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I forgot I hooked that rug!

I can’t believe that I forgot I hooked that rug! Yes, it went plumb out of my mind. Let me explain.

that rug, hooked
Unfinished and, therefore, unnamed rug being hooked with t-shirts sometime last fall.

 

Last night I was going through my laptop files looking for a particular rug photo. (I read a blog that encourages people to share their gardens and crafts and such. Of course, they want to see my rugs. 🙂 )  So, I’m combing through the blog file, the guild file, High on Hooking’s inventories, every file containing pics of rugs for whatever reason. And I come across this photo of an unfinished rug.

And I think, where the hell that rug?  How come I haven’t been trying to sell that??? It was a pretty large, circular deal. About 28 inches in diameter.

Like many of you, I am not a woman who keeps things that bother me to myself. I less than casually mention it to Tom who responds with What rug? (Insert my eye roll here.) Once I show him the photo, oh, I remember that one! Thank God. I was starting to think senility might be creeping in. Then he asks about its whereabouts. Duh! Then he asks if I ever finished it. Of course, I finished it! I had to have done it before I started the big, blue floral rug around January 1.

I check the wicker trunk and the cedar chest. Nada. I take a cursory glance around the closet and laundry room, but they both hold my hooking raw materials, not finished rugs, most of which currently abide in my mobile store. It’s definitely not with them.

Again to the cedar chest. I do a better search, actually take things out. Nope. The rug seems to have vanished. I briefly consider that Melinda might’ve taken it. She really liked it when I was working on it. Nah, I would’ve seen it at her house. So, it has to be in mine!

Tom’s lost interest by now. I head back to the closet and the laundry room. Okay, I have not cleaned or sorted my laundry room counter in a very l-o-n-g time. Been too busy. This time I actually pick up some  pile, move things around, and…lo and behold!…there, neatly folded, is that rug. I grab it, unfold it. Oh, the hooking is done – just like I remembered – but the finishing, not so much. Never bandy that word senility around so casually when you live in a glass house. It will come back to bite you in the ass.

that rug, unfinished
I definitely hooked that rug. I most definitely did NOT finish that rug.

Now I have another job to do so that I can get this baby out to the Rail Yards and the other places I’m selling at this season. (That would include, I recently found out, the Sunflower Festival in Mountainair, here in New Mexico on August 26.) Since tonight I’ll finish hooking another rug (see photo below) and have yet to design something new, I guess that I’ll be sewing binding on the “Tree of Life” when I meet with some guild members tomorrow for a mini hook-in. Like you, I’d rather hook.

Last week brought some interesting news. Along with 59 other hookers who feel a need to share the hooking gospel via social media, specifically via a blog, High on Hooking’s blog was named one of the best 60 rug hooking blogs. (It didn’t specify where, so I’ll go with in the entire world.) I admit that when I saw the email that morning, I scoffed to Tom that it was some kind of scam, false news, as it were. But, no, when I got on Facebook later in the day, congratulations were flying. Thank you, Rug Hooking Magazine and Feedspot for a lovely and unexpected boost.

Lastly, Tynan is back with “The Rug on the Frame.” Though he did mention that it felt like a demotion after being allowed to write the blog last week. I told him that if he’s good, he’ll get another chance. And if he stops calling us idiots. This rug is a favorite of his, though he’d make me take out the “WOOF” and put in his name. Then I couldn’t sell it, I explained. Exactly, he said.

hooked rug and dog
Tynan says, that rug should be mine. “Woof” is hooked all in t-shirt. Much cooler than wool this time of year.
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Many thanks, Old Pueblo Rug Hookers!

Old Pueblo Rug Hookers hooked rug
Thank you, Old Pueblo Rug Hookers, for a marvelous hook-in! Can’t wait to go again next year. Better yet, I get in free in 2018. Read on to find out why.
Sparky’s mango and red chile (from Hatch, of course) milkshake.

Just like I wrote last week, four of us from the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) did indeed pile into a Subaru Outback early Friday morning. And we were off on our annual (okay, my second and Melinda’s first) Tucson adventure, albeit with colds and coughs and arthritis flare-ups. Between the coffee/tea break, lunch at Sparky’s in Hatch (yes, home of the Hatch chiles) and a couple of gas and pee stops, we finally pulled into the Best Western around 5:00 p.m. that evening achy and tired of sitting.

You know you’ve got excellent lodging when the desk clerk tells you about the free, yes, free, happy hour. Sure, we’d brought quality alcoholic provisions, but why open them when someone’s willing to give you something just as…as efficient for free? We hung there the next evening too. Lest you think we drank our way through the evenings, we actually hit up Guiseppe’s, an Italian place across the street from the Best Western Friday night. I had the best mussels! (And not just because they were the first ones I’ve found since I moved out this way a year and a half ago.) Saturday night we headed to a traditional AWAG stop, the deli, Shlomo and Vito’s. Just like being in New York If you don’t happen to notice the ubiquitous saguaro cacti in the area.

 

Cathy Kelly’s colorific wools.

Sun and 31°F greeted us Saturday morning when we headed off to La Paloma Country Club. The Old Pueblo Rug Hookers (OPRH) throw a swanky affair. Good food (even for those of us handicapped by a gluten- free diet), door prizes, vendors, views of the golf course, and a silent auction. Melinda, Cathy, Mary, and I joined up with Nancy and Mary S. and parked ourselves at a table with a view. Cathy and I set up to vend. Me, some mug rug sets and Cathy, a butt-load of hand-dyed wool. Display rugs were in another room.

A close-up of Adele Yorke’s display rug.

 

 

 

Despite the posh surroundings, it was a hook-in just like the others I attended in churches back in New England. Lots of chatter, food, wool, and rugs, lots of rugs. I was asked to speak for a few moments on hooking with t-shirts. Better than that, I won a surprise door prize:  free registration for next year’s hook-in. Woohoo! And I managed to snag an old rug in the silent auction. Anyone know anything about this mat?

Hooked rug at Old Pueblo Rug Hooker Hook-In
A rather elderly hooked rug I acquired in the silent auction. Anyone know the artist? About the mat?
Rug hooking women.
Adobe Wool Arts Guild members from left to right, Melinda, Mary S., and Mary.
Hooked rug by Rita Vail, one of the Old Puebo Rug Hookers
Check out the “quilling” in Rita Vail’s saguaro cactus rug. Rita’s one of the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers.
Hooked rug by Beth Carlson.
A most beautiful rug by Beth Carlson.

Now that I’m back, it’s time to get down to business. I have to finish my Tynan rug for March 1 so that I can enter it into Albuquerque’s Fiber Fiesta. I did decide to not kill myself to get the traditional rug done for then too; too much hooking and too much going on in my life. Plus, I need to start making product for the summer and any shows I’m doing. The jury’s still out on the Rail Yards Market. I’ve got a class to prep for April

Hooked rugs
Rugs at the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers Hook-In in Tucson Saturday.

 

at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center. You all know the drill:  Life relentlessly marches on. But for one weekend, at least, I escaped thanks to the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers.

 

 

 

Hook-in news? How was Eliot? Others?

 

 

 

 

Lastly, below is the weekly report from Tynan the Dog on the current rug. We didn’t get as much done this week as we’d like, but so much was going on. And who hooks that much at a hook-in what with all that chitchat and other activities?

Hooked rug and dog.
Tynan’s weekly update on the traditional rug (hooked in t-shirt). Photo taken January 30.

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Heading off to the Tucson Hook-In this weekend

Hooked rug by Old Pueblo Rug Hookers.
Tucson’s Old Pueblo Rug Hookers will host their annual Tucson hook-in January 28.

It’s a busy, busy week here at High on Hooking. And a short one too. Today six of us from the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) were doing our regular demo schtick at Albuquerque’s BioPark – at Heritage Farm in the Botanic Garden, specifically. (We’re there the first and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Feel free to visit.) Come early Friday morning, four of us will saddle up (okay, we’ll climb into Cathy’s SUV) and make the eight-hour trek to Tucson.

 

What’s in Tucson, you ask. Besides warmer weather, of course. Well, I’ll tell you. Saturday, the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers are hosting their annual Tucson hook-in at La Paloma Country Club. Last year I was a OPRH virgin. Not this year, sisters! And I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I had a great time on my hooker-girls’ weekend. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might

Anderson rug hooking frame.
2016’s prize! An Anderson frame at last.

remember how last year I managed to “win” an Anderson frame in the silent auction. There was some serious back-and-forth with another woman, but she already had an Anderson, and I’d wanted one for years. (The reality is that there were two up for auction, and she got the second one with it’s smaller hooking area.)

 

Like I said, four of us AWAG members will drive the l-o-n-g drive to Tucson Friday. Two other members will meet us there, their significant others left behind to fend for themselves in hotel rooms while we hook, chat, purchase, eat, make friends, bid, hook, eat, and chat some more. It’s going to be a great weekend!

Photo of dog and hooked rug. Rug going to Tucson hook-in.
Tynan presents this week’s current rug update. He will allow me to bring it to the Tucson hook-in to work on and share.

 

 

Attend a hook-in lately? (I’m talking to you, New England peeps! I know all about the Eliot Hook-In happening the same day as Tucson’s.) What made it so worthwhile for you? Share any hook-ins coming up!

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Taking stock

The rug I was working on as I moved last summer. "Welcome to New Mexico."
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 Rio Grande.
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 many of AWAG ladies demonstrating rug hooking at Albuquerque's Biopark the first Tuesday of most every month.
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" went to a good home just last week.
“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 behind the house last fall.
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. Like, Just like New England, autumn is the best time to be in New Mexico.
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.)

20160522_121931
On the trail again at Tent Rocks.

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:

 

Tom posing in Tent Rock's curves.
Tom posing in Tent Rocks’ curves.
Navajo rugs up for auction.
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?
Mass Ascension at Balloon Fiesta 2015. Have you ever seen so many balloons in one place?

 

"Welcome to New Mexico", 29.5"x20", $225, Recycled t-shirts
High on Hooking says “Welcome to New Mexico.” Stay for a while and see why we love it here.
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Tucson hook-in report

Wool for sale at the Tucson hook-in.
Wool for sale at the Tucson hook-in.

Sadly, the Tuscon hook-in, 2016, has now come and gone. But what a great event the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers (OPRH) put on! The location, their hospitality, the silent auction… All guaranteed a fun time to be had by all.

Tucson. It’s a damned good thing that when we were scoping out southwest cities to move to, we visited during the worst weather time of year possible – July. We spent a week there way back in, maybe, 2000. The kid was pretty young. After spending most mornings doing some geographical and touristy investigations, we’d hang around the pool drinking Tom’s homemade margaritas (if you come visit us

Tucson sunset, Santa Catalina Mountains.
Tucson sunset, Santa Catalina Mountains.

 

here in NM, he’ll make you one or five), the temperature climbing to at least 115. Occasionally, monsoon storms rained down just to inject a little humidity into the mix. Winter in Tucson is a different animal. We ate lunch outside at the hook-in. I got a sunburn and my freckles came out! It wasn’t quite like Jamaica in January; days started in the 40s. But they warmed up right quick.

The view from where we ate lunch at La Paloma Country Club. It was 80 degrees!
The view from where we ate lunch at La Paloma Country Club. It was 80 degrees!

 

Location. La Paloma Country Club was a lovely venue for the event. Round tables for six to eight ensured conversation between all of us ladies and our gentleman, Russ. Vendor tables were centrally located for maximum exposure to wool, yarn, hooks, and other paraphernalia. As usual, coffee, tea, and pastries were provided during the morning. For lunch, we made our way down a sumptuous salad buffet that more than satisfied even those of us who were gluten free and/or vegan. A+ for the food.

Cathy Kelly selling her wares. (She's one of my guild members!)
Cathy Kelly selling her wares. (She’s one of my guild members!)

 

 

Fabulous portrait by Russ.
Fabulous portrait by Russ Nichols.

 

Show-and-tell. Tables lining one wall provided a perfect place to set out our mats for ogling. I’ve included some here for your pleasure. Later in the afternoon, our OPRH hosts had some of us stand up and talk about what we were working on. Yours truly, being the only one working, not with wool, but with old t-shirts, was one of the presenters. Folks were fascinated by the colors I can use and how heavy the cotton rugs tend to be. (I tend to pack them pretty tightly.)

Hooking straight onto a wool backing. By guild-mate Nancy Hart.
Hooking straight onto a wool backing. By guild-mate Nancy Hart.
Close-up and personal to penguins in a rug by ____.
Close-up and personal to penguins in a rug by Julie Gibson.
Bag and pattern by _____.
Bag and pattern by Judith Maiewski.
Grenfell-style mat by Marja Walker.
Grenfell-style mat by Marja Walker

 

 

Silent auction goodies.
Silent auction goodies.

Silent auction. Little did I know this would be my favorite part of the whole day. The guild had put out a nice spread of items. Bids started at a dollar. I identified a number of things I wouldn’t have minded taking home. Then I saw them: not one, but two Anderson “Puncher” frames! Since trying one out at a punching workshop with Amy Oxford years ago, I’d had it on my mind. In fact, I was supposed to get one for my 50th birthday a year and a half ago; but by the time I finally got around to ordering one, I found that Mr. Anderson was no longer taking orders. That’s made me very sad. Not anymore! After an intense bidding war with “Claudia,” I scored the larger one. We packed that puppy into the car, and it’s now happily ensconced next to my fireplace.

My prize! An Anderson frame at last.
My prize! An Anderson frame at last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends. Four of us from the Adobe Wool Arts guild attended the hook-in. Three of us road-tripped and stayed together. Of course, we all sat together Saturday. Nonetheless, I met

My fellow road-trippers Mary Schnitzler (l) and Cathy Kelly (r). They even indulged me on the way home, letting me commandeer the radio to listen to the Patriots-Denver game. (Not such a good outcome for us Pats' fans.)
My truly excellent, fellow road-trippers Mary Schnitzler (l) and Cathy Kelly (r). They indulged me on the way home, letting me commandeer the radio to listen to the Patriots-Denver game. (Not such a good outcome for us Pats’ fans.)

and chatted with plenty of new friends. And plenty of northeastern transplants. It was fun talking Connecticut (where I’m originally from), Massachusetts (where I lived the last 23 years), Rhode Island (where I went to school and then worked for many of those 23 years), and Maine, well, just because there are so many hookers there.

Tucson hookers Barb and Lynn sat at our table. Sorry; didn't get their last names.
Tucson hookers Barb and Lynn sat at our table. Sorry; didn’t get their last names.

 

 

 

 

If you’re out this way next year at this time, I urge you to visit Tucson and the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers. They’re a class act and they host a great hook-in.

 

 

Share your hook-in news. I know Eliot, Maine, is coming up. I was supposed to attend last year, but illness and snow thwarted me. There are events in Milford and North Attleboro, MA, coming up too. If only I was still living in Franklin…

 

(But then there’d be snow…)

Sunday morning. Good bye, Tucson. See you next January!
Sunday morning. So long, Tucson. See you next January!
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