2 Full Days~~

I think my posts are getting longer and longer.  I had 2 full days of hooking and having fun. What more can a girl ask for? :). 

Thursday's hook in was fun as usual.  We missed some that usually come, so we hope all is well with them.  By the time I got to the shop, there were people hooking away.  On the table for all to see was Joan's rug completed! Isn't it wonderful?

Joan was busy working on some chair pads.

Nancee Completed her rug. Just Super!!!  She was starting another piece.

Diane making great headway on her flying rabbit. Next week I will get a full shot so you can see how far she has come with it.

Diane picked up Nancy to come hook with us. She hasn't been here in quite some time. Great to see her and she is doing a fine job with her cat rug.

Joan was giving some great tips to Nancy and Sue on how she keeps her circle shape. 

Sue is a new hooker, and her husband came with her and was helping with the cutting.

Deb is I "think" finished hooking her piece. I'm not sure if I heard her say she had something else to do on it or not.  But she is already starting her next project!

Genny keeps her hands busy at nights while watching tv with her husband.  She created these hearts to give to her daughter and daughter in laws.  Margo made the cookies :) !

Another piece of Genny's.

Cathy stopped by too!! Another one we haven't seen around in a while.  She brought her friend Sandy to get some dyed wool for an applique she is doing.  Love the turkey Cathy is doing!!

Now Sherri didn't want me to take this shot. One for the cookie in her hand lol, and the other with all the red markings on her piece she drew up.  But I wanted to show that no matter what you draw on your foundation, you can Always change your mind!!  I love her piece :)

On Friday (geesh, it seems like days ago lol), I went to our dye group at Joan's house. I was late.  Slept through the alarm.  (late nights at Grantstreet !)   Louise and Jewel were busy pulling and tieing strings in a piece of wool that Joan had sewed.  They were gathering the wool. didn't get a shot of that part. 
Joan had decided we were going to try something new that she had read about. It was called Shibori. It is a Japanese word for a variety of ways of embellishing textiles by shaping cloth and securing it before dyeing. The word comes from the verb root shiboru, "to wring, squeeze, press".  The common English translation of the this word is "tie-dye"; however, a more accurate translation is "shaped resist dyeing, ".  the special characteristic of shibori resist is a soft or blurry-edged pattern.  There are different techniques for this. We did 2 yesterday. I could go on and on, but just took little pieces from the print out that Joan shared with us on the history of this technique.  It was fun.  We used wool, where in the book they had used silk.
The one technique was the sewing and gathering and the other was scrunched around a piece of pvc pipe that Joan had drilled holes in the bottom for the string that was then wrapped around the sleeve of wool as it was pulled down.  Definitely team work for this project :)!

Here Louise and Jewel were snipping the gathering strings.

Isn't it Great??  And as gracious as Joan is with her wool, she was going to cut this so we could each have a piece.  We said NO!!!!!  I hope she uses it for something real special :).  it was a grey/beige piece of wool and she used Pro Chem Turquoise as the dye. Sorry my camera did not capture the correct color.

And here Jewel is untieing the wool from the pvc pipe. Again, same dye.

Another interesting effect. Only this one didn't take the dye like the other one. We were all thinking it wasn't wet enough to absorb it.   All a learning lesson, and that's why we do these things.

The result!

All that dying before lunch and then some shared their pieces of our group project. This one was started some time ago. We all dyed the wool, and then got to choose our swatches. 
Jewel is very creative with her finishing.  Just beautiful with the prodding around the circle.  It's made into a pillow.

Louise is still working on hers.  The rule of the dye group is when the first person finishes theirs, the rest of us have a month to complete ours before we move on to something else.

So feeling the pressure when I got home last night, I pulled mine out.  I had the center done, the petals done and one leaf done.  I started after dinner and just kept on going! All I need to do is press and whip. It will be whipped with the dark maroon color wool that I am buying from Linda. Realized I didn't pay for it yet lol.

So now that I feel like I've accomplished something, it is time to hook on one of my other 2 projects I have going on.  I did get to hook some of the antique rug at the hook in.  Took pictures of everything else, but didn't get that one!   I will share pictures of that tomorrow I'm hoping.  Will work more on it today and then switch over and hook some of the Old Nutfield. 

The last 2 days have felt like a whole week to me.  Time to put my feet up after I pick up around here and get some more hooking done. I don't need to go out anywhere. I like those days :).

Hoping you all have a Wonderful weekend and get to do something you truly enjoy.....

I just want to add that I have tried to leave comments on other blogs, but they are being wonky lately. I am keeping up with all of you, I just can't seem to leave the comments. Hoping the bugs work themselves out soon!