Category: teaching

June 8, 2017

Damn, you found me…spreading the gospel…of hooking

CHeryl Bollenbach's workshop where she shared the gospel of hooking. — Me presenting my piece at the end of our workshop with Cheryl Bollenbach. Those with sharp eyes and a ***Rug Hooking Magazine*** subscription will recognize the pattern I used. Thank you for sharing this with the hooking world, **Brigitte Webb**! I hope to do it justice.

It’s been almost a month, and I’m a day or two late, but I had to come back sometime. Not going to apologize for loving time off from the blog, but logging into WordPress for the first time in weeks, I realize how much updating I have to do on the entire freakin’ site. Along with some other electronic “toilette.” Sigh. Work is never done.

Note, I may not have been blogging, but I have been hooking. That is rarely a chore. Oh, maybe it is for those of you who whip-stitch. Yeah, I hardly ever do that crap.

What have I been doing? Funny you should ask.

May started with a bang. The Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) invited Cheryl Bollenbach back to conduct a three-day workshop. As usual we learned a lot and bought even more…wool. My project was unusual, though only for me. It’s very…traditional. I’m working with wool strips – no t-shirts! I’m trying out linen for the first time. And see in the picture – no rug binding sewn on before hooking commenced. Don’t get too excited. There will be no whip-stitching. I’ll have it framed when I’m done. A girl can only go so traditional.

AWAG's booth at Fiesta 2017 where we share the gospel of rug hooking. — A view of our guild booth at Fiber Arts Fiesta.

Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta went down May 19-21. Of course, there was A LOT of work to be done before that. AWAG ran a successful booth. We had many visitors and several ladies who signed up for more information. In fact, I just gave a lesson this week to one of them. Ah, to spread the gospel of hooking. Below is a montage of pics taken by Melinda’s husband Gary of Gary Lamott Photography. Enjoy! And thank you again, Gary!!!
https://garylamott.smugmug.com/Fiber-Arts-517/n-phKqGb/#
Our “shop” at the Rail Yards is open. Here we share the gospel of hooking with folks who have never seen the art form. Others tell me tales of parents and grandparents who hooked. Come on down! Great fruits and veggies, plus arts, music, and yummy food.

High on Hooking started our selling season at Albuquerque’s Rail Yards. Despite it being Memorial Day weekend (holidays are notorious for slow sales) and thanks to a woman visiting from Las Cruces who loves textiles, we had a good day. Come visit; we’re there every other weekend till mid-October.

Sadly, those of us from AWAG who do demos at the Biopark’s Botanical Garden gave our last spiel till August. We had over a hundred kids in talking about what we do and trying their little hands at hooking. The park kicks us out for two months to use the Heritage farmhouse for summer camp programs. I guess it’s a good enough reason. In the meantime, in addition to our guild meetings, we’re meeting at members’ homes because we refuse to give up that whole social thing.

Finally had the chance to do all the planting and potting that I’d been putting off till after Fiesta. Now I’m just waiting for my first crop of basil. I make A LOT of pesto to freeze for winter, but there’s nothing that says summer’s arrived like the aroma of basil.
Summertime and the living is easy. If you have a floatie. And a big rubber duckie.

And the pool’s up! I’ve even had a chance to chill in it on my floatie. Which pretty much takes up most of the pool when you add in my bulk-ritude. It is only 10 feet in diameter. But it works, especially for the hot flashes.

Then there were visits from family members back east. And this and that. You know, the usual life “stuff.” You remember John Lennon saying how life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. (Actually, any number of people may have said that. You can read all about that here.) Actually, I’m already planning another week off from the blog in a few weeks when Tom and I and the dog motor up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for some R&R (read: hiking and hanging on the patio with a beverage or three and a book or five).

What are your plans this summer? Do they involve hooking or other kinds of fun? Some form of escape? Travel? Getting together with friends? Share what you’re up to and make me jealous!

Sharing the gospel of hooking with a winning rug. — Congratulations, Melinda Lamott on receiving the Peoples’ Choice Award for rug hooking at Fiesta 2017!

April 9, 2017

The gospel of rug hooking successfully shared

EVFAC is located in Espanola, New Mexico, about a half-hour north of Santa Fe on the way to Taos.

My two-part class at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center (EVFAC) finished up yesterday, and yes, peeps, we have welcomed at least one new acolyte to the fold. Woohoo! Felicity, who happens to also hail from Albuquerque, was already a fiberista first class: she knits, sews, weaves, dyes, and I don’t know what else. Except for rug hooking. She’s added that to her repertoire now. I suspect she’ll do some cool stuff with it all.

After an incredible drive up north that reminded me of why I moved to New Mexico – big, blue sky; purple mountains majesty; snow-covered peaks even in April… – I was unpacking and found that my other student had texted that she couldn’t make the class. (Fortunately, she lives near me too, so, hopefully, we can do a quick wrap-up here in ABQ.) When Felicity wasn’t there by 10:20, we got worried and called her. “Sorry! Be there soon!” She’d gotten caught in some traffic. Whoo, I thought wiping the sweat away, I’d been worried I’d turned two people off the craft.

Rug hooking student, accepts the gospel of rug hooking. — Felicity has become a student of the gospel of rug hooking. Woohoo!

Imagine my concern then when Felicity informed me that she hadn’t finished hooking her t-shirt mat, In fact, she’d not worked on it at all! Damn, what the hell had I done or said last week? But wait! I had it all wrong. She pulls out her monks’ cloth and tells me that she started a new rug! (I’d given them enough to do just that but figured it would happen after the first one.) She has all kinds of wool yarn sitting

Felicity said she’d send me pics when she finishes her project. But I really can’t wait to see what she does with rug hooking, how she integrates it into her other artistic endeavors.

around her house and decided she wanted to try hooking that! So, there she was trying different directions and textures. I though that it was very inspired of her to go all rogue like that. Sure, she couldn’t go through the finishing process, but I had a few small rugs on me that needed to be finished up; we used them as demos. Felicity’s clearly a quick study, so she’ll get hers done up, no prob. Even better, she was able to score a Puritan frame for just $70. It had been sitting around the store for months and was in great condition.

Purtaon rug hooking frame — Pic of a Puritan frame. (Sorry, no longer available from iloverughooking.com).

Because there’d been some issues getting the class online for sign-up, I was lucky to get two students, the minimum needed for a class to run. The good thing is that where our tiny class was located required folks to walk by us and naturally stop to check out what we were up to. Several women mentioned being interested. “Would they be running the class again?” It’s up to them to ~~bug~~ request that EVFAC do just that. I’m up for it. And since I joined the Center as a member (which amongst other things lets you sell in the shop and outside sales they sponsor plus provides discounts for classes and items for sale), I’ll be stopping by any time I’m up in that area. And there’s a wicked sounding, one-day photography class with my name on it.

Photo of yarn. — EVFAC is filled with all things fiber. You certainly can’t get out without buying something. (Read: good stuff and reasonable prices.) Classrooms galore. During our class yesterday, there were workshops going on in felting and quilting. A new weaver was trying to warp a loom, and spinners were hanging around the couches…spinning. What else?

EVFAC’s an hour and a half ride for me, but worth it. Do you have a fiber “facility” that’s not all that near to your home, but that inspires you to drive? Extol its virtues here.

And to those celebrating this week, Happy Easter and Passover! Tom, Tynan, and I will be taking some time off. It’s a good time to put away the social media for a bit and enjoy what we have.

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 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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January 4, 2017

Planning for the hooking New Year

Happy New Year and welcome to 2017! Yes, my tree is still up. Tomorrow begins the de-Christmas-ification here at High on Hooking.

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

Photo of book by Deanne Fitzpatrick: Simply Modern. — Simply Modern by Deanne Fitzpatrick. If you don’t have this book yet, get it!

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?

Traditional rug hooking pattern being hooked in t-shirts. — The start of my new/old rug being hooked in t-shirts. Anyone have an idea who might have created the pattern?

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…

Rug Hooking dog in the New Year. — An updated “Tynan” with a second eye. though it undoubtedly still needs some tweaking.

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.

Crochet stitches in the New Year. — I’m crocheting in Bernat Blanket Yarn; it’s so cozy-comfy!

That’s my story for now and I’m sticking to it. What’s making you high on hooking this New Year?