Bliss!

So today I hopped in my car (aka the Rolling Thunder -- I can't wait to get the muffler fixed tomorrow) and drove back up to River Gallery. At the rate I'm going with my hooking, I knew I'd likely be finished my first rug by tomorrow morning, and I wanted to have something to work on at my first visit to the Carnegie Rughookers group.

Thursdays are "by appointment only" this time of year, so I checked and Sande was going to be around this afternoon. I may have only been hooking for a week, but walking into her shop today was like coming home. I don't care if it's 43.6 km from my house -- it's well worth the little bit of time and gas to get there.

I had a list of what I wanted/needed, but at the top of the list was a real rughooking frame. My first rug has gotten to the point now that there are too many filled-in areas for the Q-Snap to work, and the little snapping sounds of plastic fatigue were worrisome. It hadn't actually broken yet, but I could tell it was only a matter of time.

When I visited Sande the first time, I fell in love with her Puritan lap frame, and today she encouraged me to take it for a test drive. It took a minute to get used to, but only a minute -- it was like, "Where have you been all of my life?" I could tighten the backing so that it was taut, and since I didn't have to actually hold the frame, my hooking life was much easier!

Needless to say, I have a Puritan lap frame sitting here beside me now. I simply couldn't leave River Gallery without it.

My other purchases were considerably smaller: a tube of Udderly Smooth Udder Cream (needleworkers use it as hand cream because it's non-greasy); a bundle of wool strips in blues and teals; and a copy of The Rug Hooker's Bible by Gene Shepherd. My next purchase will be a set of offset scissors (for trimming ends) and some unstripped, "non-fluffed" wool. (I was too chicken to try the washing/fulling process myself this time. Remember -- it took me a week to work up the courage to start hooking in the first place!)

Aside from the adoption of my frame, my favourite part about today's visit was showing Sande my rug. (It's not finished yet, but it's come a long way since the last pictures I showed you.) She marvelled at how neat the back was, said that it was a funky design, and that I was really suited to rughooking -- that it didn't look like a first rug. She showed me the back of one of her rugs, compared it to the back of mine, and showed me that I was pretty darn good. Needless to say, I puffed up like a peacock and grinned from ear to ear. It really meant a lot to me to have someone who has been doing this a lot longer than I have talk about my work that way.

So I'm going to take my frame out of its innocuous cardboard box and do some hooking now. I might even take a picture or two if I can pry the hook out of my hand at some point.

Bliss, I tell you. Colourful, woolen bliss.