Ready to hook a new pattern...wonder where to start?

When I'm almost finished hooking a rug, I can't stop my mind from wandering and thinking about the next rug I am going to hook. I can't help it. It's such an exciting thing, to start a new rug. I love to stare at an unhooked pattern and imagine what the finished product will look like!

On my frame now is my Cat Nap pattern.

Cat nap pattern

Over the next couple of posts I will talk a bit about how I go about starting a new rug. Right now, I'm color planning.

I like to lay my pattern out where I can see it for a few days before starting it. Before I even begin to gather my wool together, I just sit and look at it. Every time I walk past it, I pause and look for a while. This is when my mind simmers with the color possibilities.

I start with the most prominent object or what I would like to highlight. In this case it's the napping cat. I want him to be a ginger cat so I know I will be using a rust or orange wool. This is the first color I choose.

Rust wool for ginger cat

orange wool for ginger cat

I have it narrowed down to these two choices. I will wait until I have the area around him hooked to see which color looks best.

Then I look at what is right next to that object and select colors that will contrast enough so that the main element doesn't blend in.

Selecting the cat color

The light wool on top is the rust colored choice for the cat. Nice contrast!

Now I am selecting browns for the dirt of the flower bed and greens for the sunflower stalks. I put at least five browns and the green I am thinking of using together in a pile and take a black and white photo. This way I can see if the green has enough contrast against the brown to stand out.

Black and white photo helps me choose colors

The yellow for the sunflowers is on the top, next is the green for the sunflower stalks and the rest are all browns for the ground. I think this green has just enough contrast so I will give this one a try. You can see how bright the green really is in the color photo at the top. I'm never afraid to give a color a try. I just pull it out if it doesn't work. I think the browns are all pretty much the same value, so even though they are different colors of brown they will all blend together and create a nice background with visual interest.

Next, I work my way around the rug and select colors that will highlight the remaining objects. This is usually where I will add splashes of color.

Colorful wool for the small flowers

These are the colorful choices I made for the tiny flowers surrounding the cat. I kept the color of the cat in mind (orange) while selecting the purple (opposite of orange on the color wheel so both colors should really pop). I chose more yellow to bring a bit of the sunflower color down to the bottom of the rug and I chose some pink just because I love pink.

The remaining elements are easy peasy. The little Chickadee birds will be brown, black and grey. The sunflowers will be yellow and of course the sky will be blue.

That's it for the color planning. I have a solid base to start with and like I said, I'm never afraid to make adjustments as I go along.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a wonderful day!

Dawn