Lion and Lamb Hooked Rug

Judy Carter's hooked animal rugs have long been a favorite of mine. When I heard she was writing a book on hooking animals I couldn't wait until I had the book in my hands. Her book Hooking Animals, How to Bring Animals to Life in Wool Rugs surpassed my wildest dreams. She shows, in depth, how to hook every aspect of an animal.

Many of the rugs in Judy's book are patterns drawn by Leonard Feenan. He takes rug hooking patterns to a whole different dimension.

While reading Judy's book, my husband and I were both drawn to Lenny's Lion and Lamb rug. I contacted Lenny to draw the pattern for me. It is on his websites rug pattern library. After I had made all the arrangements with Lenny to draw my pattern I saw a kit for a different lion on Judy's website. I contacted Judy to see if I could just get the kit for the lions head.  Being the sweetheart she is, she offered to kit up the lion from my pattern for me. You can't imagine what it meant to me for her to offer such a great service. Lenny mailed the pattern to Judy so that she knew how much wool I would need.

This is my pattern drawn by Leonard (Lenny) Feenan, and beside it is the wool picked by Judy Carter to hook the Lion. I knew I had the wool for the rest of the rug but I felt like I would have to spend a fortune collecting all the wools for the Lion. Judy's pricing for color planning was very reasonable.

I'm very nervous about hooking this masterpiece. My daughter-in-law told me that's when I do my best work. Time will tell!