Antique Light Background's - 2 types

My friend Paula was just asking me the other day about a light antique background for a rug she is working on. Then I found I needed a few extra pieces for one I am working on too. My rug is almost done, so I will post photo's in another day or two, it is also a deer rug. I thought I would first post a couple of pictures of the wool I just dyed, different one's in the same color family. Most often what I do is use a favorite formula, then I get my variation by adding different cream textures to my dye bath. You can add some that need the most color at first, then the other's half way through the dyeing process. For example, if you have an off-white wool, add it right away, then add a darker oatmeal half way through.

This photo is a mellow, subtle, off-white, and oatmeal set of wool. The bottom set of wools was stirred very little and will have a lot of variation when hooked. This is perfect to add a bit of wow, interest, and yes prim-bling to a background! I usually prefer a very spotty wool, but I went with the top set of woolens. I already had quite a bit of variation in my motifs, and I didn't want this rug to look "too busy." It is a deer and tree pictorial, can' t wait to finish it! FUN! The top 2 photo's are of a deer rug I hooked last year and it has a pretty varied background, I even mixed some warm's and cool's into this background!

If you would like to create this top set, you will want to stir more for less mottling, and spotting. Oatmeal wool is so wonderful and takes very little dye to get a nice ready to hook shade. I mixed a little bit of Cushings Ecru and Old Ivory to get these colors. Coffee works too, you can even eliminate the Old Ivory if you don't have it on hand as I am not sure it shows up much dyed over Oatmeal. I guess I just feel it warms it up a bit..lol!!

Now for this set of wools, for 1/4 yard I mixed 1/16 of Light Brown and 1/64 of Silver Gray. I find Light Brown to be warmer than Tan, but you can use Tan if you don't have Light Brown.