Trying to Complete my Color Wheel and a Pattern for It

I have one last color to dye in 8 shades for my Texas Palette to be complete. *Red Orange*. Seems like this could get done pretty quickly, but I'm also working on hooking the palette parts already dyed into a rug, and making a pattern for it. Have gotten some good reactions to how I did the color wheel, with all the primary and secondary colors to the inside, and all the tertiary color pointing out. One thing that you might be wondering about is the numerals.  

Here is a picture of the finished red orange shades. This one is called Crawfish Boil. The lightest tones are the lovely color of boiled fresh gulf shrimp!



I included them, because April refers to colors by number, so this is going to help me start thinking of them that way too. She started with Red as the first primary in her palette, while I started with blue. That confused me for awhile(I'm easily confused), because although I've hooked quite a bit, there are so many things in the rug hooking culture I don't know. For awhile I thought red was always first in a color wheel...Anyway, since she would refer to these first 12 by number if we were talking, wanted to learn them that way too. You might want to know that before starting a palette of your own, by using her directions.

Should I include the numerals on my pattern? I think they might be rather confusing to someone who doesn't read all the accompanying pages, what do you think? My numbers aren't hooked very well, would rehooking them for the final picture that goes on the pattern be a good idea?

 Originally, I started out with this design for my own project to display the colors in my palette. After a couple of good reactions, and since I've done paper patterns of my own drawings before, decided to do a paper pattern for this one. If you leave a comment, I'd truly appreciate your opinions on a couple of things. Finishing the rug as a hexagon would be the most economical in terms of wool, but would it keep you from using the pattern? Most rughookers adapt things readily, so changing it into a square would be as simple as hooking an outline along woven lines, as shown in the picture below.

To hook it into a round rug, a circle drawn onto the backing prior to hooking seems like it would be the easiest. Should I include a circle on the paper pattern? I've learned a couple of the pitfalls possible while hooking my own, and will give some tips to avoiding those problems...  For example I didn't tape the shape completely perpendicularly for 8 between 7 and 9. As a result, it sits a bit closer to 7 than 8. I plan to sell the complete design, and include a single of the base shapes for photocopying.

Last but not least, I also have small numbers on the paper pattern referring to the space's placement within the 8 values. That can be explained in the directions. But if you don't do value strips would you have any interest in hooking a color wheel using wools in those colors that don't necessarily shade as well. Would the hunt for 8 shades of blue violet (etc.) turn you on or off? Because although you'd have some of the colors already in your stash, it could mean having to buy 8 x 12 =96 smallish pieces of wool if you were starting from scratch.  Of course, it would be quite simple to choose a color of yellow you like and hook the whole design portion in one color. Should I say that in the directions?

Hope you will give me your, how do I say this, honest feedback implies hookers are a bunch of liars. What they are in actuality is kind ladies... so while tact is always appreciated, I am asking for constructive criticism that will help me to market a better pattern.  Any other comments about improvements, or how beautiful the colors are together (she wrote modestly wink wink) are also welcome. Thanks in advance!

One of my Favorite Hymns

http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh302.sht

302. Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Text: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788
Music: Lyra Davidica, 1708
Tune: EASTER HYMN, Meter: 77.77 D




1.    Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
    Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
    Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
    Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

2.    Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
    Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
    Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
    Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

3.    Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
    Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
    Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
    Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

4.    Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
    Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
    Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
    Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

5.    Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
    Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia!
    Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
    Hail the Resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

6.    King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia!
    Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!
    Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia!
    Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!

Pure Joy!

Try to remember when you got into a wading pool on a hot day, remove most of your fear, like most three year olds and hope this is what you feel like!

And the Winner is.....

Before the announcement, this turned out to be one of my followers. A relatively new follower, but old friend, and  I used a random number generator to select the winner.

Sharon Bennett, Moosecraft, is the winner of the eight value strips in the colors of Red Violet. :)

What a greal tool! Find recipes by What's in Season

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/budget-tips/whatsinseason.aspx

Trying to eat healthier and save some money can be a real challenge, although of course if you are eating in, chances are it is going to be healthier in terms of at least knowing for sure what it contains and how it was made. Aside from turning a blind eye to how much sugar you are adding, or cheese, or sour cream, or whatever, you know. Can leave out ingredients that someone has an allergy or doesn't like, and so forth.

Beside recipes it has portions on preparation and the nutritional parts available. Simple serving tips, and tips on what to look for when purchasing that ingredient. We'll be checking this out lots!

April 12 is Equal Pay for Women Day

April 12th is  Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how much longer working women need to work to catch up to their male counterparts’ income from the previous year.

That’s right. A woman has had to work an extra three months this year to match a man’s income in 2010. Minority women have an even greater disparity in their wages.

To acknowledge this staggering discrepancy, fair pay supporters nationwide will wear red April 12th to symbolize that women’s wages are “in the red.”

   
So many women are the heads of households, especially in minority families. 

Giveaway of Heavens to Betsy Wools at Back to Larkrise blog

Cheri at Back to Larkrise is a participant in the Heavens to Betsy Giveaway of wool. I hope my blog will also be selected to participate in giving away some other wools from them at a later time.

The drawing will be on April 10, so you need to scoot on over to Cheri's blog soon. There are rules to follow and a way to add an additional chance. But that isn't featuring her giveaway on your blog. I was going to put a picture of my latest project that is done with regard to hooking. I'll add a photo to this post in the morning,  While you are looking at the rug, I hope you'll agree that the background wool sets off the floral design wonderfully and still has an "old" look to it. It was wool from their samples in January, called "Kermit the Frog". It quickly sold out, but I was lucky enough to get some for this rug.

 First, the lovely rug was designed by J. Soehnge in 2001. I was a lucky duck to get it in 2009. Another story for another day.

Second, it is one of the larger rugs I've hooked at 28 x 52 inches, and the first I did color planning on.
Clearly, this is a rug that is designed to be used on the floor, so that was different about it as well. I am toying with the idea of it across the foot of a bed, say in our guestroom. :)

Enough teasing, here is Kirby examining the rug and giving it his blessing. The "Kermit the Frog" wool from Heavens to Betsy, combined with the beautiful hand dyes done by Christy Mason of Double M Wools on Ebay.

Giveaway ~ Saturday Night in my Dye Pot!!!

Just about to glug in some vinegar, for my next to the last color in my basic 12 colors for the color wheel. I've been calling my palette my TX Palette, so now I need to name my blue violet and red violet colors.

Red Violets

FarmGirl Kim has a prior claim on the blue violets shown below, so she is excluded from this giveaway. If you wonder why there is a label on them called identifying mark, look at the post below this one. :) If you have already received some of my palette strips, sorry, but you too are not eligible to win. Leave a comment to let me know you'd like the hand dyed strips. The one exclusion to that will be my new follower as of last night. But the rest of you entering the giveaway need to let me know that you want the wool. Maybe you come because of my music play list. It gets lots of nice comments. But the wool is for someone who works with wool.

If you are a follower of my blog, you will automatically be given a second chance. So if you aren't already a follower, you can double your chance to win by becoming a follower. :) I'll post pictures tomorrow, but you can be thinking already of good color names that match up TX and red violet!  Y'all come back now right soon, because the giveaway will close as soon as there are 5 or more suggestions. Even if I don't choose to use your suggestion, you may win. If you are not a regular follower of my blog, you might need to leave an email address or some other way for me to contact you. Good luck!

Red Violet ? Blue Violet? How I could Tell

First off, you might be thinking, who cares, or why would I want to know for sure!  In the palette dyeing I've been doing so far, it usually has been quite simple to identify the hue of the color. But for these two colors, there was only a 1/4 tsp difference in the formula. That might be a mistake, but it is how it figured up, and how the formulas were measure for the dye pot.  Hmmmm, seemed to me like it could make them very similar.   The blue violet had an identifying permanent mark on one of the strips. So that meant I could keep them straight, no matter how they came out. Washed and dried separately, pinned as soon as they came out of the dryer, so confident that these are correctly divided into the two colors and their 8 values.

So here they are side by side.

On top of that, these were the first two batches I added kosher salt (1/2 tsp) to the jars of water. This is to help maintain a more uniform color. Why did mine still have mottling? Because I didn't stir them during processing. I like mottled wool, feel like it gives my hooking more depth.

My red formula contains quite a bit of turkey red, and this has led to a very red orientation of the palette colors. I had to redux the blue and yellow formulas to come up with more balenced hues of the secondary colors. In all honesty,  it seems likely that the red formula will now be undergoing a redeux.   That will mean a completely different palette, even if I keep my current blue and yellow formulas.  Like them alot, and so I will. But the original red can always be dyed, now that I have the formula. Turkey Red has some orange undertones, which as a new dyer, I didn't realize.