My Heavenly Time at Trent

I can't believe it is Friday already. The students and teachers at Trent School of Rug Hooking are enjoying their last day of classes. They will all head home either tonight or tomorrow. And they will have to wait "364 days to come back" as an older and much wiser hooker said to me my first year there.

The picture I am showing here is of Mary Janet Mustard, one of the school convenors, at the Monday night trunk swap and ice cream. Three of them were dressed as hooking angels, and I thought this was an incredible shot.

I have been home for a few days - rainy and dreary - bringing my ma-in-law with me for a soggy visit. Here is a re-cap of my adventure.

One week ago, I had an incredible day at my friend Jane's. She assembled her hooking group for lunch and an afternoon on her deck with lots of "Show and Tell".  We had wine and cheese and vichyssoise and veggies and more. It was a perfect afternoon -  they insisted on a "hockey bag" show to see what I was bringing to share with my class. Then they showed me various projects they were working on.  Most of them are relatively new to rug hooking - the youngest among them has been hooking for only a few weeks, and doing very well. If I lived there, I would really enjoy hooking with these wonderful ladies every week. They made me feel incredibly welcome.

Friday evening we went to an art show in Keene, a small village outside of Peterborough. The artist lives in a historic log house and has a coach house as her gallery. Her work is incredible! She painted landscapes and cows and boats and city scenes. Her range was immense and she did everything well. The framing on her work is the best I have ever seen, and she told me she and the framer have a special arrangement. For so many works that he frames, she gives him a painting.  Unfortunately, she doesn't have a website, or I would provide you all with a link.

Saturday, it was off to Trent to get my classroom prepped and meet my students.

Let me tell you that whether you are teaching for two days or 20, you take the same amount of stuff and my car was packed! The largest size rolling suitcase held all my teaching stuff - books, reference material, cutter, binders for students. My new light box. My hockey bag of rugs. Bedding and towels and a fan for my dorm room. And a small rolling suitcase with my clothing.

The students got checked into their spots and we met to go to dinner at St. Veronus, a wonderful restaurant in downtown Peterborough with amazingly fresh and delicious food and a very long beer list. Everyone enjoyed the feast.

My 5 students, although small in number, were bicoastal Canadians. One from Vancouver. One from Newfoundland. And you know that to travel that far, they were dedicated. The other three were all from Ontario - Fort Frances, North Bay and Brampton. And we all got along famously. (Hope they don't mind me sharing this group shot of them.)

Sunday morning, classes began. With only two days to spend on Wide Cut Hooking with my Teacher Trainees, it was a lot of information to push at them and for them to absorb. They had two other teachers during the week - two days on Shading and two days on Pedagogy, so I was very happy to have them first, while they were still fresh.

The rest of the Trent students were arriving on Sunday so we were the only ones in class. And we ploughed through the work. Monday morning, we joined in the assembly with the rest of the school and I presented my Show Case before getting back to work. The day flew by and I couldn't believe I was done.

The objective of my two days was for them to have designed, enlarged, transferred and started hooking on their original wide-cut patterns. Happily, we all achieved that objective with time to spare.

I packed up my room, with help from my gals, and loaded everything back into the car. One last supper with the rest of the school and then Tuesday morning, back on the road. I felt like a camper who had been sent home early for bad behaviour. It felt strange to be leaving when they all had 4 days left. But it was a wonderful time, despite being somewhat abbreviated.

Hopefully, I will be able to go back next year for the whole week teaching a class of my own. And enjoying the rhythm of rug school without interruption.

A Busy Hooking Time Ahead.

Well, early tomorrow morning, I am heading to Peterborough for a 4-day hooking and teaching extravaganza.

When I arrive tomorrow, my friend Jane is hosting her hooking group at her home for the afternoon - hopefully on a sunny deck. Then off to a friend's art show tomorrow night.

Then Saturday, a short jaunt to Trent School of Rug Hooking where I am teaching the Wide Cut section of the Teacher Trainee program for the OHCG. I can't believe how much stuff I have to take - no less than if I were teaching for the whole week, that's for sure!!!

I decided to be smart and put all my books and teaching materials in a large suitcase instead of the many boxes and baskets I have used in the past. It is a brilliant idea, until you have to move it up the stairs. Yikes - no lifting at all, just rolling up one step at a time. I think the technical term is "bumping up the stairs".

While I'm there, I'm doing a Show Case for a week-long class for next year. It's about hooking mats from photographs and how to use your computer at each stage of design, enlarge, colour plan and checking progress.

Here's a little mat that I finished to take. I felt I needed one more sample to go with what I already had.

Here's the picture I used.

And here's the little mat

Not sure why the photo looks so dark here -  a scan of a print, I guess.  I have a few others to show as well - all small "sketches" that I have done over the last year - mostly for gifts. I don't think any of them are larger than 12 x 16. A good project to do in a week, I think.

By the time I am ready to post again, I should have lots of "show and tell", which is something we all love.

Till then, enjoy the great weather. Somehow this image seems very suitable.

One Moose 4 Ways.

I am off to Trent School of Rug Hooking on Saturday. I will be teaching Wide Cut hooking to the Teacher Trainees for two days. They will also be taught Shading for two days and Teaching Theory for two days. Three teachers - a lot of information - all in one week!!!

When I took my course, it was spread throughout the year - we went to different instructors' homes and had the months between to finish the projects. Now it's all the teaching up front and the year to finish.
The good news is that they get to spend a week with one of the large rug hooking schools and meet a lot of other hookers, which is a huge "community" for them. And it is LOTS of fun as well as hard work.

As one of my visual aids - and I think it's a great one - I have hooked "one moose 4 ways" all in wide cut. I think it's an incredible demonstration of the different styles. See for yourselves:

This is the Primitive version.

This one is done with alternative fibers. Click in for a closer look.

She is my "impressionist" moose.

She is my "realistic" moose, or as realistic as you can get in an 8 cut.

They are all drawn from the same pattern - I used a photo and blew it up to get the the outline of the cow and the birch trees and a bit of an indication of the foliage. And I hooked them in the order they are here.

Not only will they be a good teaching tool - for all wide cut classes - but I learned an awful lot by hooking the same pattern the 4 ways.

I am tempted to leave them in a row as they are right now, but know that they will be more useful finished individually. And I'll also have the pleasure of displaying them in any order I like - the Andy Warhol of moose LOL.

Powassan Hook-in on Saturday.

Who goes to a hook in and not take any pictures of show and tell? I even had my camera in my bag.

I did take a few pictures of frames with my iphone, because my friend Susan's husband is making prototypes of frames and she was keen to show him this easy one.

A couple of the hookers from Deep River had these, which were made by one of the husbands.

A mitred rectangular head is wrapped in fabric into which the work is pinned.

 A bolt is put into the sides of the frame.

The bolt slips into a groove in a side panel which raises it off the table or your lap.

The sides are attached to a base with piano hinges. Since this one was just for "the wife" he used leftover boards for the base.

She offered to send me a pattern for this simple frame, which would be great. I'm always on the hunt for an inexpensive option for beginner hookers who struggle with a hoop.

Handy husbands seem to be the drivers of innovation in rug hooking equipment. I, unfortunately, did not have "handy" on my list of qualities when choosing. And as a result, I have become the handy one.
Oh well, he has lots of other fine qualities and I am certainly not complaining.

BTW, Jennifer Manuell does have pictures from the hook-in, so please go and visit her blog.

What does $300 worth of periwinkle look like?

Not much, actually, when your septic bed is as large as ours. But since nothing else will grow there, I bit the bullet and budgeted that much for periwinkle. It only covered the sloping sides, not the top. Here are a few pics.

You can see why we call it "Mount Davis"

Or "Mount Septic"

A dapple of sunlight gets through, but basically, these need to grow in the dark.

But the good news is that this is a one-time expense and in a couple of years, should be lush and lustrous.

In fact, 90% of my gardening this year is perennials. I had someone from the local garden centre come and do a walkabout to make sure that my plans were sound. I had some plants in the retaining wall garden on the driveway side that grew too tall and kept getting blown over. They were a huge physical job to move, including a brief stint as an axe wielding zombie to divide some of them, but they all survived the move. They are now happily transplanted to the lake side garden where they will be sheltered from the wind. (someone has since told me about a tool from Lee Valley that is perfect for sub-dividing)

I re-planted the retaining wall garden with 4 kinds of sedum and some creeping geraniums. The leaves on the sedum are beautiful without any flowers, so I will have something pleasing all year. Here is what they look like.

I just love the different shapes and textures of the leaves. And some are much higher than others.
Can't wait till it fills in a bit.

I also added some new perennials to the front (lake side) garden for a bit of colour in the empty spots.
It's looking very lush and Briar (isn't that the best name for a horticulturalist) says that it can basically be left alone, which is music to my ears.

As I was taking the pictures yesterday, I couldn't resist adding one of these happy fellows - who bloomed the night before, I'm sure.

For someone who has always been a "chancy gardener", I guess my luck is paying off. Now that I've had a professional confirm my plans, I am confident that I am on the right path (bad garden joke).

My year of knitting lacily.

Last week I started knitting a very nice baby blanket for a friend’s new Granddaughter. Mom and baby Gavin are home safe and sound, and truth be told, I should have started knitting this blanket sooner.

It’s a fun knit, using different colours of sock yarn with frequent colour changes. It goes quickly and is a small size as you can see from this picture. For a future one, I will mix this new yarn with some of my leftovers. Or alternatively, have some very fun socks!! 

This is the picture from Ravelry. As you can see, it's a "wee" one.

I realized once I got going on it that this is the forth lace project in a row. Not intentional, but not bad for someone who used to have a fear of lace. So that is why I am calling this my year of knitting lacily.

Before I started this blanket, I started on my second version of this vest called “Juliet”.

I did the first one in a variegated red yarn and liked it so much I decided to ravel a cotton vest (due to butt sag – the sweater, not mine). And I got a pretty good start on it before setting it aside for the blanket.

This is the picture of the original pattern from Ravelry.

This is the red one that is warm and cozy.

This is a teal cotton one that should be perfect for warmer weather.

And I have a “car lace” project, a simple drop stitch scarf that I am making out of leftover cotton from another project. I have about 3 and a half feet done, and will get back to it when the first baby blanket is done.

A simple pattern that is very nice in the variegated cotton.

It seems that all the brides whose weddings I attended within the past few years are having babies in the next while, so I see a few other blankets on the horizon. Maybe lace. Maybe not.

By the way, I found all of these projects on Ravelry.com. If you are not already a member, you should think about it, if you are a knitter. The blanket and the scarf patterns were free – two of thousands. The Juliet pattern was a pdf download for a very reasonable fee – I think $6. But since I am on my second one already, the cost is down to $3. (ya gotta love the logic).

How many people does it take to build a lightbox?

I have a new lightbox, and I feel like when I show a picture, it should have credits.
Without a number of people, its existence would not be possible.

Here it is - still awaiting staining or painting. I haven't decided which way to go yet.

Here's the cast of characters and the story of how it came into existence:

Light - Elaine (via Dylan)
Plexiglass - Sarah (via Sue)
Box - David (via Sue and Sarah)
Staining or painting - me

First of all the light - it came via my pal Elaine, when her son decided he no longer wanted his Coors Light sign. So, she donated it to me and I spent a number of hours figuring out how to remove the plastic Coors front to reveal just the light. If I recall (it was a while ago), I ended up with a good little scratch from the removal.

The light traveled here to the new home (not in a box) and I mentioned to Sue, one of my new students, what it was going to be when it grew up.  Sue brought her daughter Sarah to see the studio one day, and Sarah volunteered some Plexiglas from her workplace - she was sure there were leftover pieces that would be the right size and she would get one cut.

Enter Sue's husband and Sarah's dad - David - who was intrigued by the "light box" discussion and after learning its purpose, volunteered to build the box.

So, not only were a number of people involved, so were a number of locations: the light came from Toronto to Parry Sound. The plexiglass came from Oakville - it took a few trips to and fro before it made it here. And David's workshop, near McKeller, produced the light box.

It's fantastic. A very good size, so even large patterns will be easy to do in parts. And it means no more tired arms from tracing vertically on the living room sliding door. Yippee!!!!

You know that saying "It takes a village to raise a child." I'm starting to think that the same can be said about a light box. So thanks to all who helped create it.

Reinforcing Max

I finally got around to implementing my hanging solution for Max and the Gang. I stuggled with the best way to reinforce the back of the mat without making it too heavy or cumbersome. I am happy I waited a bit to let the solution percolate, but it definitely needed something to hold it flat so that it wouldn't curl.

Yippee for foam-core!!!! It's the other thing that, like velcro, I can't imagine what we did before having it.

I took a few pictures of the process of attaching the mat to the velcro boards. All very simple, once I figured out the solution.

I purchased three boards that were 2' by 3'. I turned them width-wise across the mat and trimmed off the excess, so they were flush with the sides. Luckily for me, the three boards fit perfectly top to bottom, with a little space between.

I used upholstery thread to sew through the mat and the board and carried long stitches behind. (not beautiful, but effective)

I made sure to get the stitches between the rows. I used a glover's needle and a thimble. I went down each side and across the top and bottom of the boards.

With the little space between, I can easily fold the mat for transportation.

Although you can't see a big difference, the mat hangs beautifully flat now - with a little help from some magnet strips across the middle and bottom boards.

I am so happy with the way that this turned out, I think I will do the same thing with a few of my smaller pieces. You can get the foam-core "acid free" and the local framing store said that they use it for archival framing, so I know it won't hurt the hooked piece. Plus with the big stitches only around the perimeter, it isn't cutting off any air supply.

A Practically Perfect Mothers' Day

Well, that describes my day - hope all you other Mothers had a great one.

Rick and I drove to Toronto to have Brunch-and-a-Movie with our kids. It was a beautiful day and kind of sad to spend it at the movies, but we didn't have a back-up plan and we really enjoy seeing movies there versus our little theatre here in town.

Eggs Charlotte is the brunch of choice for the Davis Family and we all ordered the same thing! And the movie choice was Thor in 3D, which was fun.

The weather was perfect for driving, which is always a good thing. And we even sprung for a deluxe car wash - inside and out - another thing that we can't get here in PS.

I think my favourite things were the homemade card from Laura and the flowers from Matt. It was a switch up this year, since Matt is the one who usually makes homemade. They are the only cards that I save - in a giant shoebox - that is sacred.

Here is Laura's card.

She was about 3 months old here and that caterpillar was her favourite chew toy.

And she's about 336 months here and that is a monkey finger puppet.

Ironically, I was working on a design for a new "bug" rug for next year's Annual and not completely happy with where I was. One look at this card and I now know EXACTLY what I am doing.

And here are Matt's flowers.

Notice the "bug" in here too - must be kismet.

After many hours in the back of the car, I sprung them and popped them into a vase. They immediately expressed their gratitude by opening and filling the kitchen with their wonderful smell.

I love being a mom - even when the mothering events are a little farther between. Mind you, they all seem to be enormous events now when they do occur - but I can't imagine my life without my kids.
And that says it all.

The "Girls" at the OCGH Annual.

Recovering from the Wedding and the trip to the other London this weekend. The wedding was definitely worth getting up early for, though I hadn't intended to do so.

Then I put the "Girls" in the car and headed to London, via Toronto. Elaine and I caught up in the car and the >5 hours of driving (both legs of the journey) went quickly.

Elaine helped set up the display, as did Wanda from North Bay. They immediately attracted a curious crowd, which kept up all weekend. Here is how they looked on display.

If you click on the images, (sorry they are a tad blurry) you'll be able to see some of the unhooked ones as well as the hooked ones. And if you want to see them up close and read the stories, go to www.thebraproject.com

I didn't take too many other pictures of rugs in the display. I always find it a bit overwhelming when there are so many. And this is the first year that I didn't have two days to walk the aisles and take pictures, so I had to make my decisions relatively quickly.

I also find the vendor booths a bit overwhelming and can never decide what to choose, which is probably a good thing. I didn't have a list this year, or a project for which I needed to shop.  I only picked up four pieces of dark greys, greens and near black wool for students; a pair of purse handles, some sari ribbon and sari yarn for a yet-to-be-designed bag for Barbados next year.

Here are a few of the pics I took. The first three are all works of a "new" hooker, who created all three in her first year!!!

And here are a few more of the rugs that drew my eye. I wasn't smart enough to get the names and details. If you are one of the artists, my apologies.

I can't resist the Group of Seven in any medium. This is gorgeous.

A beautiful stained glass pattern - apparently quite old.

Another classic that caught my eye.

A portion of an amazing oriental - the borders were incredible.

Another amazing oriental - the workmanship is stunning

This one made me smile - but when you look closely, the detail is wonderful

I should have taken more pictures, but didn't. I also should have taken my better camera, which I will try to remember to do next year.

Anyway, a bit of eye candy to enjoy.

A Loss and a Gain in the Sewing Machine Kingdom.

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Kendra, my old Kenmore sewing machine. After a lengthy struggle with her tension and her relentless depositing of gobs of extra thread underneath the sewing on many projects, and despite my valiant efforts to rehabilitate her with TLC, new needles and a good cleaning, I decided to pull the plug. Enough suffering for both of us. Especially in light of my renewed interest in sewing of late.

So, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Hazel Husqvarna, Kendra's successor. She is the third sewing machine in my lifetime. The first was a used Singer which my mother got "off the back of a truck". She served me well for a good 15 years, until she was replaced by Kendra. Kendra has been with me for about the same length of time. I'm not sure of the life expectancy of a sewing machine, but if it's like appliances, I guess she lived a good, long life.

Hazel has many of the same qualities and features that I loved about Kendra, but she has definitely got some benefits - over and above the not gobbing of thread. Above all, she is electronic, which means whisper quiet and doesn't shimmy the entire table as she sews. And she has a full array of stretch stitches, which are perfect for all the knit sewing I am doing. I'm sure we will become great pals.

I chose her name, partly because of the H-factor (for Husqvarna), but also because the only Hazel I knew (the maid from whichever show that was) was such a smart and hard working gal.  I am hoping this Hazel remains my partner in stitchery for decades to come. And, in the event that Hazel has difficulties in the future, I have a sewing centre in town that will be able to treat her.