Reunited

We made the trip back to Hanover to collect my abandoned handbag today.  My camera and I are back together at last!  We enjoyed an afternoon of conversation with my Aunt Kathleen whom I hadn't seen in many years.  This dear lady is 91!  She is on the go constantly, visiting friends and family.  Her positive attitude and sense of humor just amaze me.  I wish I had gotten together with her sooner!

She's my father's sister and looks very much like he did.  She gave me an envelope of pictures of my ancestors that I will be copying and adding to my collection.  I may show them in a future post.  I am hoping to make regular visits now that we have been reunited.

Last weekend I finished hooking my little chicken mat.  It's not an exciting project, but it filled the empty space before the Norma Batastini class this past week.  I plan to bind it (and the two star mats) with dark brown yarn.

I was saving my Moon and Stars Watermelon rug for the class.  I had color planning ideas, but thought some expert advice would be helpful since there's a lot of red and green there.  I don't want it to look like Christmas!!!  I wanted the background to be brown like the watermelon was on the ground from which it grew.

I finished the melon in the three day class, using four shades of green and two of red.  On the way home from the class I asked Zip to stop at Lowes so I could get paint samples so I could start planning the background.  I wanted a dark background, but did not rule out a lighter one if it looked better.

After trying quite a few ideas that didn't really work well:  sage, too much green--- gold, looked good but been there and done that several times!--- antique black, not bad but only as a last resort--- navy, dramatic but too contemporary--- cool browns, too drab.  I finally decided that warm browns would be good, but that an outline of navy would give it that extra spark.

Early Sunday morning I got out the dyepot.  I have been hooking for so long that my stash now contains lots of smaller pieces of every color under the sun.  There are no significantly large pieces that can be used for background.  I now collect my small pieces in the same color families and overdye them.  Since I wanted a warm brown, I started out with warm light colored pieces.

Here's my color reference card.

I'm trying to be more scientific in my dyeing.  And keeping records and samples in case I run out and need more.

Here's how the browns look in the rug.  I'm really liking the effect.

The border is going to be maroon I'm thinking.  It's all dyed and ready to go, but I can still change my mind if necessary.

I had several people in class ask me why there are stars on the watermelon.  In the garden seed catalogs there really is a watermelon called 'moon and stars'  It is a large dark green melon with a few large yellow spots on it and lots of little yellow speckles, like a sky with a yellow moon and a sprinkling of stars.  I just made the idea a little corny.

I'm hooking it in a #7 cut with details in a 5. 

Hope all of you are enjoying the wonderful Spring weather.  Nothing better than hooking out on the porch in the fresh air!

Happy Hooking!!!