George Kahnle

Sadly, I found out today that George Kahnle, well-known in the rug hooking community as a pattern designer, passed away on Tuesday. Many of you may know that George was the partner of Dick LaBarge, a nationally known hooking teacher.

George was a wonderful person, who often kept the members of Dick's classes in stitches with his humorous jokes. He was also an expert on antiques, and along with Dick, ran a successful antique business for years.

I remember George as an amazing designer of hooked rugs. His patterns were very imaginative, and last I knew, he had six catalogues of rug patterns. I asked him often why he didn't hook, too, but he seemed content to design, and let Dick bring the patterns to life.

I saw him shortly before Christmas, and his wit was still very evident. He will be missed. My condolences to Dick who will miss him terribly.

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?

Pumpkin Pillow

Finished this pillow shortly after Christmas, and although it is decidedly a fall subject, it fits very well in our den.

This pillow was begun in Julie Smith's class. We were challenged to take a fall cutout and design a pattern around it. I drew the pattern with the idea that it would be a rug, but it when is was completely hooked, it screamed pillow.

So, voila!