House on the Hill

You may recognize this little house on the hill; it is from Anni Downs applique pattern, My Favourite Things.  I turned it into a rug hooking, using all wool yarn.  My first rug hooking was made from strips of wool fabric and as I plan for my third rug, it will be made from a combination of both.

I never did show you my homemade lap frame, made at the same time as my yarn swift.  This type of frame is best when working with wool fabric strips.  Wool yarn can easily be pulled out by the fine grip needles, so if you are working with all yarn, a quilting hoop works best.  You can also use a quilting hoop with fabric strips, but you may need to replace the bolt with a longer one, as it can get bulky.

A Bowl of Wool

A gift that has me drooling!

The big orange ball of organic wool is from Denmark, BC Garn Semilla flame. The larger skeins are from Finland, Riihivilla 100% Finnsheep wool, hand-dyed, from plants and mushrooms.  And, five little skeins of super fine wool from Estonia, equivalent to one strand of embroidery floss. The wool from Denmark and Finland will be used for rug hooking and I'm thinking the Estonia wool may work as a thread for stitchery.

And, as I rolled out of bed this morning, the delivery truck arrived with my order of 39 skeins of Briggs & Little wool yarn.  I focused on Heritage and Regal, but next time I would like to order some Atlantic, for added texture to the rugs.  My yarn swift  is ready to turn skeins into balls!

Until next time.....happy quilting or hooking!

Karen

Spring Road Trip

A nice little stash came home with me from our road trip to Shipshewana, Indiana (Yoder's and Lolly's) and also a couple of quilt shops in Michigan, Quilts at the Marshall House, in Marshall MI and a new one for us, Lake St. Mercantile, in South Lyon MI, which is in a beautifully restored 1880's bank building.

Both Lolly's and Yoder's have added wool yarn to the inventory and I found a few must haves for rug hooking.  I also noticed precut wool fabric for penny rugs and wool applique, but too small for rug hooking, though they did sell some wool on bolts, just nothing that grabbed me.

On our way home we stopped in Ann Arbor, Michigan to attend the Michigan Hook-In and Rug Show hosted by the Northville Heirloom Hookers.  I have never been in a room full of hookers before and must say it was a delight.  The pretty wool flower above was a gift from the Northville Heirloom Hookers, to wear on my jacket. There were lots of rugs to see completed and in progress.  And, also vendors, which meant I wasn't coming home empty handed!

The bottom three will be used for overdyeing and I just couldn't resist the rest.  Though my plan is to use mainly recycled wool, I will treat myself to new wool every now and then.  The thrift stores have been very good to me and my inventory of recycled wool is growing at a rapid pace.

Home just in time to see the Fiddleheads and to enjoy some perfect spring weather in the garden.  It always feels good to complete the spring cleanup and worth all the aches and pains that come with it, but no time to rest, round two is about to begin, the weeds are coming!

Until next time.....happy quilting!

Karen

Preparing to Hook

Oh dear, I seem to be spending more time reading about rug hooking then hooking, but I have been hooking and my first project is one of all yarn.  Research told me working with yarn was more difficult than working with strips of wool fabric; I do find that to be true.  And, I have learned not to assume all yarns hook the same.

For example, I found Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian wool) difficult to pull up the loops without splitting the yarn, but after re hooking my tree trucks many times over, I resolved the issue.  Manos Maxima, beautiful merino wool, used on the tree tops, was heavenly to hook, but expensive.  Another yarn I tested out, after the photo was taken, was Full O' Sheep, Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller, very nice 100% Peruvian wool that hooks up quite lovely.  And, I should also mention, for hooking yarns I like using Joan Moshimer's Special O hook.  

Backing was an easy decision; I went with premium Scottish burlap made specifically for rug hooking.  It comes in two different weaves, one for finer hooking (#3, #4 and #5) and one for primitive hooking (#5 and up).  I wasn't sure which to use for my all yarn project and went with the primitive burlap.  Of the three yarns tested so far, I felt the Cascade 220 would have been better with the finer burlap. 

Red Dot Tracer seems to be a popular choice for transferring patterns to backing material.  It is basically a light weight non-woven interfacing with red dots marking each square inch, which is helpful for keeping your pattern straight.  Along the same line is Tru Grid by Pellon with blue squares instead of dots and for the times when a grid doesn't matter, I am just going to use a regular non-woven light weight interfacing.

Tulle (with fine holes) is another popular choice and like the Red Dot Tracer you use a Sharpie marker which bleeds through the interfacing (or tulle) and marks the backing material.  Another way is to make templates, place them on the backing material and trace around them with a Sharpie marker.  For this project, I tested out the Tulle and was pleased with the results.

So now, back to my hooking, the house is next and I still have a few more yarns to test.

Until next time.....happy hooking!

Karen

Yarn Swift

Back in November I began my internet search for 100% wool yarns to use for rug hooking and came up with some wonderful possibilities.  Maybe in my travels I will happen upon Halcyon, Blackberry Ridge, Harrisville Highland or Violet Jane and I am sure there are many more just waiting to be discovered.  Two great yarns I have already started collecting are Cascade 220's and Briggs and Little yarns. 

Briggs and Little are located in York Mills, New Brunswick and is Canada's oldest woolen mill,   established in 1857.  The photo above is just a few of the Briggs and Little sample cards I received in the mail with many wonderful colours, in several ply's and roving too. 

I plan to stock up on Natural White, Washed White and Bleached White for dyeing and also the Natural Sheep's Grey and Light Grey for overdyeing.  Another mill of interest is MacAusland's Woolen Mills in Bloomfield, Prince Edward Island, established in 1870.  Both MacAusland's and Briggs and Little offer free colour sample cards.

All it took was a couple of hours in the wood shop and for under $10.00 I made myself a wonderful yarn swift, built from pine, stained in English Chestnut and finished with a little Tung oil.  I have already spent many a happy hour turning skeins into balls.  Winding the balls by hand is relaxing and how I like to do it, but you can purchase an electric ball winder to use with the yarn swift.

I did try one center pull ball of yarn, but nothing beats the look of a ball of yarn wound the old fashioned way.

Until next time.....happy rug hooking!

Karen

Adventures in Rug Hooking

It was the summer of 1991 in Cheticamp, Nova Scotia when I was first introduced to rug hooking. With the hopes of making my own rug one day, I returned home with a little inspiration, a small mat made from fine wool yarn and a tiny hook.

One day came  in 1994 the year I signed up for a rug hooking class. Thirteen lessons for $65.00 and $100.00 for materials which included a pre-stamped pattern on burlap backing, a hook and pre-cut wool fabric strips. I worked on my rug over a 17 month period and spent a total of 200 hours hooking it.

When Anne, from Anne's Original Hooked Rugs posted a comment on my blog earlier last year that started me thinking about rug hooking again. I decided if it was still on my mind come fall, I would look into making another rug.  It was still on my mind and so began with a trip to the library where I checked out every book on rug hooking, all great reads.   One book, Basic Rug Hooking, by Alice Beatty and Mary Sargent I ordered for my personal library. I did purchase a few other books and will tell you more about them later.

Between the internet and reading books my head is spinning with so much information, I need to compile all I have learned for future reference. 

Frugal is the way I would like to go about rug hooking, but at first there is some expense.  New wool fabric is pricey, but an option is to recycle old wool and one that many rug hookers choose. I love the look of wool yarn hooked rugs and am leaning that way right now, but I also love the look of primitive rugs using 1/4 inch wide wool fabric strips.  I have seen the two mixed together with wonderful results and can see myself doing that to.

A decision has been made on the wool yarns I will be using and I even started my search for recycled wool fabric, with excellent results.  And, I am very excited about learning to dye wool.  Backing fabric has arrived and I have also added a couple of hooks to my collection.  But, what has been the most fun so far is time spent in the wood shop building a few rug hooking accessories.  I'm very pleased, wait till you see!

Also, before Christmas, I did order some new wool fabric (for dyeing) and binding tape to take advantage of a free shipping offer.  And, for Christmas, my sister brought me some nice white wool fabric and Cushing dyes to try, along with a big bag full of beautiful wool yarns.  I was planning to cut all my fabric strips by scissor, like the old days, but my sister is also interested in trying rug hooking and cutting by scissor is not her idea of fun, so she decided to order a Fraser 500-1 Strip Cutter.

So, once I compile my notebook of information, I will be ready to make my second rug, a new, old adventure that I'm sure to enjoy as much as quilting and stitchery.

Until next time.....happy New Year!

Karen

Hooked on Rugs

"Hooked rug - a little rug for your hearthstone."

The English Dictionary of 1810

Rug hooking is a craft where rugs are made by pulling loops of yarn or wool fabric through a stiff woven base such as burlap or linen. The loops are pulled through the backing material with a crochet-type hook mounted in a handle (usually wood) for leverage.

My Hooked Rug

Like quilting, rug hooking goes way back. I made my floral rug in 1994. Supplies were hard to find and expensive. Today it is easy to find rug hooking supplies, but the expensive part hasn't changed. If you would like to try rug hooking, kits are the way to go. They come with hook, stamped pattern and precut strips of wool fabric. And, you can use your quilting hoop to hold your project taught.

Sources and inspiration

Deanne Fitzpatrick Rug Hooking Studio

The Woolen Needle

Let's Hook Rugs

Folk and Fibre

I also have an update for you, about last weeks posting, Applique Freebies. A new block has been added to the Sally Post Floral Sampler. That makes fifteen blocks now available for download.

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen