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New season, new rugs, new scenery!

It’s a new season. Finally! Fall officially started Tuesday when the autumnal equinox happened. For those of us who can’t wait to give 2020 the boot, it couldn’t have come sooner.

Tynan in Bosque/woods in the new season.
A fall picture of Tynan running in the Bosque in a fall past. Sadly, he’s a little slower these days, but he enjoys his sniffing time there.

Fall is like the New Year to me; it’s a time of new beginnings. Sadly this year, that also necessitates endings. Right now I’m thinking about Friday’s death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  I like to think that she’ll have even more influence up there in heaven than what she had here on earth which is and was FREAKING AWESOME. Women, teach your daughters well. I was reading an article today about how much more house- and child-work women have to do at home during this time of the Coronacootie. It’s often been at the expense of their jobs and careers. If, like me, you’re not out in the world-at-large working, perhaps you can offer a helping hand to a working mom you know. She shouldn’t have to lose her career footing just because she can multitask better than a man, just because kids are have to be on her mind more than her partner’s.

Angel Ruth, pray for us!

So, new season, new scenery. Tom and I are finally getting out of Dodge! Our 2020 vacation plans have dwindled throughout the spring and summer from a driving trip to Oregon (we were calling it the pinot noir tour, alas) to a wedding in Rhode Island (no to planes and too many motels on the road) to northern Colorado (couldn’t find a place to rent) to farther south in New Mexico (too expensive to rent a house and the town was filled with Texans escaping germs and heat) to…thankfully…kind of in the middle of nowhere northern New Mexico. (But there is internet access, speed unknown.)

So, we’ll be off soon to visit mountains other than our own Sandias here in Albuquerque. Somewhere cooler! The plan is to veg: read, hike a little, walk, hook, read, write, read.

Did I mention reading? I have a novel written by a good friend (see below)* queued up, a backlog of New Yorkers, and String Felt Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art (by Elissa Auther) as recommended reading by Susan Feller of ArtWools.

Book and magazines
Some of my reading materials for vacation. Kerry’s novel Heat Stroke is on my tablet.

I’m in the midst of sewing rug tape onto a new rug that will entertain me up there. It’s Boucherouite-esque. All recycled t-shirt. Colorful – much like the new season – but not taxing to hook. Like you want on vacation.

Below Tynan brings you part of the rug currently on the frame, though the hooking will be done tonight. You can only see a portion of it now because it’s a commission due next month. It’s hooked almost completely in wool strips and yarn. I know, I know, that doesn’t happen too often in this house. And that will continue as I found out that my wool dust allergy is worse, now extending to some loose, bulky yarns. Bummer, but I won’t give them up completely. Love them too much.

A reminder! My Alt Fibers Hook-In is taking place Wednesday, October 14, at 7:00 PM Eastern. For those in the Mountain time zone like me, that’s 5:00, cocktail time. Perfect! You can learn more about the event in the link above, but it’s a time for:

  • sharing experiences hooking with materials other than wool;
  • experimenting;

    Dog on hooked rug
    Tynan presents “Whats on the frame” today.
  • drinking cocktails;
  • chatting as if we were in a room together (the cocktails will help with that);
  • and whatever other topics and questions we come up with.

Please know that this is a hook-in, NOT a class. And wool, you’re welcome to come. I know that you play nice with other fibers in my rugs. Email me at Laura@highonhooking.com if you’re interested. (Know that may take awhile for me to get back to you.)

 

I pray to God that you manage(d) to get away from your everyday view for at least a little while. It’s good to get out. I’m hoping to avoid the news as much as possible and forget…what I’ll have to come home to. At least my mind and my soul will be rested.

Angel Ruth, pray for us in this new season!

*Heat Stroke is by Kerry Radloff

 

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From incredible scenery to…the couch

 

Unfortunately,  International Rug Hooking Day finds me sitting alone on my couch. I’d much rather be out at Albuquerque’s BioPark, the Botanic Garden specifically, doing demos and spreading the the rug hooking gospel with the Adobe Wool Arts Guild. That wasn’t in the cards; instead I’ve had the privilege of falling asleep to old movies like “Camelot.” There was a crapload of overacting in that one. And I’m pecking this out one-fingered on my tablet. I make no promises regarding quality.

Hey, the reality is that I wasn’t ready with a post anyway. Sunday morning Tom, Tynan, and I had to make a sudden trip up to the kid in Durango. That’s in southwestern Colorado if you’re new here. She slid on some ice going to work and put her minivan into a tree. Yes, she’s fine, but not the van. After pondering on it a few minutes, Tom and I decided to go on up and get her a car so she could stay there and keep her job. We figured it was best for all involved. Nothing good would’ve come from her returning to New Mexico without a ride or a job. Okay, and I just got that studio/guest room set up. Freedom is expensive.

Now while the trip in no way helped my then burgeoning cold, it did remind Tom and me why we moved to New Mexico. I love Durango in summer and fall, but in an almost-winter storm, it’s cold!!! Still charming, but cold! And the driving pretty hairy. They don’t salt the roads, and their use of sand is meager at best. But the mountain scenery around it is incredible. And the sights driving back through New Mexico aren’t too shabby either. I figured I’d share a few. Enjoy while I go cough up a lung. We’ll talk again next week. (Hopefully.)

 

The view on the road between Cortez and Durango in Colorado. The mountains are the San Juans. Sorry about the focus issues. Jumping out of the driver’s seat without a lot of breakdown lane to use a cell phone camera was nerve-wracking and cold. At that point Tom was ahead driving the kid and her new old car back to Durango.

 

Pretty, isn’t it?
Pretty, but cold.
Snow, snow everywhere..
It’s been a while since I’ve driven through snow squalls.
Fortunately, the snow evaporated as we drove southward. (Well, Tom drove and I crocheted.)

 

And the shadows lengthened.

 

It looked as if we were approaching the start of another world…

 

Tynan the Welsh Springer spaniel enjoying the mountain scenery
And as always, the trusty passenger, Tynan. At this point he was wondering why we kept stopping and I kept getting out of the car. Pictures don’t take themselves, dude.
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