Neither of the videos are mine, but they are good examples.

This first video is of Rug Punching, a technique that is worked from the underside [...]]]> Seeing as I talk about both rug punch and rug hooking, I thought I’d show you the difference between the two in case you are unfamiliar with them.

Neither of the videos are mine, but they are good examples.

This first video is of Rug Punching, a technique that is worked from the underside of the rug. The artist is using an Oxford punch, the one I consider to be the best on the market, designed by veteran rug maker, Amy Oxford.  The smaller version of rug punch is called needlepunch and has a rich history in variation from as far afield as Russia and Japan.

These next two are by well known rug hookers, Gene Shepherd in this one:

and Deanne Fitzpatrick in this one:

Enjoy!

Deb

There are a few things I will do differently in future, now that I have a wee bit more experience.  I used yarn I already had and I’m [...]]]> Rug punch has been competing with bead embroidery for my attention lately.  This piece, my second ever, is to be a wall banner which says PEACE.

There are a few things I will do differently in future, now that I have a wee bit more experience.  I used yarn I already had and I’m not crazy about the color choices, in fact, the white C is changing to green to show up better. The back is messy because I didn’t push the ends through as I worked, something I will never fail to do again, as it is a royal pain to do them all at once.

Anyway, it is a quick and pretty cool craft which doesn’t hurt my not so young joints.

My daughter and I have started a project for her dorm room to cover [...]]]> Between glass, beads and textiles, fiber crafts seem to be winning my attention lately. I guess that’s going back to my roots, as I learned to knit when I was 5 and was sewing my own clothes as a teenager.

My daughter and I have started a project for her dorm room to cover up the horrible, cold vinyl floor.  Her residential high school used to be a hospital 100 years ago and while future students will benefit from the new campus that is in the planning and fund raising stages, for now, they make do.

The project is a latch hooked rug, about 5 ft. x 6 ft., so kinda big for a craft neither of us have done in years.   She chose warm, soft caramel and maroon chunky acrylic yarn and we are cutting our own 2 1/2″ strips to hook.   I’m winding the yarn around a slim spatula that has a convenient slit in the middle which fits scissors perfectly, to cut multiple strips at once.   We split the backing in half so we could each work on it at the same time without getting in each other’s way.  Here’s a photo:

Dorm Room Rug

That’s Charlie, a stray who found us last November in the engine compartment of our truck after we had driven 10 highway miles.  We heard his tiny scared little mews when we got out of the truck and I was so afraid that he was injured, but apart from being understandably terrified, he was fine.  He now lives a safe, pampered, inside life and I bang on the hoods of our vehicles before we start them up in winter.

This project, borne out of the necessity to not spend $300 on “the perfect rug” she found has sparked an interest in traditional rug hooking, the kind where you pull wool loops up through linen, rug warp or monk’s cloth with a simple hook (not a latch) to create a painterly images.  Most of the artists doing this work lean toward the primitive style that originated on the eastern seaboard, but there are some doing more comtemporary work and this is the direction in which I would go.