The Happy Hooker

I am now a happy hooker. No, it's not what it sounds like. Let me explain.

Many years ago, when I first started making dollhouse miniatures, I stumbled across and was intrigued by some hooked rugs online. I really liked the cozy, primitive look to them, and decided then and there that I would learn how to do it someday. (I'd done those latch-hook kits with the loops of yarn, just like everyone else in the late 70s,/early 80s, and they'd bored me to tears. I thought they looked like scarves for the floor. These rugs were different. Pretty, yet functional.)

Since then I've stumbled across various virtual rugs along the way, mostly on blogs of artists I've never met. Fast forward to last Saturday, though, when a lady leaving the cashier at the Superstore walked by me -- with a "hooked rug" purse!

Well, I had to stop and ask her. There was no way around it. We chatted for a moment or two, and then she told me about a place called River Gallery, just a bit upriver, that sold rug hooking supplies and would likely know of classes being held, et cetera.

So, early last Sunday morning, I looked up River Gallery online and was excited to see that they had Sunday hours. Throwing caution to the wind, I told Betsy we were going on a little road trip.
After a noisy drive, we arrived at River Gallery and when I first walked in, I actually caught myself saying, "Whoa." I was completely blown away by all of the colour, between the rugs and the quilts and the printed fabrics and the wools. The proprietress, Sande, smiled and asked if it was my first time visiting. I replied yes, started to tell her about the lady at the Superstore, and it turns out that Sande had already received an email from her mentioning our conversation.

To try to shorten this story some, I spent about an hour and a half with Sande who explained all of the ins and outs (pardon the pun) of rug hooking. She showed me how to actually hook the rugs, how to cut the strips of wool, all of the different types of frames -- everything! It was a crash course and I was completely ecstatic the whole time I was there. I went home with some backing linen, three bundles of wool strips, and the hook that "spoke to me" when I saw it in the bag Sande was using to refill the display.

And then I got it all home and was afraid to touch it. *grin* Finally, this morning, the time had come.

Rug hooking frames are quite an investment, so I didn't pick one up last week. I had planned on using my scroll stand for the time being, but I wasn't quite sure where it was. When I finally got around to digging it out this morning, I saw that it was much too big and awkward for my purposes. So I started rooting through my other cross stitch stuff and came across my 8" x 8" Q-Snap frame. This, I figured, would have to do.

Preparing the linen was pretty easy. I just dug out the sewing machine and zig-zag stitched around the edges. I then measured in four inches from all the sides (to allow for binding or finishing or whatever) and drew a square. Then came the hard part -- deciding what the pattern should look like.

The thing about rug hooking is that the direction of your loops is as important a part of the patten as the colours and shapes themselves. I wanted to do something fairly simple, but I also wanted to practice not just straight lines, but curves as well. I also had a somewhat limited palette, so I had to take that into account, too.

Finally I came up with something that I liked, and after printing out a heart from Photoshop Elements to use as a template, I drew a few other lines and had my pattern.

Sande had mentioned that it was a good idea to do a few rows of straight hooking all the way around in order to help the rug maintain its shape. I decided that a border would be an excellent way to incorporate that (and a good place to start, 'til I got the hang of it). The heart in the middle will give me practice in outlining and making curved lines, and finally, the other spaces will give me practice in filling in larger areas.

I'm not sure how the random colours I picked up will look together, but that's okay. I like the pattern, and the purpose of this "rug" (which is going to be less than a foot square in size) is for me to learn on.

Well, I started hooking in the early afternoon, and wow -- do I ever have a lot of respect for the "olden days" ladies who hooked with little more than a filed nail stuck in a piece of wood for a handle. There's a knack to this. I didn't have the problem pulling out stitches that Sande had warned me about, but I don't think I was making my loops big enough. There are places on the front where you can see the backing showing through, and if I had a thicker pile, I don't think that would happen.

There were a number of moments of frustration, but most of them were caused by using a Q-Snap instead of a real rughooking frame. A real frame stands on its own, on the floor, or the table, or your lap, leaving both hands free to do the hooking. I had to hold onto the Q-Snap while I hooked, which made things a little tricky. (To make matters even trickier, the knuckles in my hands are double-jointed, and if I grip something too tightly for too long, my hands kind of collapse backwards. It's hard to explain, but it hurts and it's a nuisance.)

Having said all that, however ... I almost didn't want to take the time away from my hooking to go to a play-offs hockey game.

I really love doing this! It's relatively easy (although there's always room for improvement -- this definitely looks like a "first rug"). It also goes along fairly quickly, so impatient people like me get some almost instant gratification.

The border is all finished now (I refused to head to bed until it was), and even though there are areas where the loops don't cover the backing, I'm not going to go back and re-do it. This is my first piece, and part of its charm when I look at it later on will be the little mistakes, and the uneven loops. It will show me how far I've come since the beginning. I can definitely see many more rugs in my future.

I'm hooked.