Hooking for Joy

I was trying to decide whether this post should be called "Looking for Joy" or "Hooking for Joy". Decided to go with this one.

As things have gotten increasingly horrible in the world, my joy has taken a huge hit. I am one of the happiest people I know, and the weight of everything that is going on right how has really taken its toll on my joy. Two wars, freak of nature incidents all over the world, politics completely paralyzed around the globe through polarization and politicizing of everything. Add to that my incredibly slow crawl back from Covid and my heart and head both hurt from the hopelessness everywhere. 

But this week I had an idea for a project that might bring some joy while I look for joy. 

Don't get me wrong. I have a wonderful life. I am an incredibly lucky human to have the existence that I do. The loving family that I have. And the comforts that I enjoy. But it just gets heavier and heavier to process everything that is happening to those much less fortunate than me. And I am burdened by the weight of it all. 

A few years ago, I drew a pattern on a huge piece of rug warp. It was supposed to be for some crazy multi-fibre yarn that I bought. But the yarn didn't work, so the pattern got shoved aside. I even turned it over and drew something on the back, but this week, it is getting a second life.

I just found the original post - which was 05/06/2018. And the original plan was for it to be a headboard, which is why it is the shape it is. 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/9152499513632375208/280184271176479569

Fast forward to this week. I started to think about all those swirls and how they represent the whirling  in everyone's brain all the time. And right now, trying to process the horrible state of man's inhumanity to man, those whirls are dark and joy-less. I think I may have found a concept to help me find the joy. I  am hoping that hooking for will help lift me from the dark swirls as I search. 

Here is the pattern, with more swirls added. And I hooked a few swirls in the bottom. 

Here's a closer picture, so you know it's not all black. And gradually I will make my way to the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I am not often a concept hooker - I usually work from photos - so this is a big leap of faith for me. It may not be what I want it to be, but I already have enjoyed hooking a few swirls, starting with the darkest ones.

In my mind, there is a dark section at the bottom, a mid value section as I hook my way to the joy, and a lighter section when I get to the end of this journey. 

To try to show what is in my head, I put some worms on the pattern to show the transition from dark to mid to light values. (Oh, forgot to say that I intend to hook most of this from my worms.) I am sure I will have to add as I go. 

I also did think about the middle section, and decided to try straight line hit-and-miss, using the same colours that are in the swirls. That section will also transition from dark at the bottom to light at the top. Here's a picture of the beginning of that section - outlined with some black and white beading. I think I will like this. 

The background (between the swirls) will remain an unknown for a while longer. A few ideas are in the back of my head, but I think I will keep hooking the swirls and see where that takes me. The teacher in me is yelling "You have to have a colour plan for all of it". But the joy seeker in me is saying, "Wait, it will come to you in time."

Already, ,just through the motion of sitting at the frame, pulling these loops and letting my mind wander, I am lifted a bit. I realize that nothing on this project is going to solve any of the problems of the universe. BUT, if it helps me deal with them in a "more me" way, that is all I can ask for.

Some folks have "worry stones". I think I am a rug hooker who has "worry worms".  And pulling a thousand loops a day, using the worry worms, seems to be a good thing right now. 

Stay tuned. 

Older Mat. New Post.

For years now I have not only been using "free stuff" on my computer to help me hook from photographs, but I have also been teaching people about it. 

All my "hooking from photos" classes - live and virtual - use free online photo editors, but I also introduce my students to resources that are on the internet that they may not be aware of.

I have been invited to participate in Workshop Week 2024, which is an online extravaganza of teachers and courses. My course will be related to using your computer in rug hooking. And it will introduce those registered to the resources. 

I decided to do a blog post about my rug that I call "April Tech", which was a rug I created using my computer to do each and every step. A little background for the name and design. I had a "December" mat and thought it would be fun to create a mat for each month. As I was teaching this course in April, I chose April. (Those are still the only two month mats I have hooked. lol)

Step l: Clip Art (the perfect argument against "I can't draw".)

I thought that a kid carrying an umbrella in "April Showers" was a great place to start. I found the following clip art which was the foundation of the design. The main motif. There were lots of choices. Just google the image you are looking for with "Free Clip Art" and voila. 

I also wanted umbrellas for the corners. And I wanted some kind of cloud clip art.

Remember, these are all free!!! Royalty Free and Free to use. 

Step 2:  Fonts  (the perfect argument against "I can't print.")

I wanted a font that would be easy to hook, and that looked like April. I I went to dafont https://www.dafont.com/ and sampled a couple that I liked.

I blew them up to the size I needed and tried them on for size. 

I wanted to use a picture of my grandson, instead of the little girl under the umbrella, so I found a shot that I liked, cropped the image to get in closer, and put in his face.  

Step 3:  Enlarging

I used a free online resource called blockposters to blow up the image of Jackson's face inside the umbrella to the size I wanted. This resource works with your uploaded image in multiples of an 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper. So you can go two wide, three wide. It sends you a preview and gives you finished size dimensions. You can just tape the sheets together to make your final size. 

Then, on a piece of gridded paper, I put all the elements together. (This I did with scotch tape and scissors - I know it could be done on the computer, but old school seemed the best for me at this step.) 

With Jackson in position, the font selected, and the clip art umbrellas in the border, I was ready to go.

(Forgot to say that Jackson's photo was run through Photomania to create the value sketch I used for hooking him. )

A couple more decisions were made simpler with more online resources. I found an image online - not one to copy, but to do a colour selection from it for the rain on the inside - not the border. The colour plan was created by sampling the colours in the image using Paintbrush - a free program for Mac (it is called Paint for PC and does exactly the same thing.)

On to the hooking. There is no online resource for that lol. Just one loop at a time. Here is a progress shot - nearly done, but still a few things to change. You can see that already, I have used the same cloud swirl on all sides, instead of the raindrops I had originally thought of. 

Here is the final piece. 

I changed the single line around the main motif - opted for a rainbow of colour instead of the black and white beading. And I added a golden yellow outline to the lettering to make it pop. I hooked one line of the background wool around the black border, and then hooked a line of the golden yellow. 

It was a fun challenge to myself to prove that from start-to-finish, I could create an entire mat using the free resources that are readily available. I had used all of them together for many, many years. But not all in the same piece. 

Two Firsts for the Kawartha Rug Hooking Group.

I have been hooking with this group since I moved to Peterborough. We meet in a local repurposed school that is now called "Activity Haven", and has more activities for seniors that you could ever imagine.

Before COVID, we had our own room and averaged between 12 and 22 people each Monday morning. It has always been a very welcoming group.

When COVID hit, we decided to see if Zoom would be a fit for us and began meeting online at the same time. Some weren't as comfortable with the online meetings, for a number of different reasons. But a core group galvanized in this format. And not only did we hook on Zoom, we solved one another's problems - and those of the world. lol.

Now we are back to in-person and occasional Zoom meetings when we feel the need. And we are back to something else. A sense of a group that can do things. And this month we have done two REALLY BIG things.

NORWOOD FALL FAIR

Early last spring, the OHCG was approached by the Norwood Fair committee to see if there would be any interest in having a rug display at the fair. Our group was contacted to see if we would be interested and we jumped at the opportunity. Rug Hooking had never been part of the fair, and we were taking the space from the Tole Painting/Decorative Painting folks.

To drum up interest, another member of the group and I did a demo night at the Norwood Library, bringing lots of rugs and demonstrating both Traditional and Punch Needle hooking. There were about 25 people present.

Dial forward to October 6 and we were ready to get this display started!! There was drop off and tagging on Thursday evening, judging and display on Friday, and pick up on Monday dinner time. The display looked great.  Neighbouring Campbellford group also entered pieces in this display. 

Apparently the feedback about having a Rug Hooking Display was very positive. And next year will be a breeze with the learning curve behind us. 

"ESTATE/STASH BUSTER SALE"

Over the past few years, many of our members have received calls from people who are no longer able to hook. Some are Estates, but some are also long-time hookers whose stash is a lifetime of supplies, which they are no longer able to use.

We decided to hold an event, in our usual Monday morning time slot, and see what the interest would be. People who were donating their supplies were given a free table. People who were selling were to pay a $25. table fee.

The group had unanimously decided to give any funds we collected to KAWARTHA FOOD SHARE. With the exception of one cutter and one frame, most of the proceeds were from "free, with a donation to Kawartha Food Share". We expected to raise a few hundred dollars, but we never dreamed that we would be able to take $992.00 to them on Monday afternoon. 

There was quite a bit of work involved, and a LOT of learning. But we are all eager to do it again next year, bigger and better.

We know that many of us have more patterns, more wool, more hoops and hooks than we can use. But as long as there are new hookers coming into the fold, or hookers who are looking to build stashed versus busting them, there will always be this way to raise fund for Food Share. 

A Free Vest

As if I need another project on the needles, I do pay attention to the "stash busting" opportunities. That is where the Andrea Mowry "Tessellated Vest" pattern came in. 

I am a vest lover. I have knit several, and I wear them a lot. They are good for "not too hot" and they are a bridge between seasons. And since I seem to live in the land of slip stitches, this is an easy pattern to choose.

Why is this a freebie? Well, the first two colours - the black and the purplish variegated - come from my sister Nancy's stash, not mine. And the third colour is two strands of a "mohair-like" fibre that was donated by someone, years ago, when we were still in Toronto. I think they are cones from a weaver, but they will work well in this endeavour. They are perfect for that light colour, and they are a little fuzzy.

Resistance is futile when it comes to the slip stitch. And for my money, dreareneeeknits (aka Andrea Mowry) has done more to advance its success than any other designer.  She is the epitome of hip, young designers who are introducing knitting to a whole new generation.

I will post progress, because this will be a slow knit. Sock weight yarn. Tiny needles. But I was curious to see if my trio of freebies would work in a swatch - and it seems, they did. Full disclosure, I did not knit the entire swatch, but enough to make me believe it will work. So I decided I will go up a size and see where I net out.

BTW, that shawl that I shared in the last post? Well, the remainder of those skeins allowed me to knit another shawl. This one for my granddaughter is more about the pink than the blue. And I am inches from the end. Just an i-cord bindoff. But when we are sitting in the high 20's in early October, my urgency is not so active.

So I will do a bit of work on Tessellations Vest before starting my grandsons' (that's right - plural) slip stitch cowls. If you are a grandmother who knits, you know that the minute that one finds out you are making something, you are in it for a couple more.

Oh, and on the hooking front, another little memory captured in yarn. This little mat, mounted on an 8 x 10 inch stretched canvas, will keep those three days in Upper Island Cove in a spot where we will always see it. 

A couple more of those special moments in the works. I promise to share.