Max and the Nightshirt

I have many moose things that people have given me over the years. In fact, I've had to curtail moose gift giving as I am running out of room for any more. But one thing that I love are the moose night shirts I have received over the years. On Friday night, I hauled out an old favourite and had a eureka moment. This particular shirt has a moose with only one antler and the caption is "Is that your final antler?" ha ha ha.

But when I looked at the face on this moose, I realized that poor Max was looking more like a horse than a moose, so some changes were in order. In fact, I spent most of my Max time ripping and re-drawing with green marker. I think I replaced all the undoing, so I don't feel like I went totally backwards.

This is a picture of Max with a new lease on life. He now has an eye and a nostril drawn in - neither of which were in the original plan. I think he is looking quite stately, and I like that he is watching me as I hook him. The weather was so amazing yesterday that I actually carried my big Cheticamp frame upstairs and out onto the deck. It was wonderful to hook outside. Very peaceful listening to the birds and the water. I think he enjoyed it too.

This morning, as I looked at this picture I took on the trusty Blackberry, I noticed my foot at the bottom of the picture. I decided that rather than cropping it out, I'd leave it in for scale. See, I told you this was a big piece!

We're having company next weekend, so I'm not sure how much I will get done. Max is just too big to tote back and forth to the city, so progress is a bit slow. I'm secretly hoping for some rainy days on our holidays so that I can get a big chunk of hooking time.

If Mother Nature falls for reverse psychology, by saying that the first two weeks of August will be gorgeous! If not, we may have typhoon season like last year....stay tuned.

Canada Day Projects

Yesterday was Canada Day. It was the first time I can remember it falling on a Wednesday versus being part of a long weekend spent at the cottage. But, because we stayed in the city, it turned into a day in which I got lots of projects done.

This was my first one. Organizing my wool on the new shelves I got for Mothers' Day - which meant rearranging the whole room in which I store it. Sorry the very fuzzy picture(taken with my Blackberry). These are the wire shelves that Cindi Gay raves about in "favourite studio equipment page" and since the price is right, and you can add to them indefinitely, they seemed like the perfect choice for me. I got them at Canadian Tire, since we don't have Target here - yet.

They were easy to assemble and once I took my wool out of all the various tubs and containers, and arranged it (loosely) by colour, it was the first time I was able to look at all my wool at once. I know compared to many (including Cindi Gay), this is a modest stash, but now that it's all out there, it seems pretty big to me. (My worms are all stored in see-through shoe boxes on a shelving unit in the laundry room, but someday, I'll add extra cubes to hold those as well. And I definitely count my worms as part of my stash - it's amazing how many times I go there first.)

Amazingly, the actual stash is pretty much as I remembered in my head. More than half is recycled and there are quite a few pieces from my dyeing experiments. I need to start adding by colour - definitely some yellows and greens. But now that I have the space to see everything, I'll make a list for myself.

The rest of my mid-week holiday was spent sewing drapes, helping unpack and hanging art at my daughter's new apartment: then preparing an appropriate Canada Day feast for the family - steak, potato salad and caesar salad - always a crowd pleaser.

Now that my wool is organized, I feel motivated to do the same with my desk and filing cabinet. I hope I get to both of those before next Canada Day (ha ha).

Maximum Moose

This is your first peek at my newest project. In case you can't tell what it is, it's the 21-inch head of a moose - Maximillian Moose - aptly named because he will be 6 feet tall when done.

He and a couple of other woodland creatures (including a bear and a raccoon) will be hiding my stacking washer/dryer in the main floor powder room at the cottage. I was going to have something built to hide them, but then had this idea to hook something instead. The dimensions (2 feet x 6 feet) sort of called for a moose - what with all the sightings this summer. For sure, it was a sign!

As I transferred the pattern onto the backing, I had an inkling of just how big a project this was, but it was when I pulled my first few feet of outline loops that it really hit me! This thing is huge and is really going to take a lot of wool

Luckily, I have decided to do this in a primitive style - to go with all the folk art fish etc. in the room. I can use a multitude of browns in Max and I'm doing a log background to match the walls in there. I'm hoping for a primitive tremp l'oeil effect - that they are actually in the room with you. Should be lots of fun in there when it's done. A little (or should I say big) surprise when you first open the door, that's for sure.

But with gardening, weeding and feeding my flesh to the deer flies, I didn't get much hooking time this weekend and really don't think I'll be steaming ahead at my usual pace.

It's set up on the Cheticamp frame and I'll try to devote a few hours each weekend, so I will keep you posted on the Max progress.

A bit of a dog and pony show.

Here are my two latest "Jeanius" bags that will both be wending their way to their new owners today.

I took both of these hooked fronts with me to Trent, thinking I would get them finished there. But my days were long and full and I really didn't have any time to get even the whipping and assembly done, so they got put together last night.

The dog bag is for my friend Linda in Fredericton. She is the Florence Nightengale who has been looking out for my brother Bill since his heart attack a while ago. "Breeze" is one of her golden retrievers, and I found out from my sister Nancy that she is the dog that Bill walked during his recovery. If that isn't kismet, I don't know what is. I hooked the bag using a picture from Linda's website, Ten Penny Kennels - I just really liked her face. I think I captured her likeness. I hope Linda thinks so too.

The horse bag was a commission for my friend Gaye (also from Fredericton), whom I have known since childhood. We grew up on horseback together, and Gaye still lives in the horse world, albeit here in Toronto at Woodbine Race Track. She sent me a clipping from a magazine to see if it would make a good bag design and I ended up finding the artist, Jennifer Mack, who painted the original work. I posted about her earlier (May 19th to be exact) and you horsey folks should all go and visit her website. Her paintings are incredible. I'll be sending Jennifer a copy of this picture today as well.

I really enjoy doing "custom" bags, since they have such an emotional connection to their owners. And they give me something new to try, which is always good. It's also good to have them done. I am sure that both new owners will show them off with great pride.

The great equalizer.

When I think of rug hookers, we are a bit like the "Borg" from Star trek. Not in the creepy, we-have-no-free-thought way. More like we are a huge collective, all connected through our love of this amazing art form.

I do realize we are all individuals with lives outside of hooking, but we tend to think about one another in the context of our hooking. I know people's colour palette - their preferred subject matter - I even know their style and their tension.

We do share stories about our husbands, our kids and grandkids, but it seems we mostly don't talk about our careers. I'm sure there is a good, therapeutic reason for that. We are hooking to get away from that part of our lives. But as in every cross-section of life, hookers do have incredibly interesting lives outside of hooking.

Becky in my class at Trent is an freelance accountant for TV and film production. She is the person who tells the producer whether or not there is money in the budget for that helicopter shot that the director just came up with and wants to do. She travels with the crew on location and punches numbers to keep the budget on budget.

I learned about Pauline's career because she had an amazing tip on her scissors - a special cap for surgical tools in the Emergency Room where she was a nurse for many years. I heard that Gwen's daughter Susan, in the classroom next door, is a doctor. But I knew her from the mother-daughter hooking team and from the incredible Maude Lewis mat she was creating.

We had quite a few recent retirees who are settling very nicely into their lives of hooking and spinning and knitting and creating. They are quite happy to leave their working lives behind. Others are still juggling non-stop to find time to do it all (I count myself in that group of late night hookers).

All of these things remind me that we are definitely much more than just hookers. We are writers and doctors and lawyers and teachers and wildlife biologists and as many occupations as we are people.

Our collectiveness (new word) is our hooking. Aren't we lucky to have this passion that brings us all together? That lets us escape from our other lives, if only for a while?

I think so.

My Classy Class of Trent '09

Here are the 12 lovely ladies with whom I spent my week at Trent. How do I describe these wonderful women, other than to say they made my week the best it could be.

They came from all over the province. Some stayed and some commuted every day. Some were veteran hookers – others were relative newbies. But the one thing they had in common was their love of this wonderful craft.

We laughed – a lot. Sometimes we laughed so hard we cried. We learned. We listened. We shared - wool and yarn and beads and candy and stories about our lives. Every single day was jam packed from the time we arrived in the classroom until we reluctantly left.

We created incredible works of art – a lot of them – as you can see from the above pictures. Nearly everyone created one bag and started a second. There were belt buckles and pendants and glasses cases and business card holders and signs.

It was the fastest week of my life, and one of the most rewarding. I’m sure that no matter how many week-long schools are in my future, this will be the one that I will remember the most. This first time will be the benchmark against which all others will be measured.

Thanks again ladies for making it so special.

Tuesday at Trent

Well, I survived Day 1 - more than survived, I thrived!!

I have an amazing group of women who are all enthusiastic hookers from all around the Province. They are all well into their first "Jeanius Bags". In fact the first purse is done!!! Truth be told, Jill had the flap hooked when she arrived, but it turned out beautifully! A perfect example of how a simple design is so effective. A couple of other bags are just slightly behind her.

We have such variety among the bags - cats, stars, flowers, a robin, a native art symbol. They are all reflections of their makers. Colourful, vibrant and fun.

I'm sure our class will be the envy of the school when we have finished projects for show and tell on Thursday.

The days race by and there is real progress and satisfaction in each one.

I'm enjoying my first full week as a teacher - and I'm not fried yet. Mind you it's only Tuesday.

Check back Thursday for an update.