Aren’t these fingerless gloves yummy? Dag made them, and I had to have a pair. Actually, she spun and dyed the wool, then knitted them with the resulting yarn. My only problem was which color to buy! If you’re a knitter, check out ZiaWoolz now!
I need to say a big thank you to Dagmar Beinenz-Byrd of ZiaWoolz and her family. They hosted me at Dag’s home studio for the High Desert Studio Tour this past weekend. I managed to sell at least half of my mug rug sets and a wall hanging.
After voting Tuesday, I’ll stop at Savers (with Tom, of course, who ensures that I get the 30% senior citizen discount!) to find an appropriate mug for the sister of the girl receiving my “Sparkly Snowman” rug and matching mug. “Grandma” purchased it Saturday and can’t show any favors, you know. That has to be done in time to shop for Christmas. Best to do it now…
The “Sparkly Snowman” has left the building. He was made with wool strips and yarns as well as sparkly netting. (Tom’s threatened me about using that sparkly stuff again; it got all over the house.)
Because I’ve only got a few left, I’ll be making more mug rug sets the rest of November, at least. A setback, I learned I was wait-listed for the Rail Yards Holiday Market on December 11. After everyone heard there were 10,000 patrons last year, local artists understandably came out of the virtual woodwork. I’m a little down that I can’t count on vending at the market, but I’ll be able to use any inventory I make this month for next year and the Etsy shop that I’m planning to finally get to this winter. The only positive is that I might not have to stand in the cold for four hours much as I’d like to vend. The Rail Yards isn’t heated. Hell, there are scads of windows missing too which is part of the charm in warm weather. But I’ll definitely be there to shop all the other great artists!
There’s no better fiber friend than one who surprises you with a vending opportunity. That’s exactly what my guild mate and yarn-dyeing-woman-extraordinaire Dagmar Beinenz-Byrd did during our latest AWAG hooking retreat a couple of weeks ago.
Mary bought the mug rug set on the left, but the one on the right will be available this Saturday during the High Desert Studio Tour in Albuquerque.
Because our guild is making rug mugs to sell (for charity) for next May’s Fiber Arts Fiesta here in Albuquerque, someone unfamiliar with the idea asked me to bring some in to show as examples. I brought their matching mugs even though buyers will just get the little rugs at Fiesta. Lucky for me, though, one member bought a set, and Dag invited me to sell them and some smaller mats at her house during the High Desert 8th Annual Studio Tour this coming Saturday here in Albuquerque. Woohoo! They make excellent Christmas and hostess gifts, you know.
If you live nearby, check out the High Desert website for a map of participating studios. There should be approximately 20 artists spread among the 13 sites. The tour includes painters, jewelry makers, potters, and different types of fiber artists – including Dag and me!
Not only did Dagmar dye this yummy, late fall-looking yarn, but she also knits extraordinary sweaters and sews-to-sell very cute project bags.
As I said, Dag creates fabulously colorific yarns at Zia Woolz. Check out her website and Etsy shop here. Not only that, she’s just fun to hang with. Plus she has absolutely AWESOME views of the Sandia Mountains from her living room window. And she makes a mean lentil soup.
If you’re in the area Saturday, stop by and say HI to both of us. Hopefully, I’ll have more info regarding yet another vending opportunity by then.
For those who might be interested, the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council has put out the call for entries for next year’s Fiesta. Have a look or give a yell if you have any questions. Please join us for this great fiber event!
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?
Cathy in our booth – selling rugs and spreading the gospel of hooking. It was a warm day, thank goodness for the tent!
My friend and fellow rug hooker Cathy Kelly and I vended at the Mama’s Minerals show in Albuquerque this past weekend. Fabulous show and I’m happy to report good news: I sold a rug and, because of that, at this very moment am waiting for the Lowes truck to arrive with my new freezer. It’s a happy day, and the sale made for a tangible success.
Isn’t this a gorgeous rug? Kathy hooked it. It’s for sale; give a yell if you’re interested.
Being a VERY small business, when I sell a rug, the money’s usually deposited into our joint account. Cash gets plowed right back into materials to make more mats. Not this time!
When we moved into this house last year, we inherited the fridge as it was in great condition. It’s a Samsung with the French doors and freezer on the bottom. I was excited. In moving, we unloaded our 23-year-old side-by-side, the appliance that refused to die (unlike all the other kitchen machines). We also gave up our old freezer in the cellar. A shame given Tom’s penchant for finding meat sales and my own for over-baking and making enough pesto each summer to freeze for winter’s basil-free months. I miss it, hence, I’ve been nagging for a new freezer here. But life, as it’s wont to do, has been dishing out unexpected expenses (AC repairs, the kid’s wisdom teeth, my own need for a crown…), so the freezer had been moved to the back burner. Meanwhile the fridge freezer’s stuffed to the gills and I can’t make cookies to freeze before our company starts arriving in September because there’s NO ROOM IN THE INN!
“Domestic Geometry,” the bed-sheet rug that became a freezer.
Last week as I was getting ready for Mama’s Minerals, I mentioned to Tom that I intended to sell a larger rug in order to purchase a freezer. (It would’ve been easier if Lowes or Home Depot would take a rug in trade, but I guess the larger economy can’t work on fiber that way. Pity.) He laughed and said, “Sure, you go for that, girl.” It took a few hours Saturday, but one woman came in, checking out our stuff and chatting. Cathy and I both know her; she’s a member of the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council. Later she circled back in and announced that the rug would match her bathroom perfectly. Woohoo!
Yesterday Tom and I headed to the store and picked out a chest freezer – perfect for ribs and steak and chops and cookies and pesto! It’ll be here this afternoon. Just in the nick of time too; my parents arrive in a week. It’s time to start baking. Maybe put some muffins away for when more relatives show at the end of the month.
No blog next week given the company, but I’m busy working on more and more rugs. There are three more Sundays at the Rail Yards Market and then their Christmas show in December. Kathy and I are looking at more opportunities. Our rugs made a nice mix in the booth: her traditional, woolen mats and my not-so-traditional t-shirt and bed-sheet ones. More about that later, after I show my parents around this beautiful new state of ours.
The rug I was working on during last summer’s exodus: “Welcome to New Mexico.” Since then I’ve been taking stock of our first year here.
Taking stock – that’s what I did with some of the time I took off from the blog these past couple of weeks (which passed by REALLY QUICKLY). July 30 held particular significance and not just because it was the day before my kid’s 19th birthday. This year it marked exactly one year since we rolled into the state of New Mexico to stay.
Wow! We can’t believe it either. At times it’s been tumultuous, there’s no denying that. The holidays, they were tough without family and friends. The kid crashing her car – no injuries other than to pride! – means that just like in high school, Tom’s stuck driving her back and forth to work till she saves for a new vehicle.
Big picture, though, the move’s been most everything we wanted.
Where Tynan and I walk in the Bosque along the west side of the Rio Grande. This is city living Albuquerque style.
CLIMATE:
Certainly, the weather’s wonderful: lots of sun, lots less winter (compared to New England). One day last January, we hiked in the snow on the east side of the Sandia Mountains then drove the 45 minutes to home where it was 55 degrees. No need for a stinkin’ snowblower here!
RUG HOOKING (this is a hooking blog):
You’ll find several of us AWAG’s ladies demonstrating rug hooking at Albuquerque’s Biopark the first Tuesday of most every month.
Who would’ve guessed that there’s such an active guild of hookers out here in Albuquerque? I’ve made some great friends this past year, even one, Melinda, who moved from New Hampshire about the same time I moved from Massachusetts. Now the two of us try to get a hooking afternoon in each week. Better yet, she and her husband are New England Patriots fans just like us. Tom and I are no longer alone in a sea of blue and orange Bronco fans.
“Desert Gone Wild,” a table runner or wall hanging, went to a good home just last week.
As High on Hooking, I’ve managed to start selling pieces and been involved in not one, but two shows. The Adobe Wool Arts (ATHA) guild volunteered me as our representative to Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Council which is currently planning next May’s Fiber Arts Fiesta. Then back in January, three of us headed down to Tuscon in Arizona for a hook-in with the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers. It was 80 degrees there! In January! I even managed a little sunburn!
You can’t get much closer to a balloon without being in the basket. This one landed right behind the house last fall.
HOUSING:
While we didn’t down-size like we planned (hey, with no cellar or attic, we realized we needed an extra room for the treadmill and bike), we found a great house close to the Rio Grande. That means the dog and I can head out to walk the scenic trails of the Bosque (the forest) whenever we wish. In summer this is best done in the early morning hours.) So far we’ve come across a snake, hawks and hummingbirds, lots of bunnies and geckos, two coyotes, and, just last week, a porcupine.
Tynan running free in the Bosque. Just like New England, autumn is the best season to be in New Mexico.
PERSONAL:
I turned 52 this summer. Moving here signaled the start of the next half of my life. (You think I’m optimistic, but one of my grandmothers died as an active 93-year-old, and the other is still very much alive.) One reason we moved here — besides the BIG sky, the art scene, and there being less people — was for the outdoor lifestyle. We like to hike. Unfortunately, a couple of months before we left the east coast, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I won’t lie, it’s been a pain in my ass, amongst other places, but especially for my knees. That’s limited our hiking some. But I’m on a new med; here’s hoping it works without too many side effects (the scary kinds they recite to us in all the TV ads). And that the damn hot flashes stop soon. (I am 52.)
Luckily, though, while my fingers have swollen some, they’ve suffered little pain. Maybe all the hooking keeps everything lubed up. Thank goodness. I know that most of you feel like I do: hooking is therapy. Without it, life would, to put it bluntly, suck.
Life here in Albuquerque definitely does NOT suck. There are all kinds of new experiences:
Wineries and old ruins and Indian pueblos and Petroglyph National Monument that puts volcanoes practically in our backyard!
Hot air balloons that float right over our house and sometimes land on the street right behind it!
Gardening in the desert – we’re not in Massachusetts any more where missing a day of watering isn’t be much of a problem. Worse, we pay for water here! But we’re learning all about drought-tolerant plants.
Tom posing in Tent Rocks’ curves.Navajo rugs up for auction.
I could go on, but I won’t right now. There’s too much to do. Rugs don’t hook themselves. Plus, we have company coming early September through mid-October. I can play Julie McCoy to the relatives.
How’s your summer been going?
Mass Ascension at Balloon Fiesta 2015. Have you ever seen so many balloons in one place?
High on Hooking says “Welcome to New Mexico.” Stay for a while and see why we love it here.
