Happy Valentine's Day from the Sheep!

As you know from my past post, I've been involved with a family health crisis.  Fortunately my mother is recuperating and life is returning to a new normal.  When an important issue is at the forefront of my life, my creative instincts fade, so my interest and progress on the MM rug has been minimal.  I feel the itch to hook again, a sure sign that things are calming down.  I'm even getting interested in hooking the circles on the top rows of the lollipop bush, so something is happening inside me!

Both of the dogs are finished now, except for tweeking them here and there.  I purposely hooked one eye differently on the right dog, to add interest to his face.  I don't know if the eyes will stay like this or not (they've already been changed about 3 times) but for now I'm going to leave him as is.  I call the dogs Frick and Frack, but eventually they will have better names!

Right side dog:  "Frack"

Here you can see the rug in its entirety at this point.  I added a black and white photo too, to demonstrate contrasts.   

I forgot to share that while I was hooking this rug on my AZ vacation, I reverse hooked the wool around the lollipop bush to be darker in value than what I originally used.  To make the rug appear old, it should be consistently muted in value.  I changed the wool surrounding the lollipop circles, except for a small area on the top row of circles. You can see the value difference in the photos above.   I prefer the more muted value for the background and I will finish off the top row, when I have more time.  What do you think? 

I usually don't make patterns available until I've hooked a rug so a picture is included with the pattern, but I've received several inquires about this pattern's availability.  If you would like the pattern before it is finished, please check my website by clicking on the sheep girl at the right, above.  The pattern is listed in the patterns section as the All Seasons Magdalena Menagerie rug. While my rug is very large at 56" x 30" I have made a smaller version of the pattern  at 44" x 24" and can even make it smaller, as requested.  Thank you for the interest in this rug!