Preparing to Hook

Oh dear, I seem to be spending more time reading about rug hooking then hooking, but I have been hooking and my first project is one of all yarn.  Research told me working with yarn was more difficult than working with strips of wool fabric; I do find that to be true.  And, I have learned not to assume all yarns hook the same.

For example, I found Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian wool) difficult to pull up the loops without splitting the yarn, but after re hooking my tree trucks many times over, I resolved the issue.  Manos Maxima, beautiful merino wool, used on the tree tops, was heavenly to hook, but expensive.  Another yarn I tested out, after the photo was taken, was Full O' Sheep, Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller, very nice 100% Peruvian wool that hooks up quite lovely.  And, I should also mention, for hooking yarns I like using Joan Moshimer's Special O hook.  

Backing was an easy decision; I went with premium Scottish burlap made specifically for rug hooking.  It comes in two different weaves, one for finer hooking (#3, #4 and #5) and one for primitive hooking (#5 and up).  I wasn't sure which to use for my all yarn project and went with the primitive burlap.  Of the three yarns tested so far, I felt the Cascade 220 would have been better with the finer burlap. 

Red Dot Tracer seems to be a popular choice for transferring patterns to backing material.  It is basically a light weight non-woven interfacing with red dots marking each square inch, which is helpful for keeping your pattern straight.  Along the same line is Tru Grid by Pellon with blue squares instead of dots and for the times when a grid doesn't matter, I am just going to use a regular non-woven light weight interfacing.

Tulle (with fine holes) is another popular choice and like the Red Dot Tracer you use a Sharpie marker which bleeds through the interfacing (or tulle) and marks the backing material.  Another way is to make templates, place them on the backing material and trace around them with a Sharpie marker.  For this project, I tested out the Tulle and was pleased with the results.

So now, back to my hooking, the house is next and I still have a few more yarns to test.

Until next time.....happy hooking!

Karen