And the Crows Took Their Eyes
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
I just read one of the best books of historical fiction I’ve ever read. It’s, And the Crows Took Their Eyes, by Vicki Lane [©2020 Regal House Publishing}. Vicki lives in beautiful North Carolina and her book, based on an event during the Civil War, is written with such authenticity that you will be drawn right into the story. Below is my book review. I hope you will buy a copy of her book and let me know how much you love it, too. ~~~~~~~~~~ Vicki Lane’s latest book, And the Crows Took Their Eyes, is a masterfully written piece of historical fiction based on a true event in North Carolina duri ..read more
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Black walnut dye.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
There are countless black walnuts on the farm road path I walk daily, just waiting to twist an ankle, so I decided to collect some to turn into a lovely dark brown dye for my rug hooking projects. I gathered up nine pounds of them and lugged them home. That was the perfect amount to fill up my large stainless soup pot.  I added water, covered the pot and started cooking them on the stove. The water quickly became a beautiful dark brown, but I continued to cook them over low heat for an hour and a half. Then I took the pot outside and let it sit on the back porch for a few days to let the ..read more
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Mockingbirds calling in autumn.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
We have a large contingent of mockingbirds here and they are very busy these days calling from the rooftops. Young males do this is the spring to attract the ladies, but I’m not sure why they are so vocal now that the days are growing shorter. Perhaps they are making the most of the daylight that lingers with an exuberant display of song and flight. The last hurrah! I’m rug hooking these days, but I cannot show what I’m working on, because it’s for a special project. So, without that to blog about, I took a tour around Crow's Foot Farm to notice the changing colors of plants. The photos are be ..read more
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Ties that bind.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
I finished my part of my friend, Katherine’s, rug. She did the bold and beautiful sun and I did the mountain scene below. It is really a “tale of two rugs” with the sun dominating the design. This is a redesign of a rug featured in the J/J/A 2018 issue of Rug Hooking Magazine, titled, Rising Sun by Darlene Switalski. I titled our remake, Rising Sun Redux. I enjoy binding rugs and I have put a couple of photos below of my process. I like to use cotton clothesline, which is rolled into the extra linen around the finished hooking and then whipped with wool yarn. The cord adds a very nice firm fin ..read more
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Burning times.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
The term, Burning Times, refers to the killing of people [mostly women] thought to be witches many centuries ago. But these days, I’m using it to refer to the terrible fires ravaging California, Oregon, and Washington. Pretty much the whole west coast. What a terrifying thing to find oneself surrounded by fierce fires whipped up by strong winds. Our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter live in southern Oregon and are safe at this writing. They have been lucky that the winds have been kind to them and blown the fires away from their home. This doesn’t make it any less horrific as they know f ..read more
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Round robin rugs.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
I am a member of a trio of rug hookers, who call ourselves Maggie’s Meyvns, or just the Meyvns.  Over the years we have done a few fun rug projects where we each start our own rug and hook a third of it, then the rug is passed to another Meyvn to design and hook a third, and finally to the third Meyvn to do the same. There is usually a theme. But the fun part is that we don’t see our own rug or what the others have done with it until they are all finished and we have “The Big Reveal”. The Big Reveal usually involves a meal, because that’s just what hookers do. I am currently hooking on my ..read more
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Going to the dogs.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
It seems that there are special days to commemorate almost everything. Facebook seems to be the place I find out about them. A day to celebrate Dogs was recently announced and I, of course, posted a photo of our three current dogs lounging on our bed. They live the good life here. I have had almost zero creative energy recently, which has been brought on by six months of “home confinement” and the oppressive heat and humidity of my least favorite season.  Therefore, I’m posting some photos of hooked rugs that I’ve created of our current and past dogs as well as a rug designed and hooked a ..read more
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The meandering path.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
My usual path in life  has been pretty straight, but since these Covid Times have been upon us, my path has meandered. I wander from here to there without much of a plan. Normally, I would share my rug hooking projects, and I do have one that I’m working on, but rug hooking has taken a back seat to the meanders. I keep in touch with the rug hooking world in the many Facebook groups dedicated to the art and I’m very impressed with the energy that my rug hooking friends are exhibiting. Many of them are creating projects reflecting these unsettled times, but I am not feeling the pull to memo ..read more
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The rug tells the tale.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
I’ve been thinking a lot about my friend Katherine’s rug that I’m tasked with completing. The original design by Darlene Switalski was in the J/J/A 2018 issue of Rug Hooking Magazine. The big bold sun was poised over a brick wall in her design. The sturdy brick wall held up the sun very well. Katherine wanted to exchange the brick wall for a mountain. As soon as I began the hooking process I realized that the mountain would never be as big and bold as the sun, but I kept hooking. I put in some trees and, as I got a bit further along, the rug started reminding me of the book Gulliver’s Travels ..read more
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The farm road.
Crow's Foot Farm Designs, LLC
by Karen Larsen
3y ago
Every day since I adopted Leo, my Lab/hound mix, I’ve walked him along the neighbors’ farm road. It has been too hot recently to take my Boston terrier, Beans, with us. This is a perfect place to walk dogs, with only two houses and very few vehicles using this unpaved road. I recently made a second walk without dogs so I could take a few photos. I can still hear the “glunks” of a few green frogs as I pass the fire pond.  Sometimes a great blue heron gets spooked and has to lumber away on his huge wings. For those of you who are not denizens of rural areas, a fire pond is a body of water o ..read more
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