Karen Garbee: March Lion

Designer name/Company name: Karen Garbee 

Dates: December 18-January 13

Name: Karen Garbee 

Town/State: Black Forest, Colorado 

Backing material: Rug warp

Supplies used: Wool, Cotswold Curls, taffeta, yarn, beads

The saying normally goes that " March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" but in Colorado, March normally comes in and out like a lion. It's considered our most turbulent and unpredictable weather month of the year. I thought it would be fun to design a rug that illustrates that as well as play with different techniques to achieve it. 

I used hooking, punch needle, latch hooking, felting, proddy and waldoboro to create the overall piece. Incorporating the Rya wool yarn three strand bundles for the Lion's body was an experiment that was fortunately successful. Figuring out the tension for the knots was a challenge on the rug warp so the piece would lay flat but also stay knotted. Also, figuring out how to attach the lion's mane so that it draped freely without losing the integrity of the Cotswold Curls was a minor struggle.