From the wool dyeing to the whipping and final press, this rug took a year and a half to complete. I was inspired to hook November after seeing it partially done by a fellow student at Nancy Blood’s 2018 rug camp in Owego, N.Y. I particularly love the colors of autumn and knew their brightness would be welcomed when most of the rug would be hooked in the dark of winter.
November’s color plan looks quite complicated but it is actually very simple. Nancy Blood, my teacher, directed me to Maryanne Lincoln’s book, Recipes from the Dye Kitchen for formulas. All the leaves are the results of using three Cushing Dyes, Canary, Cherry and Peacock in varying measurements over different colored wools jar dyed into eight value swatches. Thus, all the leaves “go together” from the darkest red to the lightest green. The background is spot dyed using Nancy’s formula “BOB”, Black, Olive Green and Burgundy over Door’s Paprika and Burgundy. The mix of the two overdyed bolt wools made for more movement in the background. With a pattern such as this, one needs to plot which color goes where in one quadrant and then repeat. Sounds simple but it really isn’t. Eyes can play tricks on you so this process took some time to plot and recheck. I found it humorous that a New Englander would name this pattern November given that by then, our trees are pretty nude. Guess it is different “down south” in Massachusetts!