.  This way, the flag would be finished facing the correct direction.

 Using all thick rug yarns (mostly from Ginger)... the rug is punched!  I didn't have enough of one color blue for the background, so it is very scrappy looking... and very scrappy made.

I was able to punch this rug up start to finish from late afternoon yesterday and into the evening.  Oxford punching is a quicker craft.  It turned out pretty cool!

Thank you, Kris, for sharing your unfinished rug with me!

Now... to steam and bind it... and weave... and work on a bunch of other projects...

I'll be keeping warm and keeping busy!

Wishing you all warm smiles...

Betty