Category: design

February 20, 2018

I got a cutter just like the big girls!

My new Fraser wool cutter. — I love how I can clamp the Fraser cutter – Brad – to almost any table I’m working near. So much better than the way those little rubber cups under the Bliss dehydrate out here in the Southwest and then slip all over my granite counter tops. Just like my pencil sharpener.

It finally happened. After hooking for maybe 14 years, I finally got me a cutter! No more cutting wool by hand with the old scissors unless I wish to (for some dumb reason). Check him out; my husband named him Brad after the insurance commercial. You know, the one where the girl goes on about her long relationship with her car Brad. Until she totaled him. We will NOT be totaling Brad in this house!

He’s an old Harry M. Fraser 500-1 that had been donated to the guild. And he works much better than the old and very sad Bliss I’d tried. Brad was accompanied by a #4 cutter head. What am I going to do with a #4 cutter head – me who spends most of my time cutting up old sheets and t-shirts to hook with? That’s like hooking with crazy thin sock yarn or something. But, but…

Wool for rug cut with Fraser cutter. — My penguin addition to Mary S’s tesselation rug. You can barely see those #4 strips, they’re so narrow! I love how his feet came out. Okay, like his white front, they’re hooked from yarn too. The little button eye could be an issue if the rug’s going down on the floor. That’ll be Mary’s problem. 🙂

Remember how the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) is doing our friendship rug project? Well, after finishing the Mystery Rug last week (currently at the framer’s), I could finally work on the friendship rug that’s been sitting in my house for over a month. Mary S drew a tessellation – very cool. Mary S, along with many of the gals in AWAG, often hooks with #4s. Laura does not. But, when all you pretty much have is a #4 cutter head… So, I threw on the big girl panties and cut #4 strips. And then, to the blue light of the television’s Olympic coverage – mostly figure skating, I hooked my part of Mary’s rug. On the linen it came on, not monks’ cloth. Okay, I used a little cream rug yarn for texture, but I THINK IT CAME OUT SO COOL! I am not so bad at this hooking thing after all.

Sewing hooked rug — Sewing the binding onto the “Big Boucherite.” Took three sewing sessions. Thank God for all the freaking figure skating.

So, now I’m hooking with the big girls – wispy, little strips of wool. Is this my new medium? Hell, no! Sure, I’ll definitely use the cutter. In fact, I ordered a #6 head because I’m in the midst of a rug that I started using Mary R’s Townsend cutter. Then I found a #8 that was with the junky Bliss cutter. So, I’ll have a nice little stable of three heads to use WHEN I’M NOT CUTTING BY HAND/HOOKING/UP-CYCLING T-SHIRTS, BEDSHEETS, AND OTHER UNLOVED TEXTILES. (The plastic bag mystery rug was a good experiment, but not one going into the permanent repertoire.) In fact, just last night I finished sewing the rug binding onto my new project. (Remember, I’m one of those who was taught to do that first, makes it easier to finish later, and NO WHIPPING!) It’s BIG, the biggest I’ve tackled thus far, but I can’t wait. It’ll be the “Big Boucherouite,” done up mainly in bedsheets because of how much I loved that in the “First Boucherouite.”

Hooked rug and dog. — While it’s not on the frame yet, here’s the “BIG Boucherouite” with Tynan posing to show the size. It’s about 55″x49″. It’ll take a bit of time and not be particularly portable. Cue the “Baby Boucherouite”!

Nonetheless, like I said, I’ll definitely use the cutter. It’s kind of funny, though. Last week, there was a post on one of the hooking Facebook sites. Someone made mention of how disappointed she was in her old Fraser, that she could only cut two strips at a time. Very slow going, and what cutter did others use and recommend? Life’s relative, I guess. Here I was – same evening – pleased as punch that I was getting three (!) nice and even #4 strips cut at once. So much easier and quicker than using my scissors. But, like I said, it’s all relative. I’m sure that if I was hooking exclusively in wool, I’d be salivating over a Bolivar or the absurdly efficient Sizzix.

What about you? How do you cut your wool?

February 13, 2018

Hanging and hooking with friends, a retreat

Ram hooked rug at retreat. — **Melinda** finished her ram – hurray! It’s based on a pic her **photographer-husband Gary** took when they were on vacation last year. She started it last spring when **Cheryl Bollenbach** was here for a **workshop**.

Thank goodness that the illness I wrote about last week abated enough for me to attend our guild’s three-day retreat Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I’d have hated to miss it; all the hooking and chatting and snacking with friends, that is. We try to hold a retreat three or four times each year now, and visitors are welcome should you be in the area. You don’t even have to be a hooker!

Luckily, we have a venue available to us at no cost. Yes, absolutely free. It is, ironically, a police substation in the Sandia foothills here in Albuquerque. Yes, the hookers have taken over the cops’ joint. Actually, it’s a rather inactive substation these days. Rarely any folks in uniform in residence. But it’s a fabulous room – plenty of tables and space, big windows letting in lots of natural light. This winter the heat’s even worked!

Enjoy some pics of Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) members at play with their rugs.

Bird rug hooking at retreat — Can you believe that **Nan**‘s been hooking for less than two years??? She designed this; it’ll be a chair pad.

Rug hooking retreat — At the same time Nan’s hooking her mom-in-law’s dog. He’ll be a pillow soon.

Working on rug at hooking retreat — **Mary S.** was ~~doing penance~~ whipping the edges of this original rug for her granddaughter. This is not her first rug for a granddaughter by any means. Check out those eyes!

Hooking at retreat — **Liz** has been using each retreat to get a lot of work done on a rug of her and her husband fishing. This time it was all about the water.

Working at ooking retreat — **Nancy Pierce** was hard at work on a piece that she’ll have ready for sale at next month’s **Rio Grande Arts and Crafts Festival** in Albuquerque. Find her rugs and other pieces at her **website** and in this **prior post.**

Hooking retreat. — Linda’s got the Celtic thing going on in this rug. Check out the matching ring!

At the hooking retreat. — Nancy made this little bag to carry her scissors and things. Like very much!

Hooked rug retreat. — And I think that I finally finished hooking the **mystery rug**. I say “I think” because I need to look at it some more to determine if it needs editing. Then there’s the framing. But I’m glad to be moving back to real fibers this week.

If you’re in the area, AWAG’s next retreat will be May 9-11.

Hope you can make it!

February 6, 2018

Hooking and not sharing the plague

How I’ve been spending my days. Damn, I forgot to put a cough drop or twelve in the photo.

So, it’s not the flu, but I’ve been coughing for days. Much like many of you. There’s a virus out there, people, and it ain’t pretty! All I can do to combat it is to mainline coffee and cough drops. Okay, not coffee. I said that because I like how it sounds. I’m a tea girl through and through. Copious quantities of the stuff: green tea, white tea, Sleepy Time Sinus Soother, Sleepy Time Peach, Sleepy Time Echinacae Complete Care. Celestial Seasonings should be paying me, I’m drinking so much of their stuff.

The upside of not feeling well is that you can tell people, No, I’m sorry, but for your own good, I have to stay home. I do not wish to share my personal plague with you, when you really wanted to stay home all along. You people-pleasers out there, you know what I’m talking about. And when you stay home, you can get a fair amount of hooking done on a rug that needs to be completed and photographed for submission by February 25*.

And that’s what I’ve done. Saturday afternoon I hooked and watched a couple of shows that had been taking up space on my DVR. Sunday’s Superbowl helped too even if my Patriots didn’t finish the job this year. I willingly admit that Philly was the better team. Sunday. Only Sunday. And all you green Eagles should enjoy your win. This year. Only this year.

Do you have a favorite brew when the germs come crawling your way? Please share here!

Dog on rug — Tynan presents “What’s on the frame” this week. The mystery rug is coming along. Finally, I can use more color. The drab nature of much of this rug is killing me. I’m starting to dream of a new and more color-full rug. And fibers other than plastic bag.

*Don’t forget, the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council is calling for entries for its 2018 show Earth, Wind, and Fiber. Submissions due February 25!

January 24, 2018

The mystery rug

By now many of you have caught sight of my “mystery rug.” And some have even figured out that it’s being hooked out of plastic bags. The ultimate in up-cycling! The ultimate, too, in cheap, rug raw materials. Though, the reality is, that by choosing sed materials, I’m limiting myself. See the black lines between the “cells”? I didn’t necessarily want to use black; brown would’ve worked better. But that’s the challenge of restricting myself to a specific material. Even though friends (thank you especially, Mary Ramsey!) provided me with their used plastic bags, and I saved my own, nowhere did I find a really brown plastic bag, never mind the several that I need for this particular application. But when one of the imperatives for your little work of art is that it’s to be made out of plastic bags, typically something we throw away after that trip to Walmart or even Savers, you use “what you got.” So I hooked those borders in black.

I suppose you’re wondering what exactly it is that I’m hooking, what the mystery rug is all about. Not telling! It’s enough right now that you know what it’s being hooked from. I’m still working the design, hoping desperately that it’ll be a fair representation of what’s going on inside my head. And that it’ll fit the requirements of a couple of shows that I aim to enter. More on them later.

This is new to me, sharing as I go something that I’m not sure of. But so many of you are brave enough to do just that on Facebook and in your blogs, that I decided to let you in on this project.

plastic bag hooked rug — Constance Old’s rug “Sea of Blue: Plastic Floats Forever”: 2010; mixed paper and plastic on linen; 52″x42″. This rug is still so very timely with it’s obvious **message regarding plastic pollution**.

I’ve worked in “limited” plastic bag before. Liking how the strips pulled and in the interests of recycling and trying something new-ish (back in 2014 I saw one of Constance Old‘s plastic bag rug in an exhibit in Connecticut), I decided to hook a mat comprised of nothing but plastic bag. I will advise you that, if you choose to do one yourself, do NOT do it in winter. The static electricity will kill you! Very annoying. There are now (and perhaps forever?) little pieces of plastic bag all over my living room-hallway-kitchen. They even make their way into the bedroom! Static Guard is the only answer.

As High on Hooking, I’ve made a “career” out of using alternative and less-than-traditional materials to hook my rugs. Have you gone out of your comfort zone to try something other than wool strips? Buffalo or wolf yarn? (Yes, they sell that out here in New Mexico.) T-shirts? Silk saris? Sari yarn is probably my favorite to hook with. Something really weird? Come one, tell us. Here at High on Hooking we do NOT judge. It’s only in stretching that the art of rug hooking will grow.

December 6, 2017

December, it’s about the waiting…

December's a time of waiting... — December, it’s a time of waiting…

It’s December, Christmas-time here at my house, and the waiting’s begun…

— For Christmas, but that’s a given.It is Advent. In the meantime, I’m trying to get decorations up and cards written. Then there are the cookies to bake and a party to prepare for. But again, this is usual stuff at this time of year. And I’m behind just as I am most years…

— A phone call to go through. I just got back from Albuquerque’s Biopark where I was doing rug hooking demos with the guild and walked into the husband and the kid both manning phones that were on hold. If I have to listen to the disembodied voice repeating “all our agents are busy” for much longer… The kid needs new healthcare, and it’s not been an easy process. How many of you can relate?

No waiting in line. — No waiting in traffic during the day! Bossy is one of the new exhibits at the BioPark’s **River of Lights**. See it through the New Year. Sure, it’ll look better at night, but you get the general drift. It’s a beautiful show and a great fundraiser for the park.

— A brandy, new rheumatoid arthritis med to work. I started it about a month ago. I hear I’ll know within six to eight weeks if this one will do the trick. At least my own insurance finally agreed to cover it. 🙂

— A rug design idea. The Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council is sponsoring a show in April. The theme is “Earth, Wind, and Fiber.” The call for entries opens January 1 and closes February 25. Despite mulling on it for longer than I’d like after I get into bed, I’ve not yet come up with a design idea for a rug to enter. Think, think, think…

Waiting for a design idea. — The lovely lady behind those Foster Grants purchased “The First Boucherouite” last month at the **Santa Fe Fall Fiber Fiesta**. It’s still one of my favorite rugs, and I called it the “First” for a reason. Hm, do I really need a **brand new** idea this week to start working on a rug?

— A secondary rug design idea so I have a rug to work on while I wait for the above idea to come through.

— High on Hooking’s Christmas party. Okay, that’s just what Tom and I call it, but every year we plan an evening nice out at a good restaurant. No ordering at a counter!

— What Tom and I will do for our 25th anniversary next month. We’re thinking a BIG trip, but not in January. We haven’t decided where or when yet, but more on that to come…

— The Old Pueblo Rug Hookers Hook-In on January 27. I’m even more excited for the trip this year because last January I won a great door prize: free admission in 2018! Woohoo! And it’s always warmer in Tucson than it is here in ABQ.

Waiting for the Patriots. — We’re just waiting for the Patriots to continue their magic.

— For the Patriots to clinch their division next week in Miami.

— Tynan to finally get a little brother! It probably won’t happen till the spring or so, but Tom finally agreed that we’ll get a puppy this coming year. Woohoo! I love having two dogs, and Tynan benefitted from the “wisdom” of his predecessor Murphy. Albuquerque is a great city for rescues, so we’ll probably go that way. There’s gonna be a baby in the house again! (Beth Miller of Parris Hill Wool Works knows just what I’m talking about. Check out Wyeth these days!)

What are you waiting for this holiday season? Whatever it is, remember these wise words from Grumpy Cat:

Patience:

What you have when there are

too many witnesses.