HCNUP? What-huh?

8"x15" rug punching pattern on linen, ©2011 The Oxford Company, www.amyoxford.com

What the heck? 

Explanation:  Rug punching is done on a pattern printed backward, so words are reversed.  The "wrong side" side you punch into; the "right side" is the reverse.  I'm using an Oxford Punchneedle #10 (thank you, Amy Oxford, for inventing this) and a small pattern (from the Oxford Company) to create a "punching bag" for my punching supplies. 

I need a "brainless" small project to bring to rug hooking meetings with me.  My current traditionally hooked rug-in-progress requires constant thinking/planning, and I cannot go to what's basically a social event and bring my entire wool stash with me just because I haven't finished the color plan yet and "might need" a dash of this or that.

Fortunately, I have enough of my own hand-dyed wools that I can start in on this immediately, and it's quite portable.  Ideal for attending a rug hooking group.

An hour later:

Part of the border and a bit of outlining done with rug yarn I've dyed over the years.

Here you can faintly see the word "punch" up above on the linen, and I've done some outlining.  This is the messy stage of punching, before you fill in background--which makes those unruly loops get back in line and behave themselves.  The last step is to push around any remaining straggly loops, part of the clean-up process after the punching is done.  More to come.