"Road" rug

Although the original area isn't finished - and I'm still looking for cream wool to cut up and use - I've bitten the bullet and added more "roads" on two sides, so that it ends up a respectable size. Hopefully there'll be a bit of progress before the next meeting!

Hungry Fish Windy Day

Designed and hooked by Ruth Robinson

I seem to have a lot of sketches of fish with big heads and jaws.. not sure what that's about - but this was the result!

April Meeting

Hooked rugs, jewellery, book covers and .... a hand-made Corgi! We are soooo versatile!

'Hooked in London' Rug

Designed and hooked by Jill Izzard

Hi Folks At last my rug is finished, thanks to some wonderful weather which meant I was able to sit in my garden hooking today!
See you soon - Jill

My friend, Clare, has just finished this hooked rug using 100% wool.

The rug was made for the owners of 'Phoenix' a beautiful narrow boat.

I wanted to share this rug with you all - Jill

KATZE

This is a rug my friend Karin Martin is working on in Germany. Her inspiration was a photo of our cat, but she's given it a sort of classical Italian painting look with wonderful decorative borders!

Progress made so far....

Hi everyone - I expect you are all too busy 'hooking' to add any photos or messages to our Blog?



If this is the case then you can check out the progress I've made since our last meeting on my 'lettering project'. I am not finding it easy to create letters but fortunately I wanted a 'hooked effect' so its a great excuse to have lopsided lettering!

Today I spent the morning dyeing yet more stretchy fabric for this rug. Vests really are the best thing to hook through hessian. I did gain permission before I searched through His Lordship's Wardrobe!

Happy Hooking - Jill

What we were working on at the March meeting

Sari Silk Shaggy

Designed and hooked by Jill Izzard

Hi - Here is my Sari Silk Shaggy rug...almost completed. I just need to add the binding to the reverse side.
I enjoyed making this although it left a trail of debris all around the house! Fibres seem to stick to everything!
It's too heavy for me to carry to Saturday's meeting so here is a photo instead.
See you soon - Happy Hooking - Jill

In action

The next meeting is almost upon us and I haven't posted my photos from the previous meeting! Here's the big table at the start of the session, everyone working tidily -

A couple of hours later, it came to this -

Rag rugs get trendy

"Auriculas" by Emma Tennant is one of the rugs featured in Country Living magazine in 2009. There are seven more here.

Twenty years ago

At the February meeting, this magazine was floating around - the Jan/Feb 1991 issue, with a nice article on the rag rug revival -

Names mentioned in the article (with linkss, if available):

Kathleen Knight and Iris Sutton made rag rugs in their childhood
Moyna Lynch

Jenni Stuart-Anderson

Lu Mason

Ann Davies (British Rag Rug Association)
Hermitage Rugs of Roxburghshire (Emma Tennant)

Ali Rhind

John Hinchcliffe (author of Rugs from Rags, 1977)

Julia Burrowes ("textural paintings")
Gerry Coup

Winifred Nicholson (the 1960s Cumbrian revival)

Audrey and Dennis Barker (1970s)

"The history of rag rugs is almost entirely oral."

Hooking cookies

Moose River Hooker Cookies (Oatcakes)

3 cups flour
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup sugar
1 lb 20/80 spread or butter
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup water
Mix above ingredients well. Divide in half. Sprinkle 12 x 15 cookie sheet with bran flakes. Roll 1/2 of dough flat with rolling pin. Sprinkle top with bran. (Same for other half.) Bake at 350 for 20 min.

From the website of the Moose River Rug Hooking Studio, in Clementsport, Nova Scotia, Canada. Too much sugar in them to be the oatcakes we know in the UK!

Coincidence

While looking at a friend's blog I clicked "next blog" and found this - it's on http://fromsherrysheart.blogspot.com, along with her other hooking projects.

Hi all

This shows a small section of a rug I'm making using Sari Silk ribbon.

I'll post another photo when it is finished...could be a while!

See you in a couple of weeks time...Jill

Hooked and clipped panel for bag

Designed and hooked by Jill Izzard

Here is the panel I was working on at yesterday's meeting.

Today I finished the hooking, clipped the loops to obtain a soft textured surface and neatened the reverse side. I then stitched the panel to a black hessian bag.

Here it is!

Jill

Another lively Hooked-in-London meeting held here today.

The Creative Hearts event on the ground floor was a bonus.

See you all on 5 March....Jill

Hooked - on Books

This Saturday, 5 February, is our next meeting (see sidebar for details) - and it's also a day of action around the country to highlight the plight of public libraries. Over 400 are set to be shut - and once a library is shut, it's gone ...

So, think about what you can do to support those buildings that let you read books freely, and would have all the new books if only they could afford it -- including books about craft of course - as well as being an important community resource.

For information about Save Our Libraries day - and to share your own story - go to the Voices for the Library website.

(I hope you'll excuse me beating this drum here, but I'm a former librarian and apart from this professional interest, in my poor-student and single-parent days, being able to use libraries meant a LOT to me!)

The "hooked" library in the photo is in Madison, New Hampshire.

More hooking tools

I found these when rummaging through bags and boxes - tools I've had for years but never used (yet)! Both are for use with yarn, I believe, and need the hessian or other base material to be securely stretched on a frame.

From Morocco

This is a "boucherouite" (boo-shay-REET) rug, made in Morocco - made of torn and used clothing. Read more about these in a NY Times article about an exhibition earlier this year, "Rags to Richesse". There are photos with the article, and a slide show.