Departures

Departure #1: A new technique

Each year my guild hosts a summer meeting. Topics vary but it is always a chance to gather with friends and learn something new, perhaps a bit tangential to weaving. At last summer’s program I learned Locker Hooking, an easy and satisfying technique in which fabric loops are pulled up through a canvas and locked into place by way of a cord running through the loops. After the program I was inspired to hook a larger piece.

When I finally managed to find a large piece of canvas I eagerly began hooking a piano-key border in black and blue strips cut from tee shirts. The single knit fabric makes a nice cushy structure and I was pleased. But once the border was in place I could not decide how to proceed with the center/main design area of the rug. I wanted to hook detailed images but was afraid because this was my first stab at Locker Hooking a big project on my own.

Locker Hooked Pond Rug

Please permit here a slight departure. Over the past summer my husband and I have been working to redesign our back yard. We increased the size of our little Goldfish Pond from 150 gallons to 300 gallons. It is only a stock tank sunk into the ground but we like it. With twice the space our fish are flourishing and we have employed new technologies for fighting algae. In the past Raccoons and Great Blue Herons have decimated our fish population but we decided not to add a protective cover mesh on the new pond. Instead we built a camouflaged hidey cave on the pond floor. Five months later the water is still clear, our fish are survivors and we can see and enjoy them better. Knock on wood!

Chart on page 141 inspired
my Pond Rug design

Anyway, ponds and fish had been on my mind when I finally came back around to Locker Hooking. Searching for inspiration I scoured my library for charted needlework designs. In “The Filet Crochet Book” by Chris Rankin I found a design of fish and flowers breaking through borders. Adjusting the figures to fit my canvas, I added the water lily leaves and bud and then filled the background to look like water. There was a bright orange tee shirt in my rag stash – perfect for either Goldfish or Koi. It all came together nicely and I spent many hours over Christmas and into January happily hooking.

Departure #2: Time Away

The entire second half of January I was away from home. Somewhere in my travels I caught this year’s dreadful cold/flu. Four weeks later I am still coughing and wheezing but feeling grateful to be improving every day. I finished my pond rug the night before I left on the trip but haven’t had time or energy to post about it until now.

Return: Home Again and Back to Weaving

The Pond Rug works well in front of our refrigerator where it catches errant ice cubes from the (ridiculous and messy) in-door dispenser. It makes me smile every time I step in the pond!

While I was away my husband bought me another package of the hard-to-find hooking canvas. Further pond ideas are dancing in my head. Maybe they are “swimming” in my head? But those will have to percolate in my mind for a bit because these days I am back at my loom and Waffle Weaving away. It is all fun!

May you stay well.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver