Beginning a new rug

It's always exciting to get started on a new rug. I've wanted to hook a rug with a tree and birds for a while now. I started looking around the house to see where I could put a potential rug and the size it would need to be. Given that I've been hooking for a number of years, the house is filled with rugs (on the floors and the walls). So, I started looking up and saw that there was a significant space above the cabinets in the kitchen. However, it was extremely long and quite short. So, this is what I came up with. It's probably hard to see, but I think you'll get the idea.

This is still a rough draft. I haven't drawn all the leaves in, and I need to tweak the owl. I will also be putting a nest on one of the branches.

I started the dyeing for this rug the other day. I'm doing some dip dyes for the sky and did a casserole dye of deep blues, browns and grays for the tree. These shades did not come out as dark as I would have liked, so I'm going to overdye them with a dark brown formula to see if that helps. What I love about this set is that they are all different textures, which should really make the tree interesting.

I'll take some pictures of the wool and post them soon.

What are you working on?