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…for a  couple of reasons.

First…….I really like how the brighter yellow stands out on the bottom curl of the snake, and wish there was a little more definition like that at the top.  

Also…I have only 2 shades of the brighter yellow, and I’m now using the darker of the two in the yellow ribbons/bands of the dress….the lighter is too bright for that area…SOOO…I can (hopefully) kill two birds with one stone…hav
e the snake stand out more, and have a little more of the darker yellow I remove from the snake…to use elsewhere.

I pulled out this much.

then re hooked it with the lighter yellow.

Can you tell the difference?

It’s not a dramatic change, but I think the top of the snake is more prominent now.

There are so many places that I see that I want to tweak, but…. one at a time….

Just a short post to update my progress on Hygieia. It has been sooo hot, (I would never survive in the tropics….give me a blizzard any day to this!)  and the library where I have my computer is not air conditioned…so …I’m only here for short periods.

In the last post I was complaining about the yellows. I decided not to take drastic action…but just add a variety of other yellows (ones already found in the snake and the ovals) for contrast and highlights. Here is one of the originals and one of the varied ones

As I get more hooked, I find it easiest to rest one end across the bed while I hook. (it also keeps my legs from getting too hot as well.)

And…as I finish longer sections…I’m having trouble finding a place where I can effectively take pictures of her.

I hung her up against a closet in the spare bedroom…but it wasn’t high enough, and she dragged on the floor…which distorts the bottom section, against a chesterfield or bed created the same problem.

I finally settled on spreading her across the floor in the library, and standing precariously on a chair to get the camera over top….this was the best I could do!

The Tour de France finished in Paris today…so my long “hooking mornings” will end as I turn my attention to our camping holiday, and whether I’ll take Hygieia to work on, find something smaller, or…. suffer withdrawal, and go with no hooking at all.

Having overdyed all my reds, I was left with a darker strip along each edge.

Sometimes (as was the case with the flesh tones) , this edge stands out so much that I end up discarding the strip.

I found out with the red, that if I used it along the edge of the yellow, it made a lovely accent to the edge, so I’m carefully saving them to use in special places for added interest and accent.

I have removed the dark outlining and lines within the balls…it stuck out way too much.

I used a 4 cut of a slightly darker maple sugar and filled in the interior lines, but that didn’t show up well as a delineation between the two balls overlapping, so I used a lighter yellow in the 4 cut and like that much better.

I really like the reds, they seem rich and vibrant, and have lots of motion. The yellow however is a different story. I’ve decided it is too much of the one colour…will be too blah in such large doses…I’ve spent considerable time trying to decide how to introduce more variety and life into the dress yellows without having them look exactly like the snake. My problem is…Glimpt seems to do exactly that…I can’t really see any colour difference between the two…hmmm…what to do ??….wait a minute… Who am I to question Glimpt’s colour choices!

I guess my decision is made as I write this….off to the air conditioned coolness of my bedroom/hooking room to see how it works.

You would think that when hooking a preexisting picture or photo…the issue of colour planning would disappear….Hygieia is essentially two colours…red and yellow…but I suspect the majority of my decisions from here on in will involve…which red where….how…and which yellow where…how.

With the face, hair and snake complete…I decided on the pancake dye yellows for the ovals…and then moved to the yellow circles which are scattered throughout the gown. I started with ‘maple sugar’ since I don’t want these circles to predominate

….but that was too blah…so I added some of the pancake wool which had maple sugar evident (so I could blend in the ends), and used it to create more interest.

I then decided to add some red to see the overall effect.

It is very humbling when someone has the right to say to you “I told you so” …even if they don’t do it….and I was warned….

The reds looked AWFUL. …garish…yucky…Up close it looked fine…but standing back the overall effect was horrible. I didn’t hook yesterday morning…I pondered.

the new ‘reds’ 

In the afternoon, I gathered up all my reds, dug out the dye pots, and overdyed all 4 yards with mahogany. The stove was full of steaming pots while I experimented to get the depth I was looking for. I ended up using 1/16th tsp mahogany for each 1/3 yard of red. (with the bright sunshine…the colours in the picture aren’t really accurate)

Along with the yucky red…I realized that the black outlining of the balls on the dress were also not right. They looked like very sad Christmas ornaments glued to the front of the dress……I know it is often referred to as ‘reverse hooking’….but not for me….I RIPPED out all the red and the black outlining (with a vengeance).

I hooked a bit of the new reds in last night and went to sleep happy. (This colour of red is much more accurate)

 Today I hooked while the bikers climbed the Pyrenees… problems solved ….until the next time.

The snake is finished.

I switched methods part way through…that is …I started by doing the outlining first, then filling in…and switched to doing the outlining last.

This makes more sense to me (now) since I can adjust the outlining to fit the strips, rather than the other way round.

Next step …the yellow ovals.

I got out my yellows, and finally decided to do them with the same pancake dyed wool I used for the headpiece…connecting the two areas together.

I’ll soon have to make a decision about reds.

I’m not great about mentally visualizing…so I hung up vairous pieces of the light red, and left it there to look at for awhile.

The only real decision I’ve made about them…is I don’t want a plain solid colour (Like I used to try out the ribbons). 

Today is a “rest day” in the Tour de France…so no morning TV watching/hooking. Maybe a good time to try some experimenting with the dye pot.

The Tour de France is on now…so my hooking has switched to being a morning activity…We even upgraded from 65 channels to 999, just so that I could get TSN2 which is carrying it this year…I really should say ‘listening” to the “tour de France”…since I hook every morning while it is on. I’ve been hooking on Hygieia’s arms, and I’m nearly finished them….

I started with 1 1/4 yards of dip dyed flesh tones….5 pieces each  1/4 yd. One was too red and I discarded it. For the others…some I used lengthwise with the strip running from dark to light…and others I cut crosswise to have either a light or a dark strip.

I shortened her arm which is holding the dish…

it was quite a bit too long.

I don’t really like that arm at this point…

but I won’t change anything now…I’ll wait to see how I feel about it when the hooking around it is complete.

As I was posting the pictures of the Trent display for the last post…I realized that Jill’s Zipper Matrix rug wasn’t there. I knew I’d taken a picture of it…so I went hunting again through my pictures and found I had missed a whole bunch that I had taken of the display…so here they are…. better late than never.

Gail’s dancing trees are so joyous.

Hooking a picture of our house is definitely on my to do list….this provides great ideas (it’s not unlike ours)

realistic flowers…

and padulas

amazing detail

geometric circles

an interesting braided edge

And here is Jill’s version of Zippers…I love it in this colour family (actually much more useful than my purples….which are pretty but won’t go with any room in my house)

I don’t know if this is a Deanne Fitzpatrick pattern…but it is
certainly reminiscent of her style.

wow…

Two great orientals…

.and of course there were many more wonderful rugs to be seen.

Hopefully I’ll have Hygieia completed to display next year.

Hooking the headpiece has been relaxing after the concentration needed for the face….just wiggly lines, then shadowing them in a variety of wools to fill in. Only one small section to go.

 On Thursday at Trent…the rug display was open to the public, and visitors also  came by the various classrooms to watch what was going on. A couple of people stood and watched me as I completed hooking the eyes.

I didn’t have any embroidery thread with me (that’s what I’ve used previously  for the highlight ), but I wanted them to see the dramatic effect this makes in making the eye come alive……so….I rolled the masking tape back from a bit of the edge, and clipped a thread of the linen and used that.  They were quite amazed at the effect it created. 

I’m obviously not a photographer at heart (or in skill). The rug display at Trent was quite wonderful, but the combination of my being too busy oo-ing and ahh-ing…and knowing my batteries were dyeing…meant that I missed getting pictures of a lot of wonderful rugs. Here are some of the ones I did manage to take photos of…

There are sooo many talented rug hookers!

Happy Canada Day everyone…and Happy 4th of July to all my American friends.