Sometimes the Pattern Chooses You

I haven't bought too many rug hooking patterns in my 20+ years of hooking. I either design my own, or work from photographs. But every once and a while I choose the pattern, for a number of reasons; to support the designer, or because I think it will be a good learning curve, or something that I wouldn't design on my own. 

But sometimes a pattern chooses you - or at least that is what it feels like. Recently it happened to me. 

My local rug hooking group had our second annual "Estate and Stash Buster Sale", a fundraiser we do for our local Food Share. As people give up their hooking, for whatever reason, the supplies are snatched up by other eager rug hookers. And often there are some older patterns that someone started and couldn't finish - or hadn't been started at all.

One of the "not started at all" patterns kept whispering to me during the sale. I looked at it, walked away, and then returned for another look.

It's a very old pattern, and quite large. Kind of looks like a tapestry. I saw three people on horseback, riding through a meadow of flowers and was smitten. Not for me, but for my grand daughter. Was it a coincidence that we had just seen Disney's live-action Snow White a few days before? I think perhaps.  After all, the pattern featured a King, Queen and Princess, or so I believed. I was now transfixed.

But when I took a closer look, and actually saw the name of the pattern "Star of the East", I realized that this was in fact the three wise men - especially once I saw the star. And why did the Queen have a beard. When I realized this, I had a good chuckle.

However, who says it cannot be a King, Queen and Princess riding through a meadow of flowers. And the star can just become a sun, or clouds or something else that suits its new "iteration". I may just trace and copy some of the flowers, which I think is more fairy tale like.

I have started with the King, who is in the centre. The Princess will be to the left of him, and the Queen will be to his right (without a beard). And they will all live "happily ever after".

This will definitely be a labour of love. The image is faint on the surprisingly supple backing. And I have decided to punch the outlines and then fill in with yarn. Hoping to dedicate a few hours a week, and that it may be done by Christmas. My grand daughter certainly didn't ask me to do this, and hasn't seen it. But I hope it will keep her believing in fairy tales for many years to come. 

It makes me smile when I sit with it, that I projected my vision onto this rug. But I definitely think it called to me, because nobody else had chosen it in all these years. 

I will try to post updates as I move along. 

Days of the Week Lists

Traditionally, certain "women's chores" were assigned a day of the week. I don't think my mother ever did that, but my 100-year old mother-in-law still does. I think that is how she has lived to be 100. Now, a few of those things are "off" her list, but I think she has replaced baking and marketing (grocery shopping, which I do for her now), with more cleaning. 

Here is a list of the "traditional" chores.

• Monday - Washing
• Tuesday - Ironing
• Wednesday - Mending
• Thursday - Marketing
• Friday - Baking
• Saturday - Cleaning
• Sunday - Day of Rest

When looking around online, I found lots visuals depicting this "list" and lots of embroidery depicting these chores. Here is one, with a salute to the blogger who featured it. (I think I love "martini' day.)

I certainly never ascribed to this list, probably because I always worked outside the home, and chores were done when you could "get to them".  And, as a craft and fibre person, they were never a priority OR the rhythm of my days.

Ironically, I have come to the point in my "making" where I have so many things on the go, that I am seriously considering making Days of the Week lists for both my rug hooking and my knitting/sewing.

Maybe that will keep me on track for everything. lol. Here is a sneak peek at what that might look like.

Monday - Hook on Crows pattern - it is small, and easily portable to my Kawartha Rug Hooking group. This was designed by Wendo Van Essen, and I bought it from her at the Annual in London in 2019. She is a very talented fibre artist and can do anything, including design great patterns. Here's a link to her blog https://wendovanessen.blogspot.com/

Tuesday - Kitchen Sink pattern - which is the most fun I have had in a long time. This was finished so quickly, and ate a lot of "worms". This will be a pillow, but I think I will go bigger and make one that will actually go in the "kitchen". 

Wednesday - two name signs, for a newborn boy and his older sister - These have a hard stop date, which is the long weekend, so they are pushing all the others aside.  (Gifted these, and they were a hit - totally forgot to take pics of them finished.) And this draft post has been sitting for a long time. 

Thursday - Evvie's rug (sometimes a rug chooses you, not the other way around) - a whole other story for this one. Just a little progress to share, but will post the story of this rug another time.

Friday - my personal political statement rug - design only at this stage - for the Artistic Coalition group led by Maggie Bathory in the US. She has invited fibre artists to express their opinions: outrage, sadness, anger or whatever about the state of the world these days. Hopefully, I will get this on backing on one of the "Days of the week" next week. 

Weekends - not assigned but can work on any project except for Crows, which is definitely Monday.

Oh, by the way, I still manage to do everything in the traditional list, except Baking and Resting. I just don't assign days to those. I squeeze them in whenever. They aren't nearly as important to me as the fibre projects. 

Pssst. I am not sure this list will stick, but it might help juggle everything. And I also could have days of the week for my WIP knitting projects. And another for my sewing stuff. Will share that in a future post. 

Two Challenging Knits in a Row

 If you are a knitter, you know that not all patterns deliver the same experience.

After more than 60 years of knitting, I thought I had seen it all. Colour work, lace, duplicate stitch, complex cables - I have tried them all. Or so I thought.

I have noticed in the past few years, that there are many "architectural" knits. Complex, beautiful, but a little too dimensional for my knitting acumen. Until this beauty came along.

"Oblique" is a lovely sweater, with a very "unique" construction. Here is a link to the pattern and you can see how strong the lines are in the designer's two colour version. You knit the body and then you create the bib-like front (and back) to the neckline and then you pick up all the stitches for the sleeves. It is an incredibly clever way to create this sweater. 

It was only when I saw Tanis Fiber Art's version that I was truly smitten. I loved the playful colour palette she chose, and knew I had to make one very similar to hers. I chose a "kermit the frog green" instead of her rusty gold, and I had to move a couple of other colours around. I ordered the yarn from her, and it is lovely.  It is Grassland Sport and has some very fun colours

Here is a picture of my version, apologies for the horrid selfie. (This picture does demonstrate how overly-large it is, with the sleeves much looser on my arms than on Tanis' version.) I actually am pretty happy with it, especially about how great it will look with my equally-as-green runners.

I have a feeling I could have done a size smaller, but I am happy to have it loose and flowy, so that it is a good transitional sweater for spring and even cool summer days/nights. Plus room for a long-sleeved tee underneath for the colder months.

Now on to the second project, which is equally as "unusual" in its construction. It is actually a sock pattern, for which I have only knit one so far. The pattern is called "Over Easy Socks." A long-time friend who knits introduced me to the pattern the last time I saw her, and I book marked it since it is the perfect pattern for odd amounts of sock yarn. And look how delicious the combos are on the ravelry page.

I have to confess that, to me, the pattern was anything but easy, and I did a lot of frogging and re-knitting different parts. The toe and heel were both a puzzle to me. I am pretty sure that the second sock will be easier, once I become more familiar with the designer's "shadow stitch".

Not only did I keep getting lost in where I was, the shadow knitting involves "twin stitches" and "triplet stitches" - both called TS - and despite a very good visual tutorial, it was not second nature to me. Much tougher than German Short Rows. 

When I read the remarks on ravelry, it would appear that I am not the first person to struggle with this. A few others who are members of the "single sock" club, and some who just gave up and frogged it. But just as many, if not more, others LOVE it and have made multiple pairs. I have decided it comes down to whether you are a knitter who has a very big logic sphere in your brain. I apparently do not.

Here is my first sock. (I confess to thinking that amputation might be a better option to knitting the mate). When I reached out to the friend who showed me the pattern, she confessed that she too had struggled and her first sock would NEVER have a mate. It is currently hidden in a dresser drawer.

Perhaps we can put them together in an incredibly un-matching pair. This is mine.

And here is hers. 

I have not given up completely, as I am convinced that the second time around will be easier, and I have made notes on the pattern where there was no stitch count.  I will challenge myself at least one more time. 

Are you deadline oriented?

I have always been most productive when faced with a deadline. In my working life, everything had a deadline, so I was very productive.

That same trait rules my "making" life as well. If I have a hard stop for a project, it will get done. Birthdays, Christmas, baby gifts. All delivered on time. But give me an open timeline, and it will linger - and linger longer.

Lately, there have been lots of deadlines, and so far, I have met them all.

The OHCG Annual is this coming Saturday in Cobourg. A new model, with just one single day. The costs of the weekend affairs were just getting higher and higher, so this is a new test to see if it satisfies the love without blowing up the wallet.

The theme of this annual is Peace, Love, Rug & Roll, and it relies heavily on all our fondest memories of the 60s and 70s. Our icon for the annual is a Hippie Van, which became the star for our first ever hook-along. We hosted this event on Zoom, and we had a ton of folks signed up to attend. Everyone hooked the same pattern and the results, as you can imagine, are as individual as the makers.

Here's a link to a dedicated blog https://2025annual.blogspot.com/ where you can find lots of groovy images of the van and other "wardrobe suggestions" for the day.

This is how my version of the van turned out. Still debating on whether or not it should be a pillow, since it has button hubcaps and other scratchy stuff. 

And look in the background of this photo - that's right, a granny square vest that I made just for the occasion.  I had to relearn the granny square, but it was worth it - and all from stash yarn. 

Another project that had a hard deadline was this little mat for International Punch Hooking Day. Life got in the way, and I didn't get to attend much of the Zoom get-together, but I did get to see Amy Oxford (the queen of punch needle) gush about how far this form has come since she started many years ago.

Again, everyone did the same pattern, called "The Ripple Effect", designed by Robin Whitfield. And there were lots of interpretations.  I am still a relative newbie at punch, but I enjoyed doing this little mat.

One other little project that had no other deadline that a 7-year old's impatience, is Evvie's first quilt. It is for her dolls and stuffies. She picked her fabrics and hand stitched a few of the squares together. Grandma did the rest. It is not perfect, but I didn't change a thing. I hope her love for quilting lasts for years and years.

The projects without deadlines are all waiting patiently for attention. I am working on three sweaters. I am poking away at them, and hope to have one finished in the next few weeks. Not many weeks of sweater weather left, so I am tempted to let them sit until fall.

A Farewell to Edith.

Back in 2009, I bought a UFO (unfinished object, in case you don't know) from an older rug hooker in Toronto. She was well into her 80s and knew that she would never finish it. The price I paid was embarrassingly low, for the pattern (which she had started) and all the wool to hook it. She just wanted someone to finish it. I promised I would. Here is a picture from 2009 when I began. 

Over all these years, I have worked on it in fits and starts, making very slow progress. I realized that I was not emotionally attached to it, and guilt was not a great motivator. I was struggling to get anywhere close to the 40 x 60 size, so I made the decision to cut down the pattern. Then I could sort of fulfill my promise. I reduced it to 24 x 36, a doable mat size versus a full size room rug.

The ends that I cut off will eventually be hooked into pillows, in colours that are more my palette. 

Here is the rug, which I nicknamed "Edith" after the woman who sold it to me, all finished and ready to be part of a fundraiser on Monday. 

Our local rug hooking group is having our second "Estate and Stash-Buster Sale", where people bring things from their stash - or things we have been give by people who are giving up rug hooking. I decided that in addition to many other supplies I don't need - hoops, hooks, an extra gripper frame, and a cutter, I will bring a few finished rugs and see if people are interested.

All proceeds of this endeavour go to our local Kawartha Food Share. Last time we raised over $900 dollars. We hope to do the same again. 

Last Monday I took Edith to our usual session and was whipping the edges. One of the women there (part of the Scandinavian embroidery group who share our space) was drawn to the piece and asked what I was going to price it at. I thought $100 as a minimum bid would be good. People could go higher if they wanted. So she made a "reserved bid" on it, saying that I should take a higher bid, but that might prompt higher bids. I have no idea what to think, but I have a guaranteed $100, which I know is too low, but it is for a very worthwhile cause. 

I am very relieved that "Tribal Kilim" aka Edith will go to a good home. And that I "sort of" fulfilled my end of this bargain. 

A Busy Beginning to a Brand New Year.

 I knew it had been a while since my last post, but I can't believe it's been this long.

Amid a myriad of physical mishaps: a pinched nerve in my neck, followed by a "trip on air" fall, left me out of commission for a big chunk of the end of the year.

However, I was still able to do a limited amount of hooking and knitting. And a lot of reading!!

Two new hats for the grandkids. A ponytail hat for Everleigh - who didn't know they existed - and was crazy about hers. Until she cut her hair into a short bob!!! This is a picture from the Ravelry pattern called "Holey Hat"..

Of course, Jackson wanted one as well, and he picked the Poke Ball hat, which I had already knit for him. He said he "broke" it. I didn't know how you can break a hat but apparently, it got caught in a tree and when he tried to pull it down with a stick 'it broke".

And continuing in the spirit of red hats, my sister Beth asked me to knit her one, and I thought the Anemone hat would be fun for her. I was right, she loves it!! (This is me with it on, not her.) This is me, I might add, a week into a horrid chest cold that I am now on day 16 of - mostly gone.

On the hooking front, I have been busy getting ready for two upcoming Workshop Week workshops. The topic is "Creating a Values-Based Portrait from a Photograph". I have 12 students in each Zoom workshop, and they are very excited, sending photos of loved ones, human and furry, that will be rendered into hooked likenesses.

Although I had some values-based samples to share, I decided to hook a portrait of my mom from a photo when she was about 30. I have had this photo tucked away for many, many years. And this was the impetus to hook her likeness.

Here's the photo

And here is the latest progress shot. Just some background to finish. What a cathartic experience is was to spent this time with her. She passed away when I was 25.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, I am spending my other hooking hours working on the polar extreme of this project. I am hooking a 60's van in bright neons and alternative fibres. This is being done in the first-ever "OHCG Hook-along".  The van is the visual "icon" for the 2025 Annual in the spring in Cobourg, Ontario. And 73 people signed up to participate in this event. We get together on Zoom every other Thursday night, until February 27 - so only a couple of sessions left. So much fun is being had!

Here's the latest progress on this silly, smile-inducing project.

So, there's a bit of a catch up. Good to have so many things to share. Thanks for reading.