Hook a spiral chair pad with me – Part 1

 I love hit or miss geometric rugs. Make one and it becomes an instant favorite. So I thought we could hook a little project together. And I chose something small and uncluttered and useful: a chair pad with a hit or miss spiral design. I have several vintage chair pads in my collection and I use them every day. I have done a lot of hit or miss, but have never done a spiral. I can’t wait to see how it will come out! Note that this piece can be used as a wall hanging or to adorn a table.

Aside from knowing how to hook and having all the usual equipment, you will need backing fabric that is at least 20″ square, a fabric marker, and leftover wool strips. I am using primitive linen, and drawing my lines with a black marvy fabric marker.

My pad is going to be 14″ or so in diameter. I based this on some vintage chair pads that I have. I just used one as my template for the circle. Adjust the size to suit your needs. You can free hand a circle or use a large plate. Then make a mark near the center. Start your spiral from this point. Make your lines about 2″ apart from each other, drawing them freeform.

Choose colors from your leftovers that are light, medium, and dark neutral colors like black, charcoal, browns, grays, tans, mushroom, rust, khaki, olive, camel, beige, etc. Let your lightest light be a tan or light camel for a vintage look. You will your 90% neutrals for this design. The rest will be muted colors from your scrap strips. Here are some of my bags of leftovers. I have already organized them according to value and color. This way I can readily use them for any rug hooking project I am working on.

Here is my Wolf River Farm floor frame. I like it because the legs slide under a comfy chair or couch as I am hooking. I also like that the gripper teeth are mitered all the way into the corners for a smooth finish.So I am centering my design on the frame to start hooking in the middle of the piece.
 Most of my leftover strips are in an 8 cut (1/4″ wide), but I am including other widths as well. Make a pile of your darkest darks: navy, black, maroon, dark browns, etc. I am using mostly solids but adding a few textures in the mix.  These will be the darkest colors in your design and you will use them to hook the spiral line.Some of the colors in this photo are looking a bit lighter than what they actually are. But do note that some of the dark colors have a bit of color in them. Start from the center and hook using these dark colors, changing colors at the end of each strip. The look should be a continuous line of undulating color. The color change effect should be subtle. This will be much more interesting than using one single color of wool.

Since we are mixing cuts keep in mind that you should hook all your loops to the dominant height. So hooking mostly 1/4″ strips, everything should be hooked 1/4″ tall. Hook into whatever hole is on your marker line, twisting your loops as needed so that the line of loops follow along the curve.

In my next post we will work on creating lines of hit or miss in the spiral using other neutral colors. Your homework is to complete your spiral line.

Until tomorrow ~ Karen