Another Before and After

In anticipation of my first northern hook in this past weekend in Powassen (which was fabulous), I made some revisions to my giant 6-foot x 2-foot project "Maximilian Moose". For those of you who have been following along, this strangely-shaped mat is being hooked to cover the side of my stacked washer/dryer in my main floor powder room. It is probably 90% complete.

Max has been rolled up and put away for quite some time now, interrupted by more time-sensitive projects as well as the move. When I unrolled him for the first time in ages - to show Jennifer Manuell the progress - she made some constructive comments, which I incorporated this week. The biggest change was to his snout. Jennifer suggested that he looked like a platypus (a tad harsh in my opinion LOL), but she was right that it needed a little change. So I changed the shape and rounded it out a bit.

I also realized that the light value outline was totally out of keeping with the other elements in the rug. So I changed that to black. Amazing how a single row of hooking - changed to what it should be - can affect an entire piece.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

I am much happier with the change. 

And the entire experience reminded me of something a very smart art teacher said to be a long time ago. When I was unhappy with progress in a painting, he said to put it away for a while and then take it out again with "fresh eyes". It always works - I had just forgotten.

Now that the nose is better, I have realized a couple of other things. Since you only see half of Max, he obviously only has one leg - but boy, is it close to the centre! I will move it over a bit to the left although I am restricted by the little chipmunk who is just out of frame. Now that I'm in the moose renovation business, why not?

And as I posted this, I had another eureka moment. Poor Max has no ear!!!! How did that happen? Yikes. Another correction required for sure.

Anyway, I am always intrigued by how much each rug teaches us. Whether it's about perspective, our own hooking, or our own habits - it's always enlightening.

I came to the conclusion this weekend that if I were to describe what kind of hooker I am, my answer would be "curious". I'm still very much at the "what if" stage of my hooking - hungry to try anything and everything. And my head is filled with a very long list of what I want to try next. Hence many notebooks laying around to capture all the crazy notions.

I will try to devote some time this week to finishing Max, but I think this is going to be a busy work week. grrrr. But I'll update the progress for sure.