Midnight Composing by Figaro and Ringo

Midnight Composing by Figaro and Ringo, 35″ x 19″, #4- and 5-cut wool on linen. Designed and hooked by Brenda Waugh Malstrom, Burlington, Ontario, 2024.

This scene was on my mind for months until I began sketching the composition. I wasn’t sure how to hook a black cat, especially in a night scene. I started adding the colors using my colored pencils, which taught me again how important values are in hooked pieces.

I enjoy telling stories through my rugs. This story’s design involved a curved keyboard, which taught me how essential the placement and shape of objects are in design to avoid creating difficult areas to hook.

I chose to use 100-percent wool strips on a linen canvas backing because the wool strips create a smooth finish, and the linen backing allows for easy pulling of the loops through the grid. I also like the linen because it holds its shape.

Since this rug depicts a night scene, I needed a dark background; however, that wouldn’t work well with Figaro being a black cat. Therefore, I opted to shine a spotlight on him as if a lamp near the piano had been left on. I believed that a completely black background around Ringo, the orange cat, would be too stark and lifeless, so I used black with gold specks, which complements the gold surrounding Figaro and gives the impression that some of Figaro’s lamp is shining through Ringo’s darkness.

As I hooked, I enjoyed watching the two cats take shape. Ringo is large and fluffy, while Figaro is small, yet sleek and classy. I loved working with contrasting colors to depict the night scene.

The piano keys were challenging to hook and keep aligned, especially along the narrow part of the curve. I kept pulling and adjusting the loops until I got them right. I made several trips to my piano in the living room to ensure I had the correct number of white keys between the black keys, which was hard to maintain on the thin part of the curve.

Additionally, the areas in which Figaro’s paws touch the piano keys—especially where the key and paw share the same color—presented a unique challenge, as it was difficult to prevent the elements from blending together. Maintaining distinct values was essential to ensure separation. To keep his paw markings authentic, I added shadows beneath and around the white sections on white keys. Where the black sections touch black keys, I used a bit of gray and a touch of white to distinguish the paw from the key, even though he doesn’t have a white spot on that paw—hooker’s privilege.

Adding two rows of hooking with one of the colors from the rug’s composition along the outer edge of the border helps to unify the overall design, much like a mat board framing a painting. Then, I finished the outer edge with black wool yarn whipping.

Brenda Waugh Malstrom
BURLINGTON, ONTARIO

Traditional rug hooking has always inspired Brenda because it allows her to adapt scenes into cartoonlike images and tell stories. She enjoys detailed shading work and blending colorful wool fabric. Influenced by a great-grandmother, she began rug hooking approximately 13 years ago when she joined the Burlington Hooking Craft Guild. Since then, she has taken numerous courses to advance her skills.