I had asked the staff, regular volunteers, teachers and local suppliers to join me for a "Knit and Chat" lunch. The venue was booked months ago and the menu was set.
Then the venue went out of business and we had to throw something together at the last minute. And as these things usually happen, it turned out even better than the original plan.
The group ranged in age from early 30's to late 70's, all avid knitters except for our rug hooking teacher who is generally an all round fibre fan. And it was at this time that I was able to admit to her, and all the others at the table, that I've discovered that I LOVE rug hooking. I work with knitting and feel confident and secure in it; I really enjoy designing, writing and teaching; I run a business relatively well, but I LOVE rug hooking.
The piece pictured here (by the way, don't ever lose the usb cable for your camera. It's a major pain to work around or replace) is my first completed piece, which I literally drew freehand on a substandard piece of burlap that I had hanging around, and began working on just so that we would have a display to show customers what rug hooking was like. Well, it didn't progress very rapidly as I left the partially completed project hanging in the store for months on end, until I decided to take it home over the Holidays to give myself a different project to work on, and I got so into it that I finished it. Yesterday I bought some binding tape to sew on the back and I plan to use it as a table rug in our living room. The rust and gold are just regular Lopi yarn and the blue and aqua details are done of Briggs and Little "Super" 4ply wool.
Did I mention that I LOVE rug hooking. And it would appear that others are getting into it too. We are now carrying lovely designs on (fine quality) burlap which are becoming very popular and I'm having to reorder quite frequently. And the beginner's class in rug hooking, coming up on Feb. 14th, is already sold out and we're taking names for another proposed class later in the spring. I guess people just like the feeling of working with wool and playing with the fibres.
The other fun that I've been having lately is preparing the class in advanced sock knitting techniques using Cat Bordhi's book: "New Pathways for Sock Knitters." The lady is quite amazing: in an experience that was a lot like when Newton got beaned on the head with the apple, Cat discovered that it truly doesn't matter where you add stitches around the foot to accomodate the enlarged area around the heel and instep, and so has used this knowledge to play with possibilities that this discovery opens up.
This is my demo sock using the "Little sky sockitechture".
On a typical sock, the diagonal lines that return us to the original form of the foot begin at the ankle and work their way on either side to about the middle of the foot. Notice on this sock that that line begins at the top of the foot and goes down in a straight line towards the bottom of the heel. This gives some nice room for an interesting design on the top of the foot, or on the side of the heel.
There is still some room in this class that I'll be teaching on Feb 28th when we'll be covering toe-up techniques, different "expansions" to accomodate our 3 dimensional feet, custom fitting, knitting socks on (a) circular needle(s), and lots of other great features for sock knitters who want to go on to the open a whole new world of possibilities for themselves.
