If you’re in the mood for hooking, try the Biopark’s Botanic Garden tomorrow between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. As I’ve mentioned before, the Adobe Wool Arts Guild demonstrates our craft/art (that distinction is a discussion for another day) on the first Tuesday of every month. As of last month, we’ve been doing it on the fourth Tuesday as well, same time. Why? you ask. Because WE LOVE HOOKING! And sharing it, of course. Stop by if you’re in the area tomorrow or even next week.
The ladies are ready to answer all your rug hooking and fiber questions when you visit Heritage Farm at the Biopark.
Maybe you’re already really into rug hooking and you’d like to try your hand at another fiber art. Knitting? Machine knitting? Spinning and dying your own yarn for your knitting project? Doll-making? Weaving? Quilting? No matter, we have pretty much all fiber activities covered come Saturday. The Yarn Store at Nob Hill in conjunction with Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Council is holding an all-guild demo day (scroll down the page some) from 10:00 – 4:00 at Immanuel Presbyterian Church (114 Carlisle NE). All ages are invited attend and encouraged to try something new. See the poster below for more info.
Will we see at one of these fabulous fiber events?
Between my arthritis and my newest rug, I’ve been spending some time hooking beyond my comfort level. The project for the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council’s Colors of the Southwest exhibit – you know, the one I’ve been going on and on about – was due early this week, and late last week I hadn’t even finished the hooking! That meant that Thursday and Friday I hooked during the day, an unusual event for me. I generally work in the evening for two to three hours while I watch television. So far that’s not taxed my RA too much.
Friday I was able to start finishing the main body of “Ribbons Over Albuquerque” (more on that in another post) and preparing its little “outrigger” piece. This is precisely where we approached and then zoomed by the comfort level. First and foremost was the physical. The main part of the rug is approximately 13″x39″.
Time to sew on the binding. Ouch!
Now I really don’t mind the hand-stitching involved: tacking down the monks’ cloth backing and then sewing up the twill tape nice and pretty like. It’s easy when I use wool strips and/or yarn. Needles flow into those fibers like a knife into butter. Not so t-shirts. It’s tough getting even an itty bitty needle to pierce tightly packed t-shirt loops. But I did it, finished it late Saturday afternoon. My knuckles are still recovering.
The little outrigger part of the rug constituted the weekend’s other challenge. When I initially designed the project, I intended for the bows, i.e., the “ribbons over Albuquerque,” to all be hooked into the one piece. Preparing the pattern, though, I realized that one of the bows, the very top one, needed to “sail off” into the air, as it were. How to do that?
Luckily for me, Lucy Richard of the Wooly Mason Jar sparked some conversation on Facebook by posting something about finishing rugs. This led to talk about the Doris Eaton Edge – her method of sewing binding tape to the rug before she hooks it (as I do) and reverse hooking the row immediately next to the tape which I have never done. Until now. Because the bow was to be hooked from a white, “crepey,” diaphonous fabric, I needed to beef it up, you know, make it bulky enough so that it would stand “up” and be visible next to the much bigger and much more colorful part of the project.
Various thoughts came to mind. I needed something with more body than twill tape to edge the little bow. And it couldn’t be black like the twill tape on the big piece because it would be visible. What to use??? I’d edged the other bows in the piece with a lightweight silver ribbon, but was afraid to use that as binding tape; figured stitches would rip right out of that sucker.
Sudden lightbulb moment!
Stitching the binding – wired ribbon – to the design.
I had a roll of wired silver ribbon in-house. I could easily stitch backing to a wire edge. It worked like a charm. I was able to boost the ribbon’s inherent bulk by using Doris’s reverse-hooked first row. Sure, it was a little wonky pulling those loops. In the end, I decided not to attach the two pieces, to hang them separately, but the exaggerated, almost 3-D effect of the white bow allows it to hold its own next to the big piece.
“Binding” all stitched on and first row of loops hooked a la Doris Eaton. (I.e., you’re seeing the back of those loops.)
All hooked and trimmed. Ready to sew down “binding.”
Thank you to my Adobe Wool Arts Guild members, Mary Ramsey and Melinda Lamott, for their support Saturday while I was working on the little white bow. We participated in the Albuquerque Biopark‘s Winter Wool Festival giving demos and helping little kids pull loops. I love doing that stuff. sharing our passion. So what if I wasn’t using wool?
Is rug hooking easy for you, your safe, happy place? Or do you spice it up trying new techniques or use fibers other than wool? How’s it feel going beyond your comfort level? Share your experiences.
For those interested, here is the YouTube link for the Doris Eaton Edge: The Doris Eaton Edge
Melinda Lamott and a young rug hooking disciple. “Drink the Cool Aid, Padawan.”
Welcome and come on in for a fabulous rug hooking demonstration at the BioPark!
I finally remembered to 1) bring my phone to a guild event and 2) take some pics to share. I’m patting myself on the back as it’s taken me four tries to do this. (It must be menopause; there have been far too many ditzy doings lately.)
As I’ve mentioned before, the first Tuesday of the month brings guild members to Albuquerque’s BioPark, the Botanic Garden, specifically, to recruit new individuals to our cult to the craft/art (a distinction for another time) of rug hooking. This was my second time participating. Not that it was without surprises.
Fall at the the Farmhouse at Albuquerque’s BioPark – Botanic Gardens.
Because I needed to pick up an official demonstrator badge from the office of education (who’d done a background check on all my previous lives), I arrived a few minutes early. Checking the guild’s folder, I ascertained that I was the first to arrive. I thought I’d be a good doobie and grab the attendance/feedback form and signage indicating to the public that TODAY YOU HAVE THE WONDERFUL CHANCE TO LEARN ALL ABOUT RUG HOOKING!. No problem there. Being all official-like, I headed back to the car to drive down the EMPLOYEE ONLY road to the reproduction farmhouse where they’ve parked us. Yes, I am that important now.
Info on the “olden days” in New Mexico, the 1920s and 30s.
Again, no issues. No one stopped me or even gave me the opportunity to flash my badge. Secretly I was a little letdown by that. Anyway, no one was in the house when I got there. I found an actual worker with a key to open the back room then retrieved chairs and the hooking paraphernalia we keep there. You know, copies of Rug Hooking Magazine, a hoop with some backing for people brave enough to try their hand at hooking, some wool, and a cutter. Oh, and another sign to post on the porch just in case folks missed the first one when they arrived at the park.
I sat down and waited for the others to show. I hooked some. I said hello to a few brave souls who really were just looking for the restroom. Had a discussion with a woman who thought hooking might be a perfect way to relieve some of the repetitive motion problems she’s having crocheting all the time. We would’ve chatted longer, but her daughter got antsy. I might add that her toddler granddaughter was perfectly fine. Maybe the daughter needs to learn a craft, if only to slow down and appreciate a lovely fall day at the park. But I digress. Anyway, they toddled off leaving me alone once more, fearful that the busload of kids I saw on my way in might descend on me en masse. I imagined fingers in cutters and pre-teen sneakers on the table runner I was just finishing up. And then…
Two of Nancy’s mats. She’s doing one for each season.
The cavalry arrived. Okay, maybe not the cavalry, but Nancy and Linda, two fellow guild members. Hurray! I wouldn’t have to spend the four hours talking to myself or hiding from adolescent hoards. (Yeah, no field trip groups ever showed.) Linda actually showed up with a wannabe, a woman who’d seen our demo in the BioPark’s calendar. Very cool. She hung with us most of the day, asked a lot of questions, tried out my hook, read the magazines, and is thinking seriously about buying a kit to give it all a try. Clearly, our work in the BioPark was done. For this month.
Tell us about your experiences demonstrating hooking. Maybe it was at a special event or during an arts/craft fair where you were vending. How many stories have you heard from folks reminiscing about grandparents or mothers who hooked? Do you let them try their hand at it? How about the people who “remember” doing the same thing as a kid when they were really latch-hooking? My personal favorite was the woman who told me she used to hook, yet clearly had no knowledge of it. She went on to suggest that I elasticize a round rug and call it a toilet seat cover. Thanks lady! Got a tale like that? Tell us in the comments below..
One of Nancy’s traditional, wool hooked rugs and my not-so-traditional table runner made of t-shirts and crepey fabrics. We try to show people that there are no rules in this art; no limits other than the ones we impose on ourselves.
Balloons are dropping in all over the city this week.
First of all, let me apologize for the lack of hooking news and fun these past few weeks, but this moving thing is truly a pain in the patootie. There are still unpacked boxes not so stylishly decorating the house. We can’t find all our stuff…because it’s probably hiding in the aforementioned boxes. Lamps! I’d kill for more of my lamps. And don’t even start me on the need to get bookshelves. Then there’s the busy-work: finding doctors that we need asap; running to Lowes to buy a new dishwasher (the one that came with the house pools alarmingly when not in use); locating the local grocery stores; and our personal favorite, teaching the kid to drive. Today was my turn. She did okay, though we do apologize to the honking car next to us at that one light; she did swing r-e-a-l-ly wide to the right to make a left turn. She’ll do better next time; I promise. Not!
Damn little camera on my phone. You probably can’t see the hundreds of balloons at different levels participating in mass ascension. (Better photos after we head to the Fiesta field.) In the meantime, see the Rio Grande there – okay, not looking all that grand – some balloons swoop down from the sky and do a “splash and dash.” Very cool. I learned that term from one of the hookers in my guild; she and her husband work a balloon’s chase crew.
Not that there haven’t been the fun moments. Our hopes were great after that pre-fiesta balloon landed behind our house last week. Now we’re deep in Albuquerque’s famed Balloon Fiesta. We humped up the hill to the neighboring Catholic high school – which happens to have a great view – and watched the first “mass ascension.” (Okay, fellow Catholic peeps, the ballooning term “mass ascension” is nothing but a coincidence. Ironic though. Maybe they could’ve gone with “the Rapture,” but I digress.) Tom and I will head to the fiesta tomorrow in the early, early 50-degree morning. We’ll be right on the field, phones/cameras in hand. How I wish I had a really good camera…
And I have been hooking; most evenings, in fact. I finished hooking, though not blocking and such, my rug-sized New Mexico mat that will eventually grace the floor somewhere in the new house. Now I’m working on a table runner: t-shirts and some gossamer, chiffonny fabrics. Going for a different texture. I got to work on it at a hooking demonstration with my new Adobe Wool Arts guild just yesterday at the BioPark Botanic Gardens. I’d love to share some photos of this (insert long face here) – I even brought my phone.camera and planned on it – but we were so busy chatting with one another and visitors, that I plumb forgot…till we were packing up. Next time, I promise!
Georgia O’Keefe’s “Petunia No. 2,” 1924.
Another highlight this week: a visit to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. It’s taken me two vacations to the area and a final move to make it there, but Friday was the perfect time. Tom’s niece – an artsy type, too, with good taste – was in town and also wanted to see it. There was an American Modernist exhibit going on with O’Keefe’s and others’ work represented. Excellent! Oh, and the street food on Santa Fe’s plaza was fabulous.
So, while this moving thing’s a bitch, we managed to tame her for a bit and just enjoy the area. Hey, it’s why we moved here. So far, no regrets, and that’s all that matters.
PS – How do you other bloggers remind yourselves to take pics when you’re all agog listening to stories and looking at beautiful things? Tell me the secret!
My favorite piece, I think. (I reserve the right to change my mind, of course.) O’Keefe’s “Pond in the Woods,” 1922.
