Tiny mat

Remember the hooked rug kit that I found? Here it is all worked up and finished - it's about 5 x 6 inches. I'm using it as a coaster on the table beside my hooking frame.

I've made some changes to it from the original design. When I started hooking, the yarn that came with the kit was meant to be used as the green in the bottom part - leaves, I guess. But, I disliked hooking with the yarn; it was too thin and slippery. So, I got out some other greens but couldn't see what I wanted: I was looking for a bright yellow-green. I had a Kool-aid dyed piece that was pretty bright but too green. Time for the dye-pot.

I took a piece of plain yellow and put it in hot water with a lot of salt and the darker green piece. As the fabrics simmer, over about a half-hour, the dye will leach out of the fabric and should make a mottled combination of the two colors. This it did but the mottling is pretty subtle. A big gulp of vinegar to set the color and I was happy.

I like how the yellow has seeped into the green as well as the green going to the yellow. The two fabrics are now totally different from their parents. The photo doesn't give the true finished colors but the close-up of the little mat is pretty accurate. The original dark green is still darker than the yellow fabric became.

Then I used the yarn to bind the edges. I quite like this little piece. It's supposed to be tall flowers like lupines or foxgloves that grow wild in grassy spaces. I can see that but it looks as though the field was being looked at through a rainy-day window.

Discovery

This morning I was digging into that pile of photos for my Sunday challenge. I found these flower pictures that Anne has taken at various times. They aren't related except as garden shots. But each one is interesting.

The one above reminded me of a pig. Even more, it made me think of Alice's adventure through the Looking Glass. You know, where she meets a woman holding the baby who looks like a pig. I seem to remember the baby sneezing because of black pepper, too. Can't you see the pink Victorian bonnet? Or pig ears.

Meet Alchemilla mollis. She was a must-have plant quite a few years ago and has now multiplied to a nice border along the sidewalk. I needed to have one because I had been told about the drop of water that remained in the leaf after the rain. I still think it's a very peaceful sight. She does get quite blowsy with her chartreuse flowers, though.

And when I came across this picture, I could feel the warm sun on the grass. On a gray day like today, it's nice to have some sunshine even if it's just a photo.

Cool photos

We got him! Well, actually Anne did. She's been stalking the suet feeder with the camera in hopes that the downy woodpecker would come back.

And the others are two shots of the stained glass which hangs behind the garage window. There were some lovely frost flowers and she took a close-up.

Just don't think about the implications of frost flowers on the inside of a window.

Get it right!

It's taken so long to finish this rug. Lots of other things to do since I started it. I can't believe it's taken me since the end of July to get this far. I thought I was done over a week ago. Then I put it down on the floor to just look at it for a while. I usually do this so that I can figure out how it should be bound. But the more I looked at the rug above, the more I wanted to do something about the color balance. There was too much pink and purple on the left. So, I pulled those two diamonds out and tried again. Version 2 is below. I used a leaf green on the left side hoping it would kind of disappear. I put pink on the right to give some color to a dark patch in the 'garden'.


Then I took a picture. I didn't like how the green disappeared into the gray. That was more invisibility than I wanted and the balance was out again. Oh, rats! After looking and looking, I couldn't see how to keep it clear but unobtrusive. Then Anne said it had to be as bright as the pink diamond. I was not convinced but not having a better idea, hooked in a dull aqua piece. Here's the result:

She was right! It looks so much better than before. And it gives even more depth to the frame around the window. Of course, I could have spared myself all this by being more careful with the flower placement. I think I got bored with making them and decided it was OK. I still like this, though.