NEW RAG RUG BOOK

Jenni Stuart-Anderson, who some of you have probably seen on her stand at the Knitting & Stitching shows over the years, has just brought out a new book: More Rag Rugs & Recycled Textile Projects.

The projects include brooches, shaggy doorstops, a wall hanging and a pegloomed rug, as well as instructions for making your own pegloom or large frame for hooking.

It covers design, materials and techniques with lots of pictures of rug, old and new. Price is £14.95 + £2.50 UK p&p, with a special price of £25.00 for both this and her previous book: Rag Rug Making, + £5.00 UK p&p. See her website for payment details: www.jenni.ragrugs.freeuk.com

Road rug finished

Designed and hooked by Margaret Cooter

It measures 64cm x 85cm and is made of wool strips, recycled from a bit of blanket and some charity shop garments. The roads are parts of routes we drive on quite often - eg to the grocery store and favourite museums - and some of it is just plain made up. Now that it's done I have the urge to join up those sideroads - they seem to be crying out to be joined up....

My blog shows how this is linked to some books I'm making - click here.

Silent Spirit

Designed and hooked by Jill Izzard

This large Wall Rug was hooked using 100% Dupion Silk and then sheared to create a textured surface.

It is very heavy measuring approx 150 x 80 cms.

I have named this rug 'Silent Spirit'.

The rug hanging will be exhibited within Textile Expressions Gallery at the Knitting and Stitching Show to be held at Alexandra Palace in London from 6 - 9 October 2011 and then exhibited at The Harrogate International Centre during late November 2011.

Jill

Karin's Chicken Rug

My friend Karin in Germany has just completed her chicken rug. I love it - It's so exhuberant, full of life and very feisty!

Ruth

First Punch Needle Project!

Designed and needle punched by Ruth Robinson

Having bought a set of punch needles from US some years ago, and failing miserably at the time in my attempts to use them, I recently decided to give it another go. 'Flower' is the result, using a Cameo Ultra Punch (with its largest needle) on 100% wool fabric, which is very dense, bought from Mary Drayton. It's much heavier than the recommended Weaver's cloth, which seems impossible to buy over here. I used 6 strand embroidery threads and tapestry wools. It's much quicker than hooking, but if you want to incorporate fabric strips, they need to be cut much thinner and used with a larger punch needle. I've now got some Weaver's cloth from US so will experiment further!

Beyond hooking

As well as hooked rugs wool can be used for felted rugs - here's an article about an workshop set up in Iran, working with traditional felt makers to make rugs that appeal to Western customers - http://handeyemagazine.com

Chickens Galore

Designed and hooked by Jill Izzard

I made this little mat for a Chicken Project.

Deb and her friends from Woolwright's Rug Hooking Guild, Lancaster, USA, started this project and asked me if Hooked-in-London members would like to join in.

Some have already finished their 'chicken inspired pieces' and others are still working on them....watch this space....

My mat was hooked from old discarded T Shirts and Vests which I then dyed. The loops were then sheared to create a textured effect.

Jill

This little bag is titled "Cockscomb". It was made using various rug hooking techniques by my friend Clare Hutchinson. Clare joined in with our Chicken Project which was started by Deb Burcin from Woolwrights Rug Making Group in USA.

We have other 'Chicken Project rugs/mats/coasters to show which will be posted very soon.

Jill

Annie Sherburne's rugs and shop

... can be found on the first floor of the Oxo Tower shopping arcade. Look, amid the wool and other textile necessities, an exhibition of old rug-making tools! -At the door, a welcoming rug - and more inside -
Annie has exhibited at the "Origin" craft fair - the link leads to her "Cosmic Flowers".

A wonderful resource

If you don't know it already, have a look at The Textile Blog thetextileblog.blogspot.com- it's full of interesting information on all sorts of textiles, including rugs, like this one by Joseph Maria Olbrich, c1900 - More about these rugs is here.

"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.

Design sources

My "road monster" rug is nowhere near finished and already I'm thinking ahead to the design of the next one.

Where do designs come from?

One possibility is - paintings. This is part of a landscape by Gustav Klimt, from the webpage of Margaret Arraj (www.millriverrugs.com) -

Among her many designs are titles like "Tropical Tivaetivae" and "Afghan Sun" -- so, other design sources are other textiles, quilts, and embroidery.

Designed and prodded by Jill Izzard

Hi all

I have turned one of my 'prodded samples' from a previous project into a bag. This sample was made from 100% silk dupion.

I folded the sample in half, lined it with silk, added acrylic handles and voila!

See you all the next meeting - Jill

Hooked in Labrador

Back in the days before digital cameras, Canada House in London had an exhibition of, or containing, hooked rugs from Newfoundland - they were gorgeous. And here's a book with photos and information! I haven't had time to read it yet and will bring it along to the February meeting.
The book contains old photos of the landscape and activities that the designs are based on.
"Fish Flake" is quite well known - the designer is Rhoda Dawson, who went out to Labrador in the 1930s to work with the Grenfell Mission, which provided medical care. The rugs were fundraisers, and society ladies "down south" in the USA saved up their old silk stockings to donate as material for the rugs - Grenfell had married an American socialite, who got very involved in the enterprise.

The mats are still hooked today, in wool, to the traditional patterns - they are hooked in horizontal lines and use every hole in the "brin" (burlap/hessian).

Progress so far

At the meeting I got advice of width of strip and type of backing to use. This is enlarged from a small photocopy and measures about 80 cm wide. A small amount was hooked at the meeting - the rest is the result of two nights' hooking while watching television (or rather, listening to it).

The design is based on tracings from A-Z maps of the routes we travel most often in the car. This version combines parts of several journeys - so it's a bit of a fantasy.

First meeting at Craft Central

Our Meeting

I enjoyed the meeting at Crafts Central yesterday. It was so good to be with others interested in the craft of Rug Hooking.

With six of us each working on a different project, covering various techniques, it helped make the 'get together' a lively event.

Craft Central is an interesting building and the Art Exhibition we visited on the ground floor was a bonus.

I shall look forward to our next meeting in February. Maybe in the meantime we'll find others who wish to join this active group.

Happy Hooking - Jill

Creative Rug Makers

If you are interested in using fabric to create wall hangings and rugs then consider joining Hooked in London.

Jill

www.jilltextileart.com

Wreath

This wreath was made by progging strips of thin fabric through a hessian backing.

Firstly I drew an inner and outer circle, using a copper wire frame as my guide, onto a piece of hessian. I then prodded in strips of fabric into the hessian between these lines. When the circle was completely covered by these strips I wrapped the hessian around the frame. Finally I attached a small bird in the centre.

I bought my copper frame and hessian from Mary Dayton. She also has more detailed instructions for making a wreath similar to the one shown above. Jill

http://www.ragartstudios.com/

A Sunflower

I made this sunflower by pulling (progging) shaped pieces of woollen fabric through a linen backing.

The centre of the flower is made from an old tweed skirt my friend found in a charity shop. She kindly sent me some of this skirt which I 'hot-washed' so as to felt it.

Gene Shepherd shows how to make flowers such as the one above in his latest book/DVD; 'Prodded Hooking for a Three-Dimensional Effect'.