F

Familiar

The first face you hook should be a face you don’t know. For this exercise you will not even have a reference photo. Once you learn the structures of a face it will be so much easier to hook a face that is familiar to you.

A

Accuracy

One loop one way or the other can make or break how accurate your face is. Do NOT rip it all out. Carefully compare your hooking to the image. Where is it different? Make the smallest possible change, then wait a day or two to make another. Take photographs as you go.

C

Center

Hook your first face straight on, not from the side or a 3/4 view. This is the easiest way to hook a face. Once you’ve mastered the ability to see the face (notice I did not say hook) then you can tackle the more difficult poses.

E

Effort

Really look. It takes time and effort and most of it is not at the frame. No one sits down and hooks a perfect likeness the first time. It take patience and effort.

S

Stop!

Stop all judgment. If you think you cannot hook a face, you will be right. Turn off that irritating voice. Don’t listen to it. You can do this. Just follow the steps.

F.A.C.E.S.

This face was a study to see if I could hook a face using just a few textured wools. I was assigned to teach this class at Southern Teachers’ Workshop in 2009, which is how the piece got its name, Southern Woman.

She is completely imaginary and some of the structure is exaggerated. Your face will hook up much differently.

How to move through this course

1. Download the pattern

Download and print the pattern pieces. Please do not copy these printouts and share them with rug hookers who are not part of the course, but feel free to use them to hook as many faces as you like.

2. Gather your wools

Have you started your texture sampler? It is a spare backing that you hook up examples of all the textures you own. Test them on the sampler first. You will know before you start hooking what will work and what will not.

Use the texture sampler to pic the textures that work.