Velvet, Raw Wool & Rabbits ~

Good Monday Morning!

Over the weekend, 

I decided to sketch up a "primsical"rabbit onto some linen…

"primsical" being a word I spliced together to better describe my work ~

a little primitive, a little whimsical…

{you get the idea.}

so I began hooking him with my chosen wools….

then I thought of the children's story of the Velveteen Rabbit

and how he came to life.

and as I hooked, I thought more of that ~ 

how the wools/fibers we are using to create a hooked rug were alive once too;

how the linen was once a growing flax plant, harvested from seed 

by basket carrying and bonnet & apron wearing women

and finally woven to create my very favorite fabric.

and those wools ~ 

yes, they were alive once too…

growing on the backs of murmering sheep

who were raised on grass and sunshine in sweet smelling meadows and upon rolling hills

{humor me a bit & think of the movie Sense & Sensability here}

{{ok, so my imagination wanders a bit ~ but isn't it nice to think that though?}}

ok, back to reality.

oh and the velveteen rabbit part.

I have some loverly hand dyed velvets that I purchased from Laura at

www.fiddlestixdesign.etsy.com 

that I thought would work well for the patches on my wool rabbit rug.

and it does work well…

the addition of a different fiber adds more life to my design ~

more character to my character, 

...if you will….

but then I had another thought.

{oh no}

why not add some more interest to the rug with some other fibers as well?

so you can see that I hooked his tail in wool strips,

but I decided it needed something more ~

{of course}

soooo I pulled out his tail of wool strips

yep I did.

and I went to my basket of hand spun raw sheeps wool and thought:

why not?

as you can see he is evolving as I hook ~ 

~ the inked sketch is merely an initial thought on the linen

the finished products never actually end up looking like they did when I began.

and that's ok!

you can see in the snap below how nice the velvet looks ~

it gives the rabbit a bit of sheen, but not too much.

...hooking with velvet is tricky though,

 and messy!!

I hand cut mine into 1/4" strips with my trusty spring-loaded Fiskar scissors,

as I do will all of my wool for my rugs.

so I pulled out the wools in the tail…

and cut a length of my wonky-spun wool yarn

to hook in it's place.

yeah, I spin like I hook ~

all over the place, not evenly and by far not perfect in any matter at all.

and that's ok too!

I love working with my raw sheep's wool ~

this is from our ewe Esther and her son Bobby 

...who are Jacob & Jacob/Finn sheep.

each spring & fall we shear them, I pick the wool, then wash it ~

I have a drum-carder to do the work of hand carding for me, 

then I finally spin it on my trusty Ashford wheel.

the process of all of this comforts me ~ and I love my gentle sheep ;)

since the spun wool yarn is thin & thick in places,

I decided to double the yarn & hook it through the linen…

nice & full and definitely more dimensional

which was what I was aiming for to begin with!

in the photo below, you can see how the tail is more prominent

….perfect to me!

oh & yeah, at the moment he looks more like a moose…

but that will change too ~ ha!

along with those tongues on the left-side of the rabbit…don't like them at all.

and here is the inspiration for my work in progress ~

my tiny rabbit collection amongst some of my ironstone on my bonnet-cupboard:

{{although not one of them looks like the one I'm hooking now, do they?}}

more rabbits on my jelly cupboard ~

oh and sheep, rams & birds too….

and now here are my Pineberry rabbits ~

made from a delightful pattern by sweet-friend 

Wendy of Pineberry Lane

www.pineberrylane.com 

I love them dearly ~ 

the look on their faces make me chuckle each time I glance their way…

I'll share more progress on my rabbit rug with you soon ~

OR if you'd like, you can visit my group on Facebook,

the Out of Hand Rug Hookers Group to see snippets of my progress in between my postings here…

not a member of the group?

send me a request to join! I'm happy to include you in the fun & frivolity over there…

 ~ here's the group link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/642314212550133/

...AND speaking of 'hopping'

Today marks day TWO of the

Buttermilk Basin Spring Thyme Blog Hop!

and the guest artisan is

http://www.plumcutedesigns.com

Hop on over and see the 'tweet' little offering she has for you!!!

~ Blessings from the Farm ~

 Lori