High on Hooking is excited to report that WHIMSY was selected to be in this year’s ART AT THE ABBEY exhibition “One Heart, One Mind.” The show starts tomorrow, Thursday, October 14.
Art at the Abbey invites you to experience our 6th Annual Art Exhibition, “ONE HEART, ONE MIND,” opening on Thursday, October 14th and closing on Friday, November 5th at Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey in Albuquerque’s South Valley. This exhibition is held in memory of Rev. Graham R. Golden, O. Praem. (January 8, 1986 – May 21, 2021) and will also serve to celebrate this 900th Anniversary Year of the Norbertine Order (founded December 25, 1121).
Be sure to check out the Digital/Performance Art during your visit, showing in the Library Seminar Room. If the video is not showing, you may find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9FDoBMJsJk. The full video running time is 16 minutes, 58 seconds. It will close with an excerpt of a homily by Fr. Graham Golden, O. Praem. from August 19, 2018.
For those who are not local or aware, Father Golden was killed when another vehicle hit his car in May, devastating the Albuquerque area community. While I never met him in person, an artist himself, he befriended me on Instagram, complimented my artwork, and asked me to submit to the Art in the Abbey show back in 2019.
If you can’t make it to Albuquerque and the show, the 2021 Exhibition Booklet can be seen HERE.
OPEN FOR VIEWING:
WHIMSY was hooked with old bed sheets and t-shirts on monk’s cloth. Beads complete her. She’s part of the #happyrugseries.
Thursday, October 14 | 6:00pm-8:30pm
Sunday, October 17 | 10:00am-12:00pm
Sunday, October 24 | 10:00am-12:00pm
Friday, November 5 | 6:00pm-8:30pm
(These dates/times may be subject to change)
LOCATION:
Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey
The Norbertine Library & The Church of Santa Maria de la Vid
5825 Coors Blvd. SW
Albuquerque, NM 87121
I hope that you can make it to the ART AT THE ABBY exhibit!
If you’re in need for a little more color, the boys bring you this week’s WHAT’S ON THE FRAME. It is pumpkin season, even here in the high desert of New Mexico. In fact, fall really blew in these past few days. I woke up to 32°F this morning! The boys love cold weather, so they’re very excited.
Do not mistake their intensity for enthusiasm regarding their High on Hooking Dog job. No, all they want is the dental treat. This is NOT a job well done. (The pumpkin was designed by friend and guild mate Darlene Nelson. It’s hooked using all kinds of things: old silk blouses and ties; t-shirts and bed sheets; and wool yarn and a few strips.)
Summer’s been flying by, and I was gone for part of July. But the work of summer, first mentioned back in June – that’s been ongoing. Enjoy the project porn.
ABUNDANCE, the latest of the #happyrugseries rugs. Mixed fibers, many recycled. (15″x48″)
#happyrugseries
I started the #happyrugseries back at the end of last year so that I could concentrate on something other than all the overwhelmingly DOWNER news that we were (and continue to be) subject to. These pieces have to have a certain joy to them, most of which can be seen in their riot of colors. In June I finished a large-ish happy rug ABUNDANCE. She was hooked using a variety of fibers, mostly what I had on hand, in an “automatic” or stream of consciousness style. And, yes, she has holes!
New Mexico Cushion
In late June, Ruth and I finished New Mexico’s contribution to the USA50 project. You can find more about that HERE. It was a relief to get it into the mail and up to Canada. I could finally work on my own projects and start adding to the Etsy shop.
New Mexico’s contribution to the USA50 project. Design by Patricia Lowden. Hooed by Laura Salamy. All put together by Ruth Simpson. Thank you, ladies!
Retreat Week
You might remember that I claimed the last week in June for my personal retreat week after a class I was to teach at had to be postponed. I had a lot on tap for that week.
Write an article on 2020’s Ribbon Rug Journal. Check! It’s written, but I need to take some photographs and submit it. At least the words are done!
Yarn destined for punching.
DYEING! I know, you don’t hear much about dyeing from me, especially given that I hook with so many old bed sheets and t-shirts which come in all sorts of vivid colors. Nonetheless, I’ve been planning to dye some wool yarn for quite a while. I’ll use the bulk of it to punch with or sell/share with punch needle rug hooking students when I can host an in-person class. Had a great time doing it and will definitely do some more.
My first Kawandi project. Quilt scraps and recycled linens.
Kawandi Quilting – It’s a form of kantha-like quilting. While I have plenty of friends who are quilters, I am not. At all. Mostly, I don’t like how much room it takes and that you need a machine. But I’ve always loved kantha quilts and stitching by hand is more to my liking. After doing some research online about what I might actually be able to make, I was happy to find these Indian quilts which are pieced together using scraps of fabrics. Another form of recycling – yay! I had plenty of quilt scraps from Ruth; plus there are all kinds of old sheets in my “stable” that I can hook with. But I wasn’t done: I have a lot of old cloth napkins that have seen better days. Cut everything up and…I had a quilt. Sure I made some errors, but I was pretty happy with it in the end.
VOYAGE PLASTIQUE was hooked using plastic bags that might have otherwise made their way to the ocean.
#ECOHOOKING – Given all the wildfires, the melting tundras, violent storms, and ocean pollution, I decided to do my own little part and hook a piece with plastic bags that otherwise might have ended up caught in a tree. Having already hooked a larger such piece, I’d kept the most colorful bags I didn’t used. Despite the heavy environmental theme, I was hoping she might make some folks smile given her sunny disposition. It worked! Tom mailed VOYAGE PLASTIQUE off to her forever home in New Hampshire just this morning.
July travels
Last month Tom, Bowyn, and I saddled up the CR-V for a 2200-mile trip or so back East to see friends and family. (There were another 2200 miles to drive back, of course.) Tynan got a staycation with Ruth. Sitting in a car for several days does call for some handwork, and I was prepared.
Personal best crocheting project – I prefer not to hook in the car, but I will crochet. Before we left, I decided on a project that was NOT a shawl, my usual travel go-to. Nope, I searched and searched online for something.
Finished! “Easy crochet top down” by Modessa.
Some tops looked interesting, but I couldn’t deal with having to crochet up two identical halves. (Mostly because I doubt my ability to do that, especially on a distracting trip). I finally came upon the cool EASY (emphasis on easy) CROCHET TOP DOWN. Reading it, the syntax and directions are off a bit as the chick who created the pattern isn’t a native English speaker. If you choose to crochet the pattern, I’d advise that you watch the video. I did. Many times. Oh, and there’s not a lot of counting in this piece. A big bonus. BEST: I finished the top last week, and it even fits me. I’ll block it this week then post me wearing it on Instagram.
New rug – While I don’t hook in the car, if I’ve driven to my destination, I will hook when I get there. Usually more than I did on this particular journey. But before I left, I drew up a new pattern, sewed on my tape, and gathered up and stripped some old t-shirts. I find that hooking with t-shirts works best when I’m on the go. That wool allergy isn’t going anywhere, and bed sheets shed thread like the dickens.
Bowyn sharing the floor with the “travel” rug. He’s happy to be out of the car.
What’s on my plate at the moment
Since I like to crochet all patterns twice so that I know I’m proficient, that I didn’t just get lucky, I’m planning to do up the top in another color. It helped that JoAnn’s has a summer yarn clearance going on. (I spent a lovely hour there yesterday picking up some bamboo and hemp yarns. I hope to do a bag with the latter. All those colorful yarns; I couldn’t help myself.)
And because I have two sales coming up very soon, I decided to put the travel rug away and do a few small wall hangings. Sunflowers! I love sunflowers and try to hook at least one each year. Plus, one of the sales is the Sunflower Festival down in Mountainair, a mountain town south of Albuquerque.
Bowyn takes this chance to have a treat and bring you the sunflowers in this week’s WHAT’S ON THE FRAME.
All in all I’ve been pretty productive this summer. And there are still a few weeks left! Perhaps it’s a byproduct of the pandemic; I realize that I’ve become a little less social. I like having more time to myself to create, to concentrate on projects that I deem worthwhile, whether they’re for my shop or my own growth. The challenge will be how to keep at least some of that time for myself once the Delta variant disappears and we can move back out into the world for real.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the project porn. How has Covid affected your art practice?
Summer arrived just this week along with the kind of “work” that seems tailor made for her. Ah, but what is the work of summer?
Photo by ghostranch.org.
By rights – thinking back to when we were kids having escaped school for two months – there should be less work in summer. For High on Hooking, that will indeed be the case in some respect. Unfortunately, Ghost Ranch (see this post) postponed our workshop there till the spring. Boo to you, Covid! I was really looking forward to it, but there is a silver lining. It’s been SIZZLING here in New Mexico for a few weeks. Last week we hit 108 degrees here on the West Side of Albuquerque! Hiking will be better in the spring. I’ll post more information as we get closer to the workshop. In the meantime, think of how fabulous it will be to do fiber art in Georgia O’Keeffe‘s special milieu, her querencia.
The place where one’s strength is drawn from; where one feels at home; the place where you are your most authentic self.
There have been a few places in my life when I’ve felt what the Spanish call querencia. In fact, it’s why I wanted to move to the Southwest. It’s definitely something I understand about O’Keeffe.
Given the change of plans, I find that I have more time on my hands to do my own work. Frankly, this calls for some serious rejoicing as this year I’ve been working A LOT on things that I’ve HAD TO DO. I haven’t even put many new items into the Etsy shop! Sure, I chose to teach and to make the New Mexico cushion for the USA50 project. The latter took longer than anticipated, working with all wool yarn. Beautiful, but itchy wool yarn after a while. Friend Ruth has the piece at the moment as she’s converting it from the hooking to the actual cushion. Pics in the next post; I promise. It’s beautiful, and even better, it has a good story.
To me the work of summer is “lighter” than that that I think to do come October and as winter starts to blow in. Fortunately, that coincides well with the “happy rug series” (#happyrugseries) I informally started earlier in the year to combat the “heaviness” of Covid and the entire year of 2020. Sadly, between gun violence and the continued stupidity of US politics, 2021 hasn’t been much happier. BUT, given our vaccination rates here in New Mexico, life is looking much more “normal” than it did a year ago. WOOHOO!
Current projects…
ABUNDANCE, part of the #happyrugseries.
Still finishing up ABUNDANCE, the latest and largest so far in the #happyrugseries. I’ve hit a little snag, as she’s hooked with all kinds of fibers that aren’t the easiest to put a needle and thread into. Worse, there are holes built into her, so a lot of perimeter work to do. Worst, Bowyn was going crazy for rabbit scents on a walk last night so I let him run in the park. Unfortunately, my right ring finger got caught in the leash as he took off. Ouch! I won’t be wearing any rings on that finger for awhile. Fortunately, if I take the little brace off, I can still hook.
Friday, as soon as I finished hooking the NM cushion, I drew up a small, geomtric-ish pattern so that I’d have something to work on that evening while Tom ran a summertime, “Arnold” action movie for us to watch on the TV. Given all the environmental issues we’re facing these days – drought, climate change, wildfires, plastic in the ocean – I decided to hook the piece with old plastic bags. Having already hooked a larger such piece, I’d kept the most colorful bags I had. Despite the heavy environmental theme, I’m hoping the piece will still make me – and others – smile. And just maybe curb our use of plastic bags some.
I’m also getting ready to tackle some new-to-me techniques, that is, NOT rug hooking! I’ll let you know how that goes, but right now I aim to explore a bit on my own. Then there’s an article or two that need writing. While the work might be lighter in summer, there’s no lack of it!
July also brings a road trip back East. Various folks were supposed to come visit here last fall, but…you guessed it…stupid Covid. So, having not seen family in a couple of years, it’s time. Bring on the seafood! This time around, Bowyn will man the Instagram account. Tynan, 13, will stay home and keep the hearth fires warm.
Tynan let Bowyn handle WHAT’S ON THE FRAME today. (Nonetheless, he demanded a treat as a finder’s fee.) No name yet, but it’s being hooked with plastic bags that WILL NEVER SEE THE OCEAN!
What’s your work this summer? Perhaps it’s to concentrate on family and friends, the return to life with others? YES! Enjoy.
