Blue Heron

Blue Heron, hooked rug, 9x12 inches

Blue Heron, detail

Blue Heron, detail

This is a rug I was inspired to make after a Green Mountains Hooked Rugs workshop with Jon Ciemiewicz. During his classes with us, Jon shared slideshows of his work, inspiring images, some riddles and prizes. He also covered several of his methods for dyeing wool using one single slow cooker! I have since used many of his ideas when hooking and dyeing. Thanks Jon!

The heron and the tree were hooked with many bits of wool hiding in my bag of "noodles". I dyed the water and background of trees using one single piece of Dorr wool. I measured how long my horizontal strips needed to be in order to hook a full line. I then measured a piece of wool that wide and as tall as the background. Using various values and tints of blue and green dye, I "painted" the background wool as one piece in a large metal casserole dish. In order to keep the painted strips in order, I cut 4 of them at a time horizontally as I hooked and taped the pieces together with masking tape until I was ready to use them.