The Time to Start Rapture Has Arrived

2008-06-04 - Rapture has arrived, originally uploaded by Sharlene W.

I ordered Rapture (a McGown-Flynn pattern) over two years ago because I saw Lena Krinard in my hooking guild working on it and I fell in love. The pattern is 42x72 and is rather intimidating. I think I am finally feeling competent enough to tackle this.


I plan to do all of the dying myself. I did order some background through the guild from Dorr (a very dark brown called Elizabeth's Black). I decided to break it down by element to make it less overwhelming. In actuality there are only a few different elements


Roses -
Star Gazer Lilies -
Foxgloves
Hydrangeas
Morning Glories
Long pointed lily leaf
Morning Glory leaf
Hydrangea leaf
Rose leaf
Foxglove leaf


I did a Google Image search for each of the flowers and found virtually thousands of images to choose from. I selected a few of each variety that were colors I liked and that showed the detail of the different elements of the flower. This will be my jumping off point.


My goal is to fairly realistically depict the various flowers in an array of colors that are harmonious. I am going to take the same approach to dying that I did with my "November" rug, and that is to take one element at a time, dye the wool, hook an element, and then move to the next element, layering it in.  Wish me luck--I'm scared...


Here are some photos of Lena's Rapture Rug.  She started her rug in a class with Helen Connolly.  I think some of the formulas she used to dye her wool were from Helen, but others were things she has collected and dyed along the way.  You can see why I was inspired!

Hydrangeas

Morning Glories

Foxgloves and Rose Leaves

Foxgloves and Lilies

Love the Lily Leaves!

Wool for Lily Leaves

Wool for Lily