The Gagetown Hookers

This rug was given to me last week by my childhood friend, Gaye, who I grew up with in Fredericton, but who now lives north of Toronto in Palgrave.

Although Gaye is not a "rabid" hooker, she is a big fan of hooked rugs and has, in fact, hooked a couple of projects herself. She took my very first beginner workshop and I think is the only one who actually finished the project. She was also the lucky winner of our "Cat's Meow" fundraising rug at our hook in last year. And we love to talk about rugs and hooking when we get together.

Anyway, she bought this rug, and another one, about 10 years ago in Gagetown, N.B. on a trip back home. She gave me this one for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it had been a little damaged by either a cat or (shudder) a vacuum cleaner and needed a bit of repair. But she also knew that I would LOVE to have it. I think she thought the damage was more extensive. I think it just needs a couple of strips re-hooked and it will be fine.

The story behind the rug is a story about a couple called The Gagetown Hookers. They were a husband and wife team (ironically named Scott) who started hooking rugs for therapy after the husband suffered a heart attack. They were definitely a "team" as attested to by both their initials in the bottom corners of the rug.

Raymond was the hooking part of the team. Lydia was the designer of the rugs. She was also the color planner, as he was colour blind. But more amazing than the story of how they shared the creation of these rugs is how prolific they were. He hooked every day from about 7:00 a.m. till long into the night (neighbours said they often saw his lights on after 11:00 at night). As a result of the hours he put in, he hooked approximately 2 rugs per week!!!!

Gaye also gave me a book about them, written by Larry E. Dubord, which has photos of many of their rugs. They were best known for their pigs, but all their animal rugs were very popular. They hooked what they knew, which was the animals on their farm and other simple designs. Their neighbours supplemented their wool stash, and they did use other fabrics as well.

In 1981, Larry Dubord, an antique rug collector and dealer, met the Scotts for the first time and bought a few of their rugs. The couple were so humble that they weren't sure their rugs were "good enough" to sell. They were so popular that Larry came back again and again. As a result, a casual business relationship was developed and over the next six years, he sold nearly 500 of their rugs.

People loved how folky and colourful they were. And I can definitely see why. Their work influenced many other rug hookers and I am very proud to have one of these rugs in my possession. When I see how joyful these are, with such a simple design and palette, it reminds me once again about that great expression "less is more".

As soon as I got the rug, I wondered whether or not their collection has been preserved and their story told. I hope that this wonderful couple will be well represented in our Rug Museum of North America when it is opened, since their story is one that should be recorded for all time.

A first rug - Bragging Rights

This beautiful rug was hooked by my friend Josie, whom I met thanks to the Internet a couple of years ago. She was looking for hooking lessons, and at the time, I didn't have anything to offer.

We became email pals and she told me she had been buying wool garments at Goodwill for some time, and was developing quite a stash - all in advance of pulling her first loop.

So that she could meet some members of the hooking community, I told her about our Hook In. She came and that is where we met face to face for the first time. When Elaine Copeman and I started our beginner course nearly a full year later, I contacted Josie again and she came to the classes.

Winter classes always have the challenge of bad driving conditions and our four-week course last January was plagued with them, so I think poor Josie only made it to half of the classes.

But that obviously didn't slow her down. This first rug is incredible. It's a gift to her mother - a mat of her dog Effie.

She was kind enough to share it with me, so I am extremely proud to share it with all of you. I think that seeing projects that I am connected to in any way - no matter how small - gives me such a wonderful feeling. Finding like-minded souls who discover the joy of this art form will never grow old.

Unfortunately for me, but lucky for those who get to meet her there, Josie is moving to Nova Scotia, where I assure her there is no shortage of rabid rug hookers.

Good luck with everything Josie. And keep sending me pictures of your rugs.

The biggest UFO yet.

A while ago, I purchased a 4 x 6 Kilim rug from someone who realized that she was not going to finish it. It was an absolute steal and I felt a little guilty getting the pattern and wool for as little as I did, but I convinced myself that knowing that someone would finish it would make her feel good.

As if I didn't have enough UFOs of my own, I had now inherited the mother of all UFOs - considerably larger than anything else in my stash. The pictures above show what I have managed to get done and what is left - YIKES!

Most of the colours that were chosen for the rug were perfect at the cottage, other than the red, which was a little too blue for my liking. So I started Saturday morning with a dye experiment to see about warming up the red. I used yellow - figuring that either it or orange would do the trick. Although it looked as if there wasn't much difference at first, after it was dyed and dried, it was just enough.

Then I needed to take out the little bits of red that were already hooked. (Another lucky little thing about this mat, the previous owner had done one horizontal strip of the pattern across the rug, so the colour placement was already decided.)

I cut new strips in a 4 and replaced them, realizing they may have been a 3. There were not many cut strips with the mat, so I am happy to trade up a size.

As does every rug we touch, this one will have lots of lessons to teach. Already there's been a dye lesson. And I'm back to a small cut and straight line hooking, which is always a reminder of how tension gets out of whack on big looped projects. A little discipline is a good thing.

Another challenge presented by this rug is finding someone to make me new, longer rails for my Cheticamp frame, so that I can set this rug up at the cottage and leave it set up.

Rather than having them shipped from the east coast by bus, I have found a dear friend who has the most amazing dust-free workshop ever - and he has offered to make them for me. I will barter a hooked sign for him in exchange. Another win-win situation.

For whatever reason, in recent weeks, there has been lots of talk of UFOs - how many we have and the recurring New Year's Resolution to finish a couple. Jennifer (Fish Eye Rugs) even had a contest for the best, oldest UFO story and gave away a UFO as a prize - very ingenious!

So now I feel like the Queen of the club. This is a big, wonderful one that I hope will not remain one while in my keeping. If it stays up north and becomes the dedicated project there, I can continue with the smaller, faster projects in the city.

And somehow that will be fitting. Fast and furious in the city. Long and slow in the country.

Triple Cord Whipping - part 1

Although I'm wayyyy too busy at work to be doing this, my brain is scrambled and I need a little break. I have come to the realization that my brain is a better "sprinter" than it is a "marathoner" so a long, never-ending writing project is far more taxing than 5 shorter ones.

I decided I would sprint over and post this first step of my latest venture - triple cord whipping my Totem 40 rug.

It is unusual for me to have the patience to take on this much whipping, but I really feel the end will justify the means and after working this long on hooking it, I want the finishing to be worthy. Since the rug is approximately 28 x 40, it means that I will be whipping that distance three times - that's a lot of inches.

So the picture above shows the first cord whipped. It is sort of the normal cord, about the same diameter as my baby finger. The second one shows the second cording - much fatter - lying next to the first. It is now basted into position and ready to go. Both of these whippings were done by placing the cording on TOP of the backing, which was new to me.

The most important thing is to get it straight because if it isn't, the wonkiness (and that's the technical term) will become more exaggerated with each additional cord whipping.

Since I have now received my samples from Briggs & Little and placed my order for the contrasting brown for the fat cord, I am ready to go around the second time. I left the rug up north and we may not go this weekend because the forecast isn't great, so I may have to wait another week to start.

The third whipping will be on the same size cording as the first one. And the same colour wool. But it will be either a roll forward or a roll back - what I generally do on all my rugs. I am hoping the effect of all the whipping will look like a moulded wooden frame - apart from the rounded cordners that is.

I'm also hoping that a good sturdy binding will help keep it from buckling too much when it is hanging.

Stay tuned.

I will take more pictures as progress warrants.

A Little Story About Briggs & Little.

Last weekend I started to finish my Totem 40 rug, which is now all hooked and ready to get whipped. After much consternation about the best way to finish it, I finally settled on a triple cord whipping. This is a finishing technique that was featured in RHM a few years ago – and coincidentally is being demonstrated at our next OHCG Teachers’ Branch meeting in April.

It involves whipping around the rug three times, with three different rows of cording. The first two are laid on top of the backing and whipped in sequence. The first is placed as close to the loops as possible. The next is placed next to the first, and the last is whipped in traditional “roll forward” or “roll backward” fashion. Needless to say, it’s a lot of whipping.

I figured for this project, it will create the illusion of a frame without being a frame. It should also help support the rug and keep it from curling when it is hung – this remains to be seen.

But, this is not the story that I want to tell today. Here comes the delightful tale about my dealing with Briggs & Little, whose wool I am using for the whipping.

I purchased the cord and first skein of wool for the whipping from the yarn and fabric store in Parry Sound. It was Briggs & Little “Tuffy” in a coca colour. My idea was to use more than one brown to give the illusion of molding, but they only had the one.

So this week, I emailed B&L to ask their advice on what would compliment the colour I have chosen – they have colour charts on their website, but remind us how every monitor is different. Figured I would go to the source and ask their advice.

The very next morning, a reply was waiting in my inbox from John Little. He did have a recommendation for me, but also advised that he had put sample cards in the mail to me, so that I could choose for myself.

Whoa! I’m totally impressed! I buy quite a bit of B&L wool for whipping, though usually here in Ontario and not directly from them. And here he is sending me the cards, which may arrive on Monday.

I don’t know if this is just a typical incredibly-nice-Maritime-person-thing or a incredibly-smart-business-person-who-values-customer-service thing. Either way, I am now a big fan.

Coincidentally, at a meeting the night before, when I told my friend and mentor Barb D’Arcy about my triple whipping undertaking and my B&L story, she said that she has the cards and uses them to plan all her whipping. She buys all her wool from them.

After this incredible gesture, I will too. I am adding their website to my links. Go check them out if you are a whipper. I can’t recommend them enough.

What a view

I had a new visitor leave a comment on my blog yesterday. She found her way to me though another blog - which is how we all seem to find one another. So I clicked my way to her blog - which is called "h00kw0rm" and has been added to my list of links.

This is the view out Julie's dining room window! And I thought my cottage view was amazing. Whoa.

She is a relatively new hooker, who like all good Maritimers, has the gift of the gab and tells a great story. She saw the Deanne mat on my blog and that prompted her to leave me a note. We have many things in common, aside from our respect for DF.

Her blog is delightful and I'm sure you will all enjoy dropping by. And it's fun to find another new friend in this wonderful wide world of web.

Inspiring messages.

Here is a picture of the lettering finished on my Deanne Fitzpatrick pattern. Every time I pick the rug up to work on it, the words really echo in my head. They are great words to live by, which is what drew me to the pattern in the first place. I like that they are not "perfect". Because the spacing differs from line to line, it feels more like a spoken word than a printed one, which I like.

And, as I work on the rug, the words are inspiring me to make it my own. Not only have I put me into the picture, but I have a wonderful idea for the mat I will be working on. I don't want to give it all away, but it should be fun and will hopefully not just bring a smile to me as the 'hooker', but to you as the 'looker' too.

Stay tuned.

Narcissism is all about me!

ha ha ha.

I just started a new project, the fabulous pattern I bought from Deanne Fitzpatrick when I attended the symposium in the fall. This is a picture of the very early stages.

As you can see, I changed the hooker in the design to be me. I decided I really didn't want to hook an image of another hooker, and this was how I was going to personalize it. But as I began hooking myself - although in a completely different style from the others - I realized that this is the 5th time I have hooked myself.

Girls' Weekend
Trent Friendship Rug
Negative Space Study
Totem 40
and the new rug "Stay Inspired"

And I started thinking that is really quite narcissistic of me.

There is an argument to be made in my defence. I really enjoy hooking people - I guess that's kind of my "thing". And, although I have hooked many people other than myself, I do seem to keep turning up in my rugs.

Mind you, in most of the pieces where I have hooked myself, I am not alone. And in the Negative Space study, I am barely recognizeable as myself. In fact, someone thought I was Connie Stevens. Hmmm...not quite sure how I feel about that.

And then there's the rug that Deanne hooked of me - does that make 6?

At any rate, I have rationalized this "N" tendency by concluding that if our rugs are meant to be reflections of memories - or things that are important to us, chances are we are part of that, right? So, it does make sense, I think.

In my list of rugs "to do", I have many more that have me in them, from a childhood family portrait when I was 4 to a recent "siblings" picture at my niece's wedding. But just so that you don't think I've completely disappeared into myself, there are lots of other concepts on the list that don't have me.

So, I promise to do a non-me rug next. (But I will be posting progress on the newest me in the next little while, so be warned.)

Before and After Sweater.

I knit this wonderful sweater a while ago and posted a picture of it on my blog.
It was knit out of wool that I had originally purchased for a sweater for my hubby - he ended up not liking the fit and a "frogged" the whole thing. I knit him a different sweater and the wool hung around for a while until it became this sweater.

Because the camel-brown colour isn't great with my white hair, I found I didn't wear it very often and wished I had done it in another colour.

This past weekend, with my friend Jennifer giving me the moral support I needed, I dyed the sweater blue. I dipped a bit of unknit wool in the dye and decided I liked what was happening, so I went for it.

I am happy with the results and know that I will wear it much more often now. (Sorry the picture's not great - it's a phone picture.)It's great with jeans and it totally matches my glasses ha ha. It took quite a lot of blue dye - in fact all I had. And I wouldn't mind if it were a bit darker, so it may end up going back in the dye pot when I have the time.

But it was a good lesson in dyeing and in being brave enough to try something. And in having a good friend standing by to tell you it will be o.k.

Thanks Jen. I love my "after" sweater.

Bringing down the house.

Well, our "Hooked On Houses" hook-in was an amazing success! In fact, I don't know how it could have been better - and we will really have our work cut out for us trying to top it next year. We had over 100 attendees and I think every single one of them would say the same thing.

We picked our theme right after last year's hook in, so have spent a lot of time getting ready for the big day. Our results were outstanding. The houses above were chosen from the many that were hooked to demonstrate the theme. We chose two Ontario style houses - the Worker's Cottage and the Bay 'n Gable - which we based on the many houses in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto. Then the members in our branch each hooked one or the other house - or both - in their own style. Since both of these houses can be found pretty much all over Ontario, many of the houses were based on homes that people knew personally - in other parts of the province.

Needless to say the variety was incredible. The cottage above was hooked by Elaine Copeman (who also hooked a close up view of the window box and filled it with proddy cabbages). The Bay 'n Gable was hooked by Trish Johnson, who also provided us with the sketches which became the basis of the two patterns. The picture of the house with the stark foreground and background is mine - based on an artist whose work I have admired for a long time. Her name is Jean Jack and she lives in Arizona. So my "Cabbagetown House" is situated in Tuscon LOL.

In getting started on our theme last year, I happened to find the Cabbagetown Preservation Association's website, which had illustrations of the two houses and information about the architecture and the history. I ended up connecting with the illustrator, who is very active in the CPA. Through our correspondence that began with my asking for permission to use the illustrations in our advertising, he offered to come and give a presentation on the houses. And it was amazing! He was a delightful presenter. His knowledge on the topic was bountiful and he gave us a virtual walking tour of the different houses, the architecture, the history of both the neighbourhood and the Preservation Association. He delighted the more than 100 women in attendance, that's for sure. He brought Newsletters to share and has asked me to write an article for the next issue, all about our exercise.

After his presentation, we had show and tell of our houses, and I presented him with small coasters I had hooked of each of his illustrations. New to hooking, there was lots of learning for him as well, and I think he enjoyed seeing what we did with his houses.

We also had a silent auction, lots of vendors, a 50/50 draw, yummy home baking, door prizes and the chatter of friends catching up with one another that makes these days so special. The sun shone, everyone smiled and it was just a perfect day.

As if it couldn't get any better, my good friend Jennifer Manuell (fisheyerugs.blogspot.com) spent the weekend with me, and we talked non-stop from her arrival on Friday to her departure before lunch on Sunday. We hooked, we exchanged knitting patterns, we drank wine, we ate good food and better cookies, we watched a movie, we dyed some wool (and a sweater) and we crammed more into a weekend than many can do in a week. We have such fun when she comes.

So, all in all, it was a pretty perfect weekend for me.

Absence makes the critic grow stronger.

It's interesting how, when you haven’t focused on a project for a while and then go back to it, you see things differently. Maybe being close to it for a long time, you get used to things the way they are. Sometimes you need to back away to gain perspective.

This weekend, because my Hook-in projects are finished, I had time to spend with Totem 40. Once I finished hooking the sky, I knew there were some things I wanted to change. I had actually made notes as I sat with the project, so I wouldn’t forget. I knew I wasn't happy with the noses on my kids. At the time, I wasn't sure what the problem was or how to fix it. But this weekend it became pretty clear.

When I hooked the faces originally, I did Matt first, Laura second myself third and Rick last. My face turned out best, and I think I realized it was because most of the lines on the nose were vertical and it made the shape and the shading look better, and I looked more like me.

Both Laura and Matt's noses had more horizontal loops in some spots, so when I did them over again, they were definitely better. And once the shape was corrected, they both looked more like themselves.

There are lots of ways to check your work. I have been using a minimizing glass/peep hole on this rug, since it is quite large. I have been taking lots of digital shots and looking at them on the computer. And I have been taking breaks from it, and looking at it with fresh eyes.

I'm sure I'm not done tinkering yet. I will continue to find things every time I look at it. That’s what I like – the ongoing lessons to learn.

Now is I can just figure out the best way to frame it….