punch hooking Archives – HIGH ON HOOKING

Punch Needle Rug Hooking Workshop
Mountain and Valley Wool Festival
October, 2023

Logo for the Mountain and Valley Wool Festival

If you’ve had a yen to experience Santa Fe and all she has to offer – especially in regard to wool and fiber arts – then plan on being here the first week of October when New Mexico is at her most beautiful. And if you’ve been wanting or maybe putting off learning punch needle rug hooking, then start making your arrangements now!

High on Hooking will be offering a PUNCH NEEDLE RUG HOOKING WORKSHOP in conjunction with the festival, which, BTW, is the new incarnation of the Taos Wool Festival. Sadly, the festival outgrew its digs in Taos, but that is a HUGE PLUS for those of us south of Taos. Plus parking and just getting to the fairgrounds are soooo much easier.

Things going on at the festival:

An Outstanding regional wool market featuring Juried Artists, Crafters and Vendors offering their wool, fiber, yarns,fiber arts-related tools and equipment as well as finished items and other artistic, fiber creations.
Fiber Critter Corner that includes live sheep, alpacas, goats, angora rabbits, and more.
Demonstrations of spinning, dyeing, shearing sheep and many other fiber related skills.
Competitions for handspun yarn, hand dyeing, fleeces (wool and alpaca) and finished garments and home accessories.
Silent Auction, featuring many unique donated items.
Hands-On Activities for kids of all ages.
Workshops before the festival weekend.
Food vendors offering a variety of beverages, snacks and lunch items.
With the added ambience of live music, the festival is unique and fun for the whole family.

The workshop schedule isn’t out yet, but keep an eye out on the MAVWA site HERE. And feel free to contact me directly about the punch needle rug hooking class. In the meantime, enjoy your summer!

Tynan on hooked rug. — Tynan presents this week’s “What’s on the frame.” This would be a teaser for **Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Fiesta** (May 30 and 31, June 1). The **Adobe Wool Arts Guild** will have a special exhibit, “9 on 9,” comprised of friendship rugs. Tynan has managed to sit on at least two of them thus far.

Change requires a new way of looking at old things. Looking at anything differently is good; it gets you out of your old head and makes you see with new eyes. Less “same old, same old.” And so High on Hooking has to do some changing. Nothing that drastic, just something to shake us up a little, get the juices flowing again.

Over the last year Instagram has proven to be a real mover and a shaker. Even more than Pinterest these days, I love to see the beautiful items that everyone’s making and showing on Instagram. And so few words are needed. The photographs alone drive traffic to an artist’s website and Etsy shop. Because of this development and because, frankly, I’m tired of coming up with scintillating topics week after week, I plan on reducing the number of blog posts here at High on Hooking. Don’t worry, I promised Tynan that he could still post now and again. And you know you can find him on our Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Thought you might like this close-up of the friendship rug’s background. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know how to hook wool strips. Guild member Cathy Kelly dyed it for me. (Okay, I was there doing some poking and prodding and dropping in some dye…)
Relatedly, it’s time to simplify some and pare down…the website itself. Again, change is good, and I’d like a new look. Also, I prefer to sell via my Etsy shop or directly. Directly as in, if you see something you like here on the website, just shoot me an email or a call. (No middlemen making money that way. 🙂 ) So, as I find time in the next couple of months (not an easy feat), the site will be changing. Because I’m doing it myself, we could also get lost in the Internet ether now and again. In that case, find me on the Facebook or Instagram pages. And know that the gallery page is currently hopelessly out of date!
If you follow my Instagram feed, maybe you noticed the new rug I’m working on. In between finishing “Big Boucherouite” and a couple of others. Maybe you looked closely and realized that it’s not actually hooked; rather it’s punched. Yep, I’m adding to the repertoire. But punching for me didn’t come out of nowhere. I used to do quite a bit of it, even spent four days with Amy Oxford one summer at the Fletcher Farm School for the Arts and Crafts before she moved into her own digs. And, like wool strips which I really don’t care to punch, you can punch t-shirt strips. I’ve done it. Haven’t tried bedsheets. Will have to think that one out. Not!
Why Amy Oxford’s had a run on her punch needles, besides Instagram that is. Because everyone loves how cool it looks from the back! BTW, this is being punched with wool yarns.

I think that’s enough change for one day, don’t you?

How are you mixing things up this spring? What change are you making?

HIGH ON HOOKING

Tag: punch hooking

Punch at the Mountain & Valley Wool Festival!