Tag: Hook Rugs: Save the Planet

February 28, 2022

Workshop, workshop, workshop! And more…

We’re in workshop heaven here at High on Hooking. Let me explain.

Boucherouite inspired hooked rug — Your Boucherouite will be your own pattern. It can be small just to try it all out in the workshop or as large as you’d like. (Original design.)

MARCH 12: BUILD A BABY BOUCHEROUITE

Because of interest during Workshop Week 4, we added another session for those who couldn’t make it in January. (The class was getting a little large too.) If you’re interested and available on Saturday, March 12, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, give me a yell. We’re at six right now, so there’s a little more room. For info about the class, see HERE. (Also, watch for coming announcements regarding Workshop Weeks 5 and 6!)

APRIL 15: INTRODUCTION TO PUNCH NEEDLE RUG HOOKING

Albuquerque’s BIG, BIENNIAL FIBER ARTS FIESTA, postponed from last year, will be open for business Thursday – Saturday, April 14-15. There’s a superb line-up of classes including my own punch needle workshop on Friday at 10:00 a.m. It is in person, and you’ll need to be vaccinated, but masks will be optional at this point. Yay! You can contact me here or see WORKSHOPS LISTING.

JUNE 19-25: HOOK RUGS, SAVE THE PLANET

This is a week-long residency workshop in Sewanee, Tennessee, as part of the SHAKERAG WORKSHOPS. We’ll be doing

Rug hooked with reclaimed textiles (old tshirts and bedsheets). — Table runner/wall hanging hooked with recycled textiles (old tshirts and bedsheets). (Original design.)

both rug hooking and punch needle rug hooking. In addition, though we’ll still have wool to work with, we’ll strive to look beyond the wool to materials that otherwise might end up in landfills. You know, old textiles you probably have in your house this very moment: ripped t-shirts, stained tablecloths, clothing and scarves that have seen better days… If you’re looking to pair vacation and fiber art therapy, this one’s for you. More workshop information can be found HERE and below.

Shakerag Workshops is a group of arts classes for adults held in June each year on the St. Andrew’s-Sewanee campus, in Sewanee, Tennessee. Instructors from around the world offer classes in a variety of media – knitting, basketry, book arts, clay, digital arts, felting, fiber, mixed media, jewelry, wood working, sculpture, and painting. Most participants, faculty, and staff stay on the campus, eating and working together for the week. After classes, participants enjoy hiking on the campus trails, swimming in the stream-fed mountain lake, and relaxing in yoga classes. Meals feature locally grown and organic foods served in historic Robinson Dining Hall. In the evenings, faculty members show slides and talk about their work. The studios are open throughout the night. The week culminates with a Tennessee meal on Friday evening for faculty and participants.
-from Shakerag’s website

As you can see, we’re busy these days here in the New Mexican desert. Covid’s waning, and folks are slowly getting back into the swing of things. More good news came in the mail yesterday in the form of Rug Hooking Magazine. If you recall that, during 2020, I spent much time on a yearlong project, the RIBBON RUG JOURNAL. If you turn to page 50 in RHM, you can read all about it! I also urge you to peruse Pretext Studio Rug Hooking’s Nadine Flagel‘s article on page 40. We share attitudes about the growing textile waste crisis. Her website slogan is Making Art out of Making Do: Reclaimed Text & Textiles. “Boucherouite” is a Moroccan-Arabic word for “torn” or “reused clothing.”

Dog with hooked rug — The High on Hooking Dogs, Bowyn and Tynan, bring you WOOLLEY MAT HORSE by Woolley Fox.

Bowyn actually calmed down enough to be in this week’s WHAT’S ON THE FRAME. This is a pattern I inherited when a member of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild passed away a few years ago. As a guild, we’ll be highlighting Pat’s rugs in a special exhibit at Fiber Arts Fiesta in April. The pattern, as I received it, was not identified.

You might remember, I hooked it a couple years back after receiving it. Because it sold, I needed to make another for the exhibit. Patti on Instagram was able to identify the pattern this week; she hooked it herself awhile back. LOL It’s from Woolley Fox and is called Woolley Mat Horse. As before, I’m hooking it with old t-shirts. Because we believed it to be Pat’s design, not a purchased pattern (also based on an antique rugs by Magdalena Briner Eby), I won’t hook the design again after I finish this iteration.

LASTLY, PLEASE KEEP THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE IN YOUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS. IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO HELP OUT IN A SMALL WAY, SEE THIS DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ON ETSY, BY A UKRAINIAN ARTIST. (THERE ARE OTHER ARTISTS AND PRODUCTS AVAILABLE; JUST USE THE SHOP LOCATION FILTER UNDER SEARCH.) IT PUTS $5 IN HER POCKET, AND GOD KNOWS SHE AND ALL OF UKRAINE NEED IT.

December 10, 2021

Shakerag Workshops in June!

Finally I can let the world know that I’m teaching at the Shakerag Workshops in Sewanee, Tennessee in 2022. They asked me about it awhile ago, but between our schedules and some electronic issues, there was a bit of a delay on the website. I’m happy to say that my class listing is now up and complete. You can find info about it HERE. I have to admit that there are some other very inviting art classes during the two week-long sessions. Take a look. And it all kicks off with a four-day knitting retreat with the folks from Modern Daily Knitting. (While I get their newsletters, I’m a crocheter; I’ve never been able to grasp the whole purl thing. A girl has to know her limits, and this girl is sticking with hooks.)

About Shakerag Workshops
Shakerag Workshops is an adult studio art workshop program. For 2022 we will begin with a Knitting Getaway retreat in Session I (June 8-11) and then move to week-long classes offered in various media in Sessions II and III (June 12-18 and June 19-25). Participants may register for one or more sessions. Classes in Sessions II and III meet from 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00 daily. Participants and faculty members often work together in the studios during late afternoons and evenings, occasionally taking time away from their artistic endeavors for sitting and talking, hiking, practicing yoga, or swimming in our mountain lake.
–from the Shakerag website

Traveling to teach in Tennessee, specifically in Sewanee, is exciting for a couple of reasons. First it’s the biggest “stage” that I’ll have taught on, certainly in person. I’m honored to have been asked. Second, there’s a LOT of synchronicity going on. Other than the song learned by watching Looney Tunes long ago that starts “Way down upon the Sewanee River far, far away…,” I really knew nothing about Sewanee or even that it’s a town! Then, a number of years ago, a good friend from college and her husband were both hired to teach at Sewanee: The University of the South. Unfortunately, Kelly and I haven’t seen each other since they moved from Boston. Then I moved from Massachusetts to Albuquerque. Not a lot of geographical overlap between the two. LOL But a few years after Tom and I arrived here, I made an online connection with a hooker from Tennessee, Cass Gannaway. Her son lives here; she even met some of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild while some of us were demonstrating at the BioPark. Cass is pretty much a guild member at this point and has taken classes with us online during Covid. We hope to see her for real soon. Did I mention that she happens to be Kel’s neighbor? Oh, and that the director of Shakerag is also friends with Kelly and her husband.

It gets better. Cass and some of her Tennessee hookers have taken my and other In the Studio Workshop Week classes during the past year and a half. And now, thanks to all these convoluted relationships, Cass’s son-in-law, Charlie Dalton – you might know him as The Hooking Colonel on Instagram – is teaching a second time with In the Studio come February! (I actually had the pleasure of meeting Charlie last year during the holidays when he was visiting his Albuquerque in laws.) And that, my friends, is what SYNCHRONICITY is all about. This New Mexico-Sewanee connection was meant to be.

HOOK RUGS: SAVE THE PLANET, June 19-25, will provide instruction on hooking and punching. It’s perfect for beginners and those familiar with the art forms. But we won’t be focusing on wool (not that there won’t be wool), rather we’ll look at how we can use materials that are often discarded and fill up our landfills. We’ll do our own little part to slow that process. See the links above or email me at if you’re interested in joining us.

REMINDER:
In the Studio (Online)’s Workshop Week 3 (WW3) was a resounding success in October. January 30 – February 6 will find us in WW4. Classes are filling rapidly. See the workshops and other information by following the link above. I’ll be offering last winter’s popular Baby Boucherouite class. Follow In the Studio’s Instagram as each of the nine teachers take over for a day during the next few weeks. Our Facebook page also provides plenty of fiberific findings.

Dog on hooked rug in front of holiday decorations — Tynan brings you what might be the last WHAT’S ON THE FRAME of 2021. Bowyn wanted to be there but couldn’t control his wild and crazy nature. The ANGEL OF 2022 should be finished next week. Tynan wishes that your holidays are filled with too many treats to count. Oh, wait! That’s what he wishes for himself.

Lastly, I hope that everyone’s taking the time to enjoy the holidays. Certainly, we’ll all have more friends and family with us than we could last year. Tom and I will actually have folks here to see our Christmas tree for the first time in years. The kid and my brother both manage to arrive on or before Christmas Eve.

I’m hoping to slow down in the next week or so to write cards and bake. And I’m almost done with my annual angel project; the Angel of 2022 will be finished shortly. It’s time to start planning the project that will take me into the New Year. What about you? Working on anything special these last days of the 2021?