How to hook rope using three or six value swatches.

Hooked by Janet Delo

Since I’ve been working on the Nautical Stair Risers and hooking a rope edge as a constant to unite them all, I’ve been asked often how this is done so effectively.  Hooking rope may look daunting but it’s incredibly simple.  You can use either three values or six values or anything in between.   If using three values you will hook only one row of the darkest value for the shadow in the crease of the twist and then graduate the other two values until the area is filled in. In these two examples of our pattern Grand Banks Schooner, the above picture was hooked with a three value swatch and the bottom one is hooked with a six value. Both are equally effective and beautiful.  

Hooked by Anne Holmes

Once you have established the width of your rope place some cut worms to figure out how wide your strips will need to be to fill the space. For the size of my riser rope borders I use a #5 cut and they fill in perfectly.  I do use more of the lightest value on the inside edge, giving it more than just the one strip to provide the highlight as if the sun is shining down on it.  

Both of the schooner projects were hooked using "Ganache" for the rope; a fabulous caramel hue that gives an aged patina you’d see in old rope. This dye formula hasn't made it into any of our dye books so I'm sharing it with you below.  For my stair risers I’ve used our new formula “Straw” from our dye book, DYE ME TO THE MOON, a bit brighter considering the risers are in the shadow of the tread end and I wanted them to stand out as much as possible. 

Ganache (Using Majic Carpet Dyes)

1/4   tsp Yellow
1/16  tsp Chocolate Brown
1/16  tsp Seal Brown

For a 3 Value swatch, mix in 2 cups of boiling water, pour off 1/3 for the lightest value, 2/3 for the medium value and the 1 cup remaining for the darkest value.  

For 6 Values use 1/2 cup replacement method. This recipe makes around 7-8 sets of 3" x 11" size pieces, so you would have to alter the formula by dividing it in half for 4 sets and again for 2 sets.  

The first thing you will assess is where you want your light source to come from.  One side of the rope will be the shadow side and that will be consistent throughout the entire length.  Usually the darker side is best put on the outer edge of the rope but it would depend on your design and what elements are in it.  For example if you are hooking something with a sun, then your shadow on the rope would be at the farthest point away.   I always like my borders to be darker than my center colours and the shadow on the outer edge will help for the eye to detect the graduating darker edge and flow from the darkest to the lightest bits from the outside to the center. 

The values run from dark to light, 6th value being the darkest.  The first line hooked is the 6th value and runs along the inside bottom of the curve of the rope.  It starts under the rope segment before it and all the way to the bottom where it joins with the next segment in the line. 

Now hook the 5th in the same way. When hooking the 4th value don't take it directly to the bottom, stop short a few loops which will allow the lighter values #3, #2 and #1 to be on the outside of the curve and act as the highlight.  

Here is a template to use by right clicking to save to your computer and then print off and blow up to the size needed, then repeat the pattern to cover the area.