A lot of people have helped me with my rug hooking…rug hookers must be the friendliest, kindest group of people you could ever meet. However ,  the person whose ideas and style have influenced me the most , is undoubtedly Gene Shepherd. He suggests finding a piece of fabric whose colours please you, and use that as the basis of your colour palette. I spent a long time in Fabricland, and finally found a piece that pleased me. I realized as I began hooking a variety of the motifs, that it was more muted than I wanted, so with some suggestions from other hookers , I added the ‘acid green’, and ‘yellow’ to ‘pumpkin’ tones….the latter being used quite sparingly since they really ‘jump out’. I also added small amounts of a deeper, more vibrant blue and red. The background ‘antique black’ is spot dyed over a claret coloured cashmere with majic carpet black and bottle green dye (thanks to Rittermere’s for the recipe). It gives the background life and vitality. The majority of the colours I  dyed over natural Dorr wool, with  a few  over a light beige tweed, and a pendleton plaid. I am using spot dyeing and dip dyeing methods.

The rectangular rug is a 6 cut, and the hall runner an 8 cut. This picture shows about half of the hall runner.

Now off to put today’s freshly dyed wool in the dryer.