Did you ever find that perfect piece of wool for your project and then you let it slip through your fingers?  

I started a new project, called Cat on a Fence by Green Mountain Designs.  I was psychically ready, I was mentally prepared and I assumed that as I selected wool for this project, it would go immediately into my rug.  I started picking colors, for the cat, the background, etc. but what would I select for the fence?  Suddenly, I heard my mom's voice in my head.  While other moms are telling their children not to play in the street, not to swear, not to take candy from strangers, my mom was telling me "never to use a flat white wool in your hooked rugs".  While searching through my stash, I found it!  The perfect piece!  It was 95% white, but had hints of grey and brown spot-dyed in.  It was perfect for the fence, mostly white with enough color that I knew mom wouldn't be mad.

And as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.  I picked out these colors for my new project before Rug School.  I then packed everything up in a blue bag and brought it with me.  I can only assume that during the madness which is rug school, my perfect piece of wool was some how mixed in with the others and it was sold.  So here is a message to that piece of wool:  

I hope you enjoy your new home, I know whoever ended up with you will be good to you.  Be all that you can be!  Whether you end up as clouds, a white picket fence or a dirty old snowman, I know you will make the most of it... because that is the type of wool you were.  Know that you will be missed here.  I found another piece of wool, but it is not near the piece of wool you were.  I am sorry for not cherishing you enough while you were here and letting you get mixed in with the riff raff but I know you will go on to do great things.  - Lindsay

I had to pick myself up and move on.  I found a crappy piece of light grey wool (under any other circumstance it would be a beautiful piece of wool), which I mixed in with the white.  I think it turned out ok.  I also have had to hook a lot of the rug in a 4 cut, which as you know from my last blog, is not fun for me.  While talking with Gene Shepherd at Rug School, he said that my next rug, I need to go the other direction and hook in a 10, I think he is right...

My progress so far, below.  You can see, I still save all my tails for the end. :)

The one and only, Susan Feller helped me pick out the colors for the sunflowers.  She told me to highlight in between the leaves with a slightly darker color so they would stand out more.  I took that approach on the two middle flowers but wanted some variation on the two outside ones.  So for those, I did the opposite.  I put the lighter color between the leaves - highlights and lowlights if you will.  It gave an interesting effect.