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Normally, I use wool from my own sheep for rug hooking. For Sammy, I needed whiter fibers than sheep naturally produce. I tried buying white, commercially processed yarn, but to get the lightest, brightest white, I had to spin my own processed nylon fiber. I added a touch of Starfire nylon for a sparkling snow effect.
The light, snowy background makes the rug pop. Sammy loved to sit in the last snowbank of spring, so having him in the snow was the perfect setting.
From the Judges:
A beautiful and natural color palette with realism to Sammy. The background snow has a lovely textured effect. Adding a stick to his paw adds a narrative to the piece. A heartwarming depiction.
Sammy, 39″ x 26 ½”, hand-spun wool, nylon, Starfire nylon, and dog hair and hand-cut wool cloth, sweater, and silk on linen. Designed and hooked by Ellen Thomas, Cherry Valley, New York, 2024.
Wanda Kerr coached me for many months through her online teaching group, The Welcome Mat. She challenged me several times a month to make this rug the best it could be.
Making the dog’s fur look like real fur was tricky. I spun some of Sammy’s real hair into the beige yarn to make it look extra fluffy.
To finish the rug, I simply folded back and sewed the linen. However, making my own custom frame was challenging. Getting all the mitered corners to line up was difficult. Even though I measured more than twice, the rug had to be resized to perfectly fit the frame.
There were many times that I said the rug was good enough, but Wanda encouraged me to keep going, I’ve learned to keep trying until I’m happy—not just okay—with the result.
Ellen Thomas
CHERRY VALLEY, NEW YORK
Ellen is a project manager and has been a yarn spinner for more than 20 years and a rug hooker for 6 years. She presented “Spinning for Rug Hookers” at the TIGHR conference in Niagara Falls, has taken first place at several local fair competitions with her fiber art, and received a viewers’ choice ribbon at Hooked in the Mountains XXI.