Category: rug hooking

March 29, 2017

Here’s to the hookers!

I was wondering, trying to come up with something interesting to write about this week. It’s a week that’s got me running around with my metaphorical chicken head cut off. My class up at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center (EVFAC) is supposed to run Saturday assuming, that is, we have two folks signed up to take it. Last I heard – over a week ago – there was one person on the list. You need two students for the workshop to run. “Don’t worry,” they told me. “Everyone likes to wait till the last minute to sign up.” Okay, I get that, have even done that. But what it means to me right now is that I have to prepare for this class whether it runs or not.

The reality is that, even if it doesn’t run, I can use the materials I put together for a class in the fall when they’ll have more time to publicize the class. (There was a little issue getting the info up on the website after their web coordinator left EVFAC.) And there is a nice arts and crafts show here at home that I’ll have to miss if I’m up in Española.

Here's to the hookers! — TO THE HOOKERS!

But you know what I was reminded of again as I was getting ready for the class this week? How really, really nice hookers as a group are. Sure, we see it all the time when we’re on Facebook and sites like Heidi Wulfraat’s Rug Hookers Daily and Wanda Kerr’s Welcome Mat what with all the freely offered advice and such, but sometimes it just smacks you aside the head. These are just some of the people I’m grateful to this week:

My guild. I put out a plea to the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) for frames people weren’t using, frames I could borrow that would make life easier for someone learning how to hook. There are currently four frames sitting in my car that members provided to me yesterday afternoon while we were doing our regular Biopark demo gig. Thank you, Mary, Nan, and Melinda! Even more amazing, one woman I’ve never even met offered me a frame! She’s not active in the guild but remains on the distribution list. Is Jan not the best?
Cathy Kelly in my guild offers frames, hooks, whatever. She’s been teaching all along, and I’m just a lowly newbie.
Laura Kenyon and Deb Walland of Seaside Rug Hooking in Rhode Island, I salute you! (And not just because I miss the Ocean State.) A few days ago I saw a great offer for sari yarn on one of their Facebook posts. I was out and couldn’t order it then and there, but I was able to ask if they could hold four skeins for me. Yes! Later I got back to them; long story short: They mailed the yarn to me without having me pay ahead of time. I’ve received the very “wicked” (RI parlance) colored yarn and an invoice and will shoot a check off to them tomorrow. How many businesses are willing to spot you the product before you pay? Actually, quite a few rug hooker-to-rug hooker businesses I’ve found.
And lastly, there’s Letty from Winnipeg. She sent me a lovely email after reading about my class in EVFAC’s promotional material. A rug hooker, she regularly spends time in New Mexico. She’ll be back in October and asked if she could visit and spend some time in my studio with me; she’s even willing to pay for that. Bless her heart! Who charges to sit with soon-to-be friends? Definitely not me. Guess I’ll have to tell her that my studio consists of a narrow laundry room, my admittedly kick-ass walk-in closet (half full of clothes, half with hooking stuff), and, of course, my chair next to the couch. I’ll do that when I get off my butt and properly respond to her mail.

Do you have a hooker or three to thank? Feel free to do it here. Better yet, thank them directly on their own Facebook pages where everyone can see how much you appreciate them.

To the hookers! from the dog. — As promised, Tynan’s back this week with the current rug on the frame. You might remember the little chile mug rug I did last week. Well, I liked it so much that I decided to do a larger version of it. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. In the meantime we’re celebrating Ty’s birthday. He’s nine!

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March 22, 2017

Inspiration: Springing back to life

Flowers springing back to life in New Mexico. — “Welcome, spring!” exclaim the purple lilac and rosemary flowers in the common area behind our house.

After a rough weekend (involving the dreaded norovirus), I managed to get out to take a few pics of New Mexico springing back to life, at least around our house. Maybe it’ll give hope to those back east who’ve been smacked by those last nasty vestiges of winter. And truth be told, much like last year, spring has come early to Albuquerque by about three weeks. We’ve been spoiled since we moved here.

Lilacs — I love lilacs – their colors, their perfume – and was so excited to find that we had a bush in our yard here.

I laugh that I can take these photos of spring in March which, to someone from New England, seems too freaking early for flowers of any kind. That we’ve been in New Mexico for almost two years matters not at all. Sure, Deb down in the Carolinas, of A Daily Dose of Fiber, you showing daffodils in practically January I get, but it’s still amazing to me to have lilacs before Mothers’ Day.

Pear tree bloom — The pear trees have been blooming for a week and a half at least! What a shame that I recently read that they’re bad for the environment. Apparently, they cross-pollinate with other ornamental pears and create a super invasive wild species. Poo!

So, you’ve got all these beautiful trees blooming like crazy. You know what blooming trees bring? Pollen! Lots of poisonous powder. And pollen brings…sinus infections. I still maintain that, much as I hate what the pollen does to my sinuses, it’s a hell of an improvement over unending cold and snow.

Flowering tree springin back to life in NM. — Spectacular, yes? As I’m not up on a lot of desert botany yet, one of my ABQ peeps will have to tell me if this is a plum or red bud. (I suspect the latter.)

Hope you enjoyed the floral show. If you were here, you’d smell them whenever you walked out the door. Then rush back in for the saline and Flonase and such.

Allergies forcing me indoors isn’t such a bad thing. I have plenty of hooking to do. Fiesta work is ramping up. The class I’m teaching at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center starts in less than two weeks. Time to work on that. Then the selling season starts with the Recycled Art Fair the last weekend in April. And in my “spare time” there’s the novel I’ve been hired to edit. So, in most every way, we are springing back to life here at High on Hooking.

Are you springing back to life these days?

Hooked rugs, mug rugs. — Finally, a peek at what’s on the frame these days. Mug rugs! (Sorry for those looking for the dog. Tynan was unavailable at publishing time to have his photo taken with the rugs. He will be back next week.)

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March 15, 2017

Another Albuquerque museum field trip (but no art!)

Flag seen on our Albuquerque field trip. — This is the flag that flew over the base at the Trinity Base Camp. New Mexican winds, not the blast, tattered the flag. (The wind is especially brutal here in spring. All the better to spread the pollen…)

Last week Tom and I decided that we needed to explore our still newish-to-us adopted city (we’ve been in New Mexico just over a year and a half), so an Albuquerque field trip day was declared. Off we headed NOT to anything fiber-related, not even anywhere remotely art-centric. Nope, we decided that it was time to visit the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The website blurbs:

The Museum’s mission is “to serve as America’s resource for nuclear history and science. The Museum presents exhibits and quality educational programs that convey the diversity of individuals and events that shape the historical and technical context of the nuclear age.”

Poster seen on our Albuquerque field trip.

We are in New Mexico, and I’m sure you all remember the role the state played in the years leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of World War II: Los Alamos; the Manhattan Project; the Trinity nuclear test; and so on. The museum takes you back there, certainly, but it also has exhibits on radiation and its history, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cold War, nuclear power, nuclear medicine, nanotechnology, nuclear waste

Sub sail seen on Albuquerque field trip. — Simple looking compared to all the planes and missiles on the lot, the nuclear submarine sail was my favorite piece. It was massive. But where’d the rest of the sub go?

transportation, and atomic pop culture (Jimmy Neutron, anyone?). Heritage Park is out in the “backyard” and consists of planes, rockets, bombs, cannons, missiles, and other interesting, historical “paraphernalia” to explore.

Missile seen on Albuquerque field trip. — That would certainly give me pause.

Description of a bomb. — Read for yourself. And shiver…

Photo at Nuclear Museum. — My “artsy” shot from the rear of a missile.

Photo of a missile. — Alternatively, this is the shit of nightmares. Can you see Tom standing next to it?

Given the tenor of the country these days, not to mention North Korea and its recent antics, I have to say that I looked at the place a little differently than I might have a year ago. And while the building looks modest from outside, there’s much too much to see and learn in one visit; we barely scraped the surface of anything after the Cold War. (The door to the outdoor attractions happens to be there, and you’ll spend a while outside.)

American symbol. — The Nuclear Museum shows an aspect of America that maybe we’d like to forget. Or ignore. That’s at our own peril.

If you’re in the area, after you give me a call or an email to say hello, of course, head over to the Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque. History’s important; you know how we can’t help but repeat it. Not!

PS – If you have kids, you can bring them too, especially school age, maybe 9 and older. Little Albert’s Laboratory (as in Einstein; not to be mistaken for FAT Albert’s Laboratory) was hands-on learning about physics. Very cool, though by the time we got there, Tom was getting a little cranky. He only gave me about five minutes to play. Thank goodness we have company coming in May. Back to Little Albert’s Laboratory I go!

Tom and sidewinder missile. — Is there anything sexier than your husband of several years posing next to a Sidewinder missile?

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March 8, 2017

Where’s High on Hooking today?

Woman demonstrating rug hooking. — Mary Ramsey, AWAG president, indoctrinating, I mean, sharing rug hooking, specifically her “Chicken Cha,” with visitors to Heritage Farm in Albuquerque’s Botanic Garden.

Where’s High on Hooking? Like Waldo we could be almost anywhere. Though yesterday we were with other members of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) at Albuquerque’s BioPark for our twice monthly demo gig. After last week’s news, though, we really could be almost anywhere.in the coming months.

Poster advertising Albuquerque's Recycled Art Fair 2017.

Like Lauren at Rugs and Pugs, last week was spent suffering through all kinds of nasty sinus issues and such. And we’re still on the mend! But life looked a hell of a lot better when one day’s email brought news of High on Hooking being juried into Albuquerque’s 8th Annual Recycled Art Fair. That’s the last weekend of April and conveniently located only a couple of miles down the road from my house at the Open Space Visitor Center. Besides vendors, there will be food, live music, and all kinds of good stuff.

Another email finally green-lighted me into this year’s Rail Yard’s Market downtown. Woohoo! I loved doing the market last year: tasty food, music, fabulous people-watching, and the chance to spread the gospel of rug hooking to new believers.

The first two Saturdays in April, we’ll be north of Santa Fe, up in Española at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center teaching a beginners’ class using up-cycled t-shirts. Should be a fun time.

There are other irons in the fire. AWAG’s got Cheryl Bollenbach motoring down from Colorado to teach another class in early May. Fiber Arts Fiesta comes up a couple of weeks later. Lots of work going on with that! (It being my first Fiesta ever – having moved here only a year and a half ago – I feel like I’m about to be hit by a beautiful and handmade freight train. A freight train nonetheless.) Oh, we’ve got company coming twice! in May before Fiesta starts.

Life’s busy and that’s a really good thing. I mean, who wants to be bored? Not me. I can play “Where’s High on Hooking” all year long.

Keeping busy: This is a problem that you’re glad to have.
–American actor Michael Winslow

Dog on hooked rug. — Tynan presents this week’s “Current Rug.” Actually, there are three on the frame, all mug rugs as we get ready for the 2017 selling season. No, he’s not particularly interested in the mats; Tom was in the kitchen making “food” sounds. That was soooo much more compelling.

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February 28, 2017

Still hooking, hooking, hooking away…

Been hooking, hooking, hooking all week…

Finished hooking one of the rugs to be entered into the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta…

Dog - rug hooking — Tynan’s portrait done in up-cycled t-shirt. My thanks to Cheryl Bollenbach of Colorado. I never would’ve been able to hook this rug without her help.

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.

Alternative fibers rug hooking — “Portals to Africa’ (AKA the “Surfboard Rug” by its new owner; done in up-cycled bedsheets) will also be entered into our Fiber Arts Fiesta to be held May 19-21. Calls for entry are due March 1.

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!