Pretty Bird
Hooking With Yarn
Pretty Bird, 19” x 12”, handspun and hand-dyed yarns on burlap. Designed and hooked by Judy Taylor,
Pretty Bird can be hooked with wool strips, but why not give yarn a try? This kit features some of the many different effects we can achieve with yarn, both handspun and hand-dyed.
For example, the light and medium green yarns in the border are overdyed wool/mohair yarn. The mohair gives the gray yarn luster and takes the dye more deeply. The background is a solid magenta wool yarn, which I spot dyed with cornflower blue for a variegated effect. The dark red in the feathers and wing outline was a gray 100% wool yarn (so no luster) overdyed with mahogany.
For the feathers, I spun up peach, variegated pink, and yellow wools, and alternated these colors in the hooking to produce a “glow.” The body of the bird was handspun, too. For that I spun up a multicolored purple/yellow wool and plied that with a gold strand. So, with hand spinning, you can actually blend colors, either in the spinning of the strands, or in the plying of different-colored strands.
No need to learn to spin yarn yourself, though! Just do an internet search for spinning guilds in your area. Once you know what effects can be created, you can find a hand spinner who can make yarn to your specifications. (The kit in the magazine comes with all the yarns spun and dyed to complete the project.)
You can hook with wool strips the same way you hook with yarn. You can hook with yarn the same way you hook with wool strips. However, you would be giving up some of the speed and efficiency of yarn hooking. When we hook with wool strips, we must take care that the strip doesn’t twist across the back, and we don’t want to rough up the edges of the strip too much. We don’t have to worry about those issues with yarn, though.
Materials List
- Burlap or backing of your choice
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Yarn Requirements:
- Border: .6 oz. light green, .8 oz. medium green
- Border: .6 oz. light green, .8 oz. medium green
- Body: 1.2 oz. variegated purple/yellow/gold
- Background: 5.25 oz. magenta/blue
- Eye: .1 oz. dark blue
Additional Images
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Fibers before spinning and after spinning
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Wool and wool mohair before and after dyeing
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Magenta before dyeing
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Magenta after dyeing
Hooking With Yarn
Begin in the same way, leaving a tail sticking up on top. When you push in your hook, instead of grabbing the yarn close to where it comes out the back, let your fingers gently slide down a bit, and lift the yarn onto the hook (Figure 1). When you fold the yarn over the hook underneath, pinch down on it to keep it on the hook. (If ever you notice that you’re “splitting the yarn,” remind yourself to pinch down and keep downward pressure on the yarn until you have pulled your hook through to the top.)
Figure 2 shows the hook just before it has been pulled through to the top. Imagine your fingers are firmly keeping the yarn on the hook at this point (at the arrow). Once you have pulled your hook through to the top, you can let go of the yarn from below, and just feel the ‘slack’ you gave yourself pull up, like a loop in back (as you pull your hook up from above, feel that loop in back pull snug up against the backing.) As soon as you have pulled the slack up nice and tight, your underneath hand can gently pull your loop down to the desired height (Figure 3).
If ever you notice that you’re pulling out the previous loop, remember to give yourself that extra slack in back. When you pull up on the yarn, the slack gives you time to feel when it’s tight in back (I also notice the previous loop shifts just a bit from above when the yarn in back has been drawn up tight). With a little practice, your fingers learn to feel each step, and your hooking becomes smooth and rhythmic.
Keep in mind that yarn spreads out above the hole, more so than wool strips. You may not need to hook your loops as densely with yarn, because it fills in the space above. A good way to notice if you’re getting your loops the right distance apart is to check that you can’t see the backing from above, but if you look at the back, you should be able to see the backing between rows. If you don’t see space between the rows in back, or if your mat won’t lay flat, then you’re overpacking your loops.
This method may feel fiddly at first, but give it some time. Breaking the process down into steps allows you to develop a rhythm. You only need to do one thing at a time. As soon as you’re satisfied you’ve competed one step, you move on to the next. Because we don’t have to worry about twisting in back, or roughing up the fibers, you’ll be surprised at how quickly it goes.
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Figure 1
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
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Back of rug
Judy Taylor fell in love with rug hooking in the 1990s as a way to use her handspun yarn from her flock of Jacob sheep and Angora goats. She also hooks with wool strips and T-shirt strips. She teaches rug hooking and has written four award-winning books on the subject. Her kits and patterns are available at www.littlehouserugs.com, where you can find links to her blog and YouTube videos.
Designed Exclusively for
Rug Hooking Magazine
Pretty Bird
Kit is $80.00, S&H $12.75
Pattern is $20.00, S&H $3.75
Offer expires: May 31, 2020
Call 1-877-297-0965 to order or order online at
www.rughookingmagazine.com
To order the kit or pattern for Pretty Bird, contact Rug Hooking magazine, 1-877-297-0965, or order online at www.rughookingmagazine.com. Pretty Bird kit will come with design drawn on burlap, full color photo, yarn, and rug hooking instructions. Kit is $80.00, S&H $12.75. Pattern alone is drawn on burlap and is $20.00, S&H $3.75.
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