Been hooking, hooking, hooking all week…
Finished hooking one of the rugs to be entered into the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta…
Still have a little ways – truly just a little – to go on the traditional floral, blue rug done in old t-shirts. Hooking to be done by tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s the day all entries are due. Can do it online; just go to Fiesta’s website. If sending via snail mail, just make sure it’s postmarked by March 1.
Can’t wait to see you at Fiesta, May 19-21!
This week’s blog is all about the photo…of the dog. Because everyone seems to enjoy his weekly updates of the larger rug I’ve been working on since early January. Here’s this week’s:
For those who are wondering, Tynan is an almost 9-year-old Welsh springer spaniel. (His birthday is next month.) Some of you might notice that he’s looking a lot less scruffy in this pic; he got a haircut just yesterday. He’s become fond of demonstrating how much dogs (and even cats) love hand-hooked rugs. In fact, he believes that every dog deserves his or her own rug. Fortunately, High on Hooking can help all you dog parents and grandparents with that. Finally, Tynan will do pretty much anything if he believes that food will be involved. Yes, he did get a treat after his photo shoot.
We’ve got another photo or two. This is a mug rug my niece requested after seeing other mug rug sets on my Facebook pages. In this case, she sent a pic of the mug for me to work from.
Happy “customers” make me happy. 🙂
Happy New Year and welcome back to High on Hooking! So excited to have you here. If you recall my last post, I talked about resting up during the holidays and considering what I want to do in 2017. Not sure I really rested, but I did manage to cut back some of my social media use, and I have to admit I enjoyed that and taking a few weeks off from blog writing too.
I did finish my class proposal for the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center. Hopefully, I’ll hear back from them soon, but in the meantime buddy Melinda and I are hoping to get up north on a yarn-centric field trip next week. We’ll stop at the Center on our way to say hi. And we have coupons for the shop. Yea!!!
Another goal was more reading; I did that! Hell, I’m still doing that. I managed to read all the stories assigned to me by Fifth Wednesday and even started a new book for pleasure. (It’s called Steps and Exes: A Novel of Family, and it’s by Laura Kalpakian. I’m enjoying it; you might too.) Meanwhile, I’m also reading a few others (you know, the ones in the car, in the bathroom, the
kitchen…) For purposes of bettering myself as High on Hooking, though, I’m deep into Grow Your Handmade Business by Kari Chapin and Deanne Fitzpatrick’s Simply Modern: Contemporary Designs for Hooked Rugs. I’ve had the latter for a while and flipped through for inspiration; now I’m committed to actually reading a few pages each evening before I start hooking.
And of course, just as in the old year, in the new year there has been hooking. After I finished my autumnal Tree of Life (okay, it’s not really finished, only the hooking’s done), I started a “new/old” rug. Someone gifted my guild (Adobe Wool Arts Guild, aka AWAG) with some old patterns last year, and even though I don’t really use patterns, I took one. It’s very traditional, but I wanted to make it more “me.” So I’m using t-shirts. So far it looks pretty cool according to guild members. I concur. Thoughts?
You might also remember that I mentioned finally getting my “big” Fiber Arts Fiesta project together as it’s due for jurying on March 1. I really do have a great idea of what I want to do. It’s a little mixed media, and it’s sitting in my brain. BUT, I’ve realized that I’m running low on time what with a lot on my plate, so that one’s going on the back burner. I’ll enter the rug above for sure, maybe something else I did last year too. AND…
Here’s a slightly updated Tynan. He’s my dog that I started back in May when Cheryl Bollenbach was here “classing up” AWAG. I meant with all my heart and soul to get back to him after High on Hooking stopped selling in 2016. Somehow that didn’t happen, and now AWAG’s made plans to have Cheryl back for another workshop come this May. Woohoo! HOWEVER, I certainly can’t have last year’s project unfinished when she returns, so last week I picked Tynan up again – slightly panicked, I admit, after all these months. We did okay, got the second eye in which was what really had my panties in a bunch. So, we’re on our way…
And if rug hooking wasn’t enough, I got a yen to do some crocheting over the holidays. Here’s what’s on the crochet hook right now (which is on the opposite side of my chair from the rug hook). It’s a child’s afghan; maybe we’ll be able to sell it this coming season. Regardless, it’s a nice diversion.
That’s my story for now and I’m sticking to it. What’s making you high on hooking this New Year?
The title should probably read “What’s on the frame this very minute?” It would be more accurate. I started a pretty large rug last Tuesday. Then came yesterday, one of my mornings at Albuquerque’s Rail Yards Market. A woman and her husband spent some time in my booth admiring a few of the rugs; then they were off. No big deal. It happens like that almost all the time. Except…they came back. And bought two mug rug sets and a wall hanging. Woohoo! The only downside is that I’m now down to two mug rug sets, and I still have another weekend to go. (Then I’ll take a break from vending till December’s special holiday market.)
Consequently, while I’m enjoying working on the new “midnight tree” rug, as soon as I draw up a couple of mug rugs (like ASAP – this afternoon!), I’ll have to kick it’s butt off the frame. Of course, if that’s my biggest hooking problem, I must be doing something right.
What’s on your frame this week?
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.
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!
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.
How are you spending this last week of summer?
