Category: mats

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!

January 31, 2018

Rug porn from Tucson

In front of Sparky's oon the way to the hook-in in Tucson. — This fine metallic gentleman greeted us at the door when we stopped to lunch at **Sparky’s** in **Hatch**, New Mexico. You know, the chile capital of the world. It’s an **AWAG** tradition to stop there for lunch on our way to Tucson. (Even if you’re on a stupid elimination diet…)

Like every good blogger who goes to a hook-in, I have returned home from last weekend’s Tucson Hook-In to share the event’s rug porn. Okay, I’m a little slower getting to it than the ladies who were at the Eliot Hook-In in Maine last weekend – a couple had there photos out by Sunday! – but does that matter? No!

I’ve got pics for you. Enjoy!

Flowers growing in January in Tucson. — Okay, NOT rug porn. But I love bougainvillea so much. This big bush was growing outside my hotel room. And blooming in January! That doesn’t even happen in Albuquerque.

Rug porn. — Did I mention our guild’s project, our friendship rugs? Here’s a sneak peek of Nancy Hart’s. It’s done; all she has to do is finish it off. Lucky girl.

Paloma Country Club in Tucson. — This was the view from the terrace where some of us ate lunch. Have to hand it to the **Paloma Country Club** and the **Old Pueblo Rug Hookers (OPRH)**, they certainly know how to feed folks. Always a fabulous salad bar and BIG cookies. (Although, those of us who are gluten-free and also on an elimination diet at exactly the wrong time, might feel a little sad about those cookies…)

This spectacular rug “Mimbres” was hooked by members of OPRH: Kathy Kavoric, Julie Gibson, Adrienne Price, and Diana Foltz.

“All is Well” was hooked by Kathy Kovaric. Cheers the heart, no?

Silent auction rug porn. — I have to stop making a habit of picking up frames at the silent auction. Two years ago it was the **Anderson frame**. This year I admit to somewhat aggressively pursuing this **Puritan frame and stand**. Hey, I have students coming in March. I needed one more frame!

Lastly, I bring you a gorgeous picture of some seriously cool rock formations. I took the pic at a rest area on the way home. See why I love New Mexico? Thanks to Melinda, Cathy, and Mary for a fun weekend!

Thank you to OPRH for once again putting on such a classy and fun hook-in. One that was worth the eight hours of travel each way. See you next year!

Tynan’s back with this week’s “What’s on the frame?” As you can see, the **mystery rug** is coming along. It must be because I’ve started to make some corrections. Still not completely sure how it’ll look when it’s done, but I press on. More next week!

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.

November 14, 2017

Fall Fiber Fiesta – visit Santa Fe this Weekend!

Fall Fiber Fiesta 2017 in Santa Fe — Working, working, working my little fingers to the bone…

Hope to see you at Fall Fiber Fiesta

in Santa Fe this weekend.

Admission is free.

I’ll have rugs and mats of all sizes available.

Mention this blog article and get 10% off any rug!