Sweet Peppers Mat in Spicy Colors – Free locker hooking pattern

Piment d'Esplette Peppers
Piment d’Esplette Peppers

If you’ve read my books on locker hooking, you know that I’m always inspired by what grows in my garden…and recently, I discovered the Pimente d’Esplette peppers from the Basque region in Spain. They’re sweet and mildly spicy. Great for cooking and making sauces. They originated in Mexico and were introduced in France during the 16th century. They’re planted and growing in my garden right now.  I love growing things as much as I love locker hooking so I couldn’t help but locker hook this simple but highly textural design in some spicy colors. The result was a super colorful design and a free pattern for my Color Crazy site.

Locker Hooked Sweet Peppers Mat
Locker Hooked Sweet Peppers Mat – 9 x 9″

Tips on Creating the Sweet Pepper Mat

I used some of the new Color Crazy Satinique strips to add some shimmering color and the Color Crazy Poppana strips to add texture. So much fun to create this!

I also used the Ruched Frames technique I introduced in my Locking Loops book to give the peppers some body and give the design some depth.  I started out by locker hooking the peppers in three different shades and then changed back to two for balance. The middle pepper is stitched in Ruby Satinique.

Sweet Peppers design locker hooked with ruched frames
Sweet Peppers design locker hooked with ruched frames

If you’d like to try this design, it’s pretty easy if you know how to locker hook (If you haven’t locker hooked before, learning just takes a little time locker hooking until you get the hang of it). Check out the free Sweet Peppers Mat/Trivet Pattern at this link.

I think a backing in a linen burlap will help finish it nicely. I’m thinking I’ll just have to make this a trio of designs–like the Garden Trivet Trio in my Hook, Loop & Lock book. Next up eggplant, tomatoes…or maybe some tri-color carrots.

Sweet peppers mat in Satinique fabric strips, Poppana, & hand-dyed cotton.
Sweet peppers mat in Satinique fabric strips, Poppana, & hand-dyed cotton.