A Journey with Hobbits While Creating

 Today’s a little gloomy, and since we’re still stuck inside, I thought I’d work a little on decorating my goose feather tree for February. 

So, along with being a rug hooker, wool dyer, knitter, crocheter, etc. I make goose feather trees just as they did back in the late 1800’s. They are easy, if not a bit “fiddly” to make, and you can make them any size for any space in your home. They can be decorated for any holiday, season, or just left plain.  The one I leave out and decorate year-round is about two feet tall, and sits in a cream color base with dried moss around the base. My plan is to show how I decorate my tree each month, sometimes changing decorations a couple of times in the month. 

Here she is decorated for Christmas and January. I found the ornaments at TJ Maxx, and they are reproductions of glass German ornaments. I am absolutely in love with them, and run across a box or two of them every other year, and always grab them! 

For February, I am making a yo yo garland and tiny crocheted red hearts. The garland will have yo yos and red beads, and the hearts will hang at the end of the branches. Can’t wait to show you the decorated tree!

While making yo yos and crocheting tiny hearts, I’m watching The Hobbit trilogy. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings has been a favorite since fourth grade. I still have my books from way back then, and both of our kids read them when they were in school. 

Here they are, and sit front and center on my bookshelf. So, do/did you fall in love with Tolkien’s world and characters? 

Happy crafting and creating!

Creativity Slump and a Temperature Rug

Ya'll, I'll be the first to say that I love to be home to create, cook, and even clean 😏, but seriously, there can be too much of a good thing!  I have noticed that my creativity has hit a bit of a slump, so I've decided to do something that is a bit different, but still rug hooking.  Let's chat about it....

So I'm sure you've seen or even made a temperature blanket.  I haven't heard of one until a couple of members of the Valley Fiber Arts group was working on one a couple of years ago, then again last year, and has they've started another one for this year.  I do knit and crochet, but come on, I'm a rug hooker at heart, and I started to think that this might be something that could be translated into rug hooking.  I've even seen cross stitchers and embroiderers stitching temperature projects!  Now I'm garbage at math, so I needed to keep it very simple, and as I work on my 2021 piece, I'm sure my brain will be fast forwarding to 2022 and what can be done differently.  In keeping it simple, I've decided to do a one inch square for every day, so I drew 12 six inch squares with 36 one-inch squares in each.  I know, the most squares that will be filled out for each square is 31, but I'm sure I can figure out something  to hook in those extra squares or even as a total space. 

Here's my backing (monks cloth), and the squares drawn out.  Ignore any extra lines, this is for me only, so it's all good.  Since I'm starting a bit late, I've gone to my weather app and wrote down the morning temperature for each day.  I will use the temperature when I wake up every day, just to be consistent.

Now for the colors..I struggle with choosing colors and I wanted to use up strips I already have.  I have a habit of buying already cut strips from other rug hookers that are destashing or have decided to not hook anymore, so I have a ton of them and of all different sizes.  For this project, I'm going to stay at a #6 or smaller since the blocks are only 1"x1", so I've got plenty of strips to choose from.

Here's my colors, each bag labeled with a temperature range.  Starting from the left 

• 98F and above
• 97-90
• 89-82
• 81-74
• 73-66
• 65-58
• 57-50
• 49-42
• 41-34
• 33-26
• 25-18
• 17-10
• 9-2
• 1F and below

Today I'll play catch-up, then I'll need to record and hook one square a day.  Fingers crossed it'll look kind of cool at the end of 2021, and If you all decide to do something similar, let me know!  I'd love to see your interpretation and colors!