A Crow Knows No Rules

Hi!  It's Jennifer, the other half of Parris Wool Works.  I met Beth Miller through my husband, Dan Rosenburg. You'll be seeing his name often because he's the artist behind many of my ideas - both in rug hooking and various other creative pursuits.  I haven't been hooking for long and sometimes feel pretty isolated here in Tennessee, so if there are any local hookers out there, I'd love to meet you. 

My latest pattern, "A Murder Among the Magnolias," is a Southern Gothic inspiration in the spirit of writers such as Flannery O'Connor.  Even though many of her stories end in tragedy, for a brief moment we're allowed to peer inside the soul of her characters who all remind us of the ever-constant need for faith in a sometimes unjust world.  

This 20x28 pattern can be purchased on our website Parris House Wool Works.

Here is the wool that I've picked out for this project.  I'm still undecided about border colors but I think I'm going with greens or teals to pull from the magnolia leaves. The crows will be a markedly dark counterpoint against this cheerful spectrum!

I'm taking a huge leap and going to practice primitive shading...by myself and loosely following a how-to book. (Ok, so I skimmed through the book in about 3 minutes.)

I'm also using multiple width wool strips, and since I don't have very many cutter head sizes to choose from, I've made do by using my quilting rotary cutter (gasp!).  If you have a large Omingrid ruler, the job is actually quite easy.

I began work on the crow pictured below on the right hand side of the pattern.

The light reflects so well off a crow's feathers, dancing in glimmers of light on his shiny, jet black body.  I wanted to recreate this illusion so I added various shades of black.  I used a red and blue plaid wool over-dyed with black in different sizes along the inner body of the crow.  To give the beak that nice pointed shape, I started with tiny loops that gradually got bigger as I progressed down the side of the bird.

Crows know no rules, and neither do we!

This took some patience but I'm pleased with the finished result. I found that the different sizes of wool didn't distract from the overall effect. I haven't cut the loop ends off the bottom feathers yet and tomorrow, I'm starting the tree branches.  This is really a learning process and I'm excited be sharing it with other rug hookers. I'm hopeful that we can exchange ideas and I welcome all advice!

More later - Jen