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Archive for November, 2008

Cambria Reminder

30 Nov

Today’s post is just a reminder that this Friday, December 5, is Opening Day for Cambria Pines Rug Camp 2009 registrations. As always, my camp is held in beautiful Cambria, CA, at the comfortable, Cambria Pines Lodge. Having an “Opening Day” for registrations allows everyone, regardless of where they live, to have an equal chance to get their first choice for teacher. Since I go by the post mark on the envelope, all one has to do is fill out the form and drop it in the mail to me on December 5. If you do not have a form and want one, go to my web site at www.geneshepherd.com, then click on the rug camp button. You can see the flyer as well as print out a registration form. Should you be unable to do that, just email me and I will send you a form via email. Cambria is always the first full week of June, meaning that it will be June 7-12, 2009. This year’s teachers are: Elizabeth Black, Cynthia Norwood, Jane Olson, Michele Micarelli, Gail Dufresne, Pris Butler and Diane Stoffel.

While there is a lot of beautiful scenery in the Cambria area, most fiber artists think the “interior” scenery is just as stimulating.

All campers are pampered by the Lodge staff.

There is plenty of stimulation in and out of the classroom.

Should an attendee ever get bored, Hearst Castle is only 10 mins. away by car.

If you are interested in camp, it’s best to know that I do fill up pretty fast and some teachers fill up the first day. That is why I always urge people who know they are coming to register on the opening day. However, for those who do not now what they will be doing that far in advance, I usually can fit in people who register much later – just can not always get them into their first choice of a class. But, since I have such wonderful teachers, any option at Cambria is a good one. If you have questions about camp, contact me.

3 Comments

Posted in Cambria Pines Rug Camp

Breakfast Dye Session, Elf #2 and Hooking Kids

29 Nov

With a house full of company still here from Thanksgiving, it’s a bit hard to get too much done in the rug hooking arena. However, I did manage to get 4 batches of wool dyed before the grandkids got up. That was it, however as far as my productivity went. After all, it is supposed to be a holiday.

However, later in the day, after people had started reading yesterday’s posts about the drawing for a slightly used floor frame, I did have contact with a second “elf” who was willing, since there were several requests, to donate another extra frame. So, it became “punch bowl” time again, giving everyone who had previously sent in their request, another opportunity.

This time, the name that came out was for the “Navy Youth Center, affiliated with The Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs,” at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. “Miz T,” one of our regular readers, teaches rug hooking there, to the children (ages 6-14) of military dependents. The frame being sent to her is a used, but in very good shape, gripper type lap frame donated by our Elf #2. An on-site frame will allow for much greater use by the youth and, no doubt, produce many great rug hookers. While I am always thrilled about any fiber arts opportunity for kids, it’s particularly nice that this frame can go to encourage the children of those who serve this country in our military service. “Miz T,” we want to see photos of the kids at work!

2 Comments

Posted in Dyeing, Uncategorized

“Elf” and an “Edge”

28 Nov

The Edge Part –

After the Thanksgiving meal, family activities and other things that go with Thanksgiving day, I was able to do a bit of whipping on my “Heart of the Home” rug. As you can tell by the photo, I ended up going with the magenta yarn option instead of the celery green speckled yarn that I talked about a few days ago. Although my finished edges do not show very much, by intent, the bright wool does give just a hint of color to the edge. It actually shows more on this close up shot, particularly due to the camera angle, than it does in person. Since there is not too much thinking that goes into whipping, it was a perfect activity for the football, conversation and grandchildren that is Thanksgiving evening. However, at 9 PM, I stopped whipping and checked the computer for any final requests for our “elf”s” frame.

The Elf part –

In regards to the free “used frame for someone who needs it” made available by an “elf” who reads this blog –
I got several requests from people who either need a frame or know someone who does. While I made it very clear that the decision would be made by the luck of the draw, I found myself wishing we had several frames to give away instead of just one, as all were worthy candidates. However, my 6 year old granddaughter was instructed to only draw out one name from the punch bowl. Although the actual name will remain confidential, I can tell you that the frame is going to a good home with a new rug hooker who is enthusiastically about to finish up her first project. “I have found that I love rug hooking – every aspect of it. I have been scrounging for wool and deconstructing men’s jackets, then dyeing them with Kool-aid!” The economic climate being what it is, there was no way for her to make an up-grade on her quilting hoop … that is, until our “elf” came along. So, besides this post, I have sent her an email and will make arrangements to get it in the mail ASAP.

And,
Dear Elf – Thank you for your generous gift. I am sure it will be greatly appreciated. GRS

3 Comments

Posted in Whipping Edge

Happy Thanksgiving

27 Nov

While I have shown this photo before, Thanksgiving Day seemed the absolutely perfect time to repeat it, particularly since I would like to post it along with my best wishes for the day. I also thought you might like just a bit of history about the piece since it has not been printed before.

When I learned that Rug Hooking Magazine wanted me to do the proddy book with a “free pattern” insert, it took me about 5 seconds to settle on a fall prodded runner – just the sort of thing that could go on a Thanksgiving table as a center piece. Although I knew that a fall piece would easily lend itself to a prodded interpretation, Thanksgiving really is my favorite holiday and I was excited about designing something that fit the day. Not that I don’t like other major holidays, it’s just that I particularly like Thanksgiving. I think it is the least watered down major holiday, the theme of giving thanks to God for His provision is ever timely, it’s my favorite meal and my ancestors were at the 1st American Thanksgiving in Plymouth. Plus, I have lots of happy memories about preparing for this celebration during my childhood. I often grew Indian corn and it usually made it’s way to the holiday table in a centerpiece. We did not have all the other flowers in the prodded piece on our table, but the golden rod and bittersweet all grew wild in my locale. (My whole family was allergic to golden rod, so it never came in the house.) Living in CA, one of the things I miss the most all year is that beautiful mid-western fall foliage. So, many of those things ended up in the runner because they had special significance to me.

Since we have more people coming over today at noon than will fit in our dining room, we will be eating in the studio. Because there is not a very good central place on a table for the runner, it is pinned up on the photo board and dominates the room. When counting our blessings it will certainly make me think of and give thanks for all my friends in the rug hooking community. Happy Thanksgiving!

PS: I have received several very good applications for the free “elf frame” as discussed in yesterday’s post. Everyone would be a good place to send it. I’ll continue to collect applications today until about 9 PM, when they will go in the punch bowl for a drawing.

7 Comments

Posted in Prodded Book

Elf’s Frame

26 Nov

One of my “Elfs” has an extra gripper-type frame and would like me to be the go between so that it can go to someone who really needs a frame. This is not a give-away drawing from me, but a generous offer to share from a reader. I do not know who made this frame, but it also comes with a “sit upon” attachment and a gripper cover. If you know a worthy recipient or are a worthy recipient and are willing to pay the shipping costs, please contact me at my email: gene@geneshepherd.com. If I only hear from one person in the next 48 hours, it will go to that person. If I get several requests, I’ll put them all in the hat and draw one out – I am not going to decide who is worthy and who isn’t. However, I suspect that many readers know someone within their circle of friends who would really benefit from such a gift and I think it’s a very nice way for one rug hooker to share with another. So, if you know the person who needs this, please email me by Thanksgiving night.

3 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Several Little Bits of News

25 Nov

Several different messages to talk about today.

First – I got this message from our drawing winner, Arline (code name, V. Sharmay …i.e. “Life is Beautiful”):
“Hi Gene, The gorgeous red wool arrived today. It is absolutely perfect………..I mean it. I couldn’t have asked for anything more perfect. It is already talking to me. Do this and do that. I am going to get a piece off of each of the pieces to send to you and I was waiting for it to come so I could put a piece in my Paisley I am just finishing up. I will keep you all posted on any brilliant results. Thank you, thank you, thank you…… V. Sharmay”

Arline is sending me a couple of strips so I can incorporate them into “Big Momma.” They will end up in some of those unhooked cherries on the unfinished end. That will be a very nice memory to hook into that rug.

Second – In another recent message from Ginny Stimmel, editor of Rug Hooking Magazine, I learned that they have finally gotten an interactive web site with on-line shopping capabilities. In other words, you can now go there and order any of their products from the latest book to a back issue of the magazine. That ought to make things, particularly on the back issue topic, much easier to find. Their site is www.rughookingonline.com

Third – I did get Babushka all done last night. Since I have had additional questions about various aspects of that process, I’ll finish today with just a few additional bits on that topic-

Since someone asked how I start and stop the yarn thread when whipping, I took this shot to show the process. I begin by making a few stitches in the excess backing, then bringing the needle up through the sandwich of backing and tape to start the whipping. I don’t tie a knot or anything like that – just leave enough tail sewn through the backing. When it’s all covered up and secured, it won’t be going any where. This particular shot shows the spot (it’s in the middle where both pieces of yarn V out towards the edge) where one piece was being ended and another was being started.

After whipping the entire piece, to join the tape, by overlapping the two ends of the tape so that I can whip about an inch of that over lapped section until the whipping completely covers everything. Then, the tail of the tape is turned up so as to make a folded right angled edge, which is pinned down. All of that outside edge of the tape has to sewn down with good thread the color of the tape.

When coming to the corners, they are mitered and pinned. All those interior, folded edges are sewn down as well.

The final step is to sew off the starting and stopping point. An edge with an angle seems to make a more finished look than square options … or at least does to me.

Here is a shot from the top side of the finished edge. Again, I don’t like a very big whipped edge. It needs to stay below the loops so that, should the piece be on the floor, the loops will take the foot traffic and not the edge. Since this piece has been shown so many times during construction, I am not showing it again today. However, when I do the posts on the Christmas Home tour, I am sure it will be present and accounted for.

4 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized, Whipping Edge

Getting Started

24 Nov

Since I blog about what I am doing, you can quickly tell I did not do anything too exciting or ground breaking Sunday evening. It had been a very long day and I only had enough steam to just get the ball rolling with “Babushka.”

That process starts with a zig zag seam all the way around the edge, about 1 inch out from the last hooked row was the first step. I always do it in a contrasting thread color so I can easily see where it is when it comes time to cut next to it.

Once the edge is sewn, all that excess can be cut off and discarded.

When my wool comes in a “tobacco twist” it’s always easiest to just put it on the swift so it can be rolled back up in a yarn ball. I am fortunate to have two: a big one, left over from weaving days, that handles really big hanks and this smaller one I found at a garage sale. It handles smaller amounts like that which I bought for this project. This little garage sale swift (25 cents) sits next to my antique garage sale spinning wheel ($20) on the top shelf in my studio. I’ll show them both when we do the holiday home tour.

After laying the piece on it’s face, the edge is folded back and secured with pins. Next, I lay the tape on top of that fold and pin it in place as well. With every thing pinned down, I start whipping, through fold and tape in one motion. It takes a bit more work to do all that pinning, however, it saves a lot of time in the end as it saves an entire step as I whip both tape and fold together. Once all that is done, it’s just a matter of tacking the interior edge and mitering the corners.

I turned over the piece so you can see just enough to get the idea. Although not much actually got whipped, at least I got started and that is half the battle some times.

2 Comments

Posted in Whipping Edge

Picking Yarn for a Whipped Edge

23 Nov

The fun part of rug hooking is, well, rug hooking. Not too many people list “finishing the edge of my rug” as their #1 past time. Still, the rug is not finished until it is finished and there is something exciting about getting the last step done. It won’t be as dull if you pick something fun that makes the rug look good. I have been so focused on new projects that I’ve gotten backed up in my whipping and have two pieces patiently waiting to be done. Since I want to show both in my studio during the Christmas Home tour, it is time to get moving on the process. That means a trip to “Velona’s,” my local yarn shop. Fortunately, this Saturday, as opposed to last Saturday, there were no life threatening forest fires in the immediate neighborhood!

Picking out wool for the “Babushka” rug was not too difficult – I wanted a pure black wool yarn to match the hooked black line around the outside edge. The biggest trick for picking this hank out was to get the right sort of black. Therefore, I took the wool outside so that I could check it against the hooked line in the day light. This yarn was a perfect match.

I always use 100% wool yarn for whipping. Some of my friends use acrylic yarn, but I can not justify going to all the trouble to make a wool rug then whip it with anything other than 100% wool. (If you are interested in how I whip, there are other posts about whipping in the Blog Archives, as well as a DVD on the process in the web site store.) I do not know enough about yarn to tell you what size I choose – not too thin or too thick. Weight of yarn does vary with me as I go first for the color. But, since I double the yarn, I do not want it overly thick. The ones I choose always look “medium” weight to me.

The greater challenge was to find something for the “Heart of the Home” rug. My first choice was a dark, yellow/green the same color and value as the outside edge of the background. My second choice was a slightly lighter yellow/green. However, and I don’t think this has ever happened at Velona’s, they had absolutely nothing in that general shade. Everything was a blue/green – no yellow green at all. That is quite unusual as Velona has aisles and aisles of yarn and I always seem to find what I want. So, in going a different route, I ended up with two yarns that would work equally well.

The magenta yarn, which is probably the one I will use, is a dead match to the lighter magenta in the rug. It would bring a tiny bit of color to the edge, but do so in a subtle way. (If you research my technique, you will find that I only whip an edge that sits below the loops as I want the rug and not the edge to take the foot traffic. Therefore, whatever I use won’t show up too much.) Still, I was very much attracted to this lighter celery colored yarn as well. The flecks in that yarn are identical to all the other colors in the rug, even down to that little blueish bit. I don’t usually like a light edge, but I may make an exception in this case. Velona’s lets me return anything I don’t use, so I brought it home to study a while. I’ll pin up the rug and yarns together, across the room, so as I whip “Babushka” I can study the effect each would have on the “Heart” piece.

Although it’s not done yet, I have already had a pretty set idea of how to whip the edge on “Big Momma” and decided to see if I could find a goldish something that looked rather “tweedy.” I do want a contrast on this rug that will be something other than the border colors. Since gold tweeds are used as stems throughout the piece, as well as some of the background stripes, that seemed a good unifying color for the very edge.

As luck would have it, I found this multi-flecked wool which, again, has many of the colors of the rug in the flecks. In person, it is more “golden” than this photo shows (the other photo shows it closer to it’s real coloration) and looks very much like some of the stem tweeds in the piece. It will be perfect for this edge … as long as I don’t loose it by the time the rug is ready to be whipped.

As I finish cleaning up and decorating my studio for the up coming tour, at least I have a non-messy way to remain productive.

10 Comments

Posted in Whipping Edge, wool

Alternate Loop – Bead Hooking

22 Nov

I realize that most people call this technique “bead” hooking, but I prefer to refer to it as “alternate loop,” as I think it is more descriptive. The first project where I used it also incorporated a lot of sewn on glass beads. So, referring to beaded hooking on a piece where beads were also being applied seemed confusing. You can call it what you want, but I still prefer alternate loop. A reader asked, a couple of days ago on a blog comment post, if I would explain the procedure. So, here it is.

It’s important to choose two different colors that are a strong contrast to each other.

While there are ways to “start” that hide the raw tail, it’s a bit complicated to demonstrate that on the blog. Besides, I usually don’t got to all that trouble. I begin, in hole #1 with the tail of color A. Another loop from color A goes in hole #2.

Here’s a shot from the side just so you can get a good perspective of how the row looks at this point.

Continuing to shoot from the side, this photo shows color B being added with a tail in hole #3. A loop of color B goes in hole #4.

Underneath the frame, both colors of wool are hanging down – I keep color A on the left and color B on the right.

For hole #5, bring up a loop of color A. So far, no holes have been skipped.

For hole #7, skip it. Then, in hole #8, bring up a loop of Color B. Hole #9 gets a loop of color A. Skip #10 and put the next color in hole #11. The rigidity of 2 loops and skipping a hole does not have to be followed in a precise manner – I tend to skip every 2 or 3 holes. However, the skipping is approximate.

By keeping one color hanging to one side, with the other on the opposite side, it helps keep the colors coming to you as needed. After doing a bit of this, I swear I can feel the difference between the two colors. It also allows the underneath side to be as smooth as possible. While, I suppose, it does not matter if the colors twist on the underneath side (I don’t put this technique on the floor) the underneath side ought to look like this. (If you are noticing the colors are reversed, it’s because I took the piece off the frame and turned it over for this shot.)

In this final shot of this section, notice the initial top gold beginning spot. That original gold tail was eventually snipped just a bit shorter than the height of the gold loop – while not bothering to hide that tail, a little haircut does significantly lessen its impact. While it is still visible in this shot because of magnification, in real life, the tail is not noticeable at all.

I love this technique but only use it for non-floor pieces as I think the “extra” on the underneath side is a bit much. However, if you put the rug on a good floor pad, it might wear just fine.

This method can be used in a variety of ways to get interesting effects that appear, to me, like the sort of braid you would buy at an upholstery shop. The top of the stocking has a row of alternate loop, a solid row, then another alternate one. Sometimes I do just the opposite with solid, bead and solid combinations.

13 Comments

Posted in Alternate/Bead

A Little Progress

21 Nov

It does not look like much progress, but quite a lot of work did go into this section of the rug, getting it to the place where it is as I take this photo. I have not had too much time to just hook this week, but did get the corner turned on the border and most of the three top sections of the background filled. Neither of these “fill in” sections make for very exciting work, but with not too much more effort, 2/3rds of the rug will be done. That WILL be exciting. At least, filling in this top section will go pretty fast, if I can get the time to hook. People often say: “How do you find the time to hook with your day job?” On weeks like I have had this month, the answer is: “I don’t have too much time, but grab it when I can.”

News from Arline Keeling:
Arline, our drawing winner, has received her wool prize – one yard of Colonel Sanders Red, which was option “C.” Instead of using all of it in one project, she is going to use it the way I used Miss Weigle’s purple suit. (See post “The Purple Suit” which was written June 23, 2007 and is filed under “Miss Weigle.”) That means she will put just a bit in everything she does, keeping a record of how far it goes. I have already requested just one piece of hand torn half inch wool as “Big Momma” has plenty of space to fill and I would like to make a memory. It will be fun seeing how she uses it.

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Posted in Big Momma

Gene’s Rug Hooking Blog

Archive for November, 2008

Cambria Reminder

Breakfast Dye Session, Elf #2 and Hooking Kids

“Elf” and an “Edge”

Happy Thanksgiving

Elf’s Frame

Several Little Bits of News

Getting Started

Picking Yarn for a Whipped Edge

Alternate Loop – Bead Hooking

A Little Progress

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