No Clutter, No Hooking

There's a fundamental reason why I hook:  it's easy and fun.  Throughout my life I've tried many, many hobbies.  Hooking is by far my best medium.... but with our house on the market (yes, it's still for sale and waiting for the perfect fit buyer) I haven't had my hooking out and about.  This reduces my inspiration to create.  And if I'm not creating, what is there to blog about?

It's an interesting dilemma keeping your house as "neat as a pin."  Certainly, it has changed my Zen for hooking because 1) getting out all the accouterments of hooking and putting it away at a moments notice reduces the fun; 2) without a mess I hardly know where to begin in my creative process!  A mess to me is like the Phoenix rising from the ashes.  Turmoil and chaos leads to action and creativity.

In place of hooking and for portability I have been making some penny rugs.  They are fun to make but I'm no whiz at hand sewing and my pieces are funky.  Of course I can claim them as "folk art" because of their primitive nature, but finish work doesn't come easy for me.

So here's what I've been working on, and yes, you can laugh at my stitches, it's OK, I know they are not great.  Just remember:  it's folk art!

Adaption of Need'l Love Acorn Threads pattern elements.

Poor little squirrely, he looks sort of pathetic; I should have applied a bonding agent to this wool layer as it frays easily.
A lesson learned.

Ugh!  Hand stitching.  My nemesis.

No, don't comment on the size of the stitches, that would be rude!!!  I already know they are a mess!!!

This piece looks better than others, but believe me, it's not due to improvement - just dumb luck.

The next step will be to figure out how to finish off the piece.  That will be another hurdle.  I know this may sound strange because many of you find hand stitching to be relaxing, soothing and easy, but for me it's a continual challenge.

I have come to the conclusion that I may have a learning disability in this regard:  continually changing processes that require multiple steps such as dancing (Zumba, aerobics  jazzercise, ballroom dancing) and hand stitching are nearly impossible for me to "imprint" and repeat.  I get totally befuddled by them.

This must be why hooking is so easy for me:  there's only one continual step and all you have to do is add curves and directional changes to it!  And telling you about this makes me miss my hooking!