Encompassing Designs
  • Home
  • Shop
    • Kits
    • Patterns >
      • Christine Little >
        • Signature Designs
        • New Designs
        • Seasonal Designs
      • Deborah Sweet
      • Susan Leslie
      • Patricia Perry
      • William Morris
    • Supplies >
      • Backings
      • Frames
      • Hooks
      • Books
      • Extra
    • Wool >
      • Abrashed
      • Custom Dyeing
      • Dyed Bundles
      • Dyed Curly Mohair
      • Dyed Spots
      • Dyed Values
      • Dyed Yarn
      • Jacquard Dice Dyes
      • Natural & Colours
      • Plaids & Textures
      • Dye Books & Swatches
  • Ordering
  • Blog
  • Workshops
  • Our Story
  • Contact Us

I need to work less and play more.....

3/9/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
As I was cutting a kit the other day, I looked around the studio with wonder.   I certainly am proud of this accomplishment and appreciate the perfect team that makes it all possible, but at the same time I feel a little sad that I’ve somehow let the passion for pulling loops fall by the wayside.  Last year with COVID it was insane with orders coming in faster than a conveyor belt of chocolates in an episode of I LOVE LUCY.  By days end, there was nothing left in me to even think about rug hooking after being immersed in the work end of the craft all the day long.  It’s like a worker in a potato chip factory losing their taste for chips.  A year had gone by and I hadn’t pulled a loop and I need to remind myself why I started this business and find a way to mix a bit of play in with the labour. 

I think most craft entrepreneurs suffer this problem in varying degrees.  The love we have for a particular fiber art leads us down the retail path thinking it would be euphoric to be immersed in our passion, eat, sleep and dream it, but truthfully, it can be too much.  The work part of it can take over your life, with no separation for personal time as it all blends into one big overwhelming fibrous ball. I’m sure some think it would be awesome to be in a 24/7 rug hooking experience as it gives them a sense of artistic purpose.  Heck I used to be that way but now after two decades have slipped by faster than a ball of wool unraveling, and my house has only two rugs on the floors hooked by me, how sad is that?  That’s all I have to show for hooking for twenty-two years?  Sure, I’ve hooked many items for the shop, which was fun, but again that’s all part of the work. 

Somehow what attracts us to a fiber art in the first place, the excitement of it all takes a back seat to the business hum drum and in my particular case, the manufacturing of product. It’s a labour intensive and time-consuming process producing the items we sell in the shop. It’s work anyway you view it. People tell me I do it because I love it.  But what is it that I love?  It’s not the work that takes me into the wee hours of the morning, driving home while the town is in darkness and folks are all nestled in their beds?

I do love sending out the finished products, knowing rug hookers will have the very best experience with our top-quality merchandise but I wish elves would work throughout the night creating our wares so I can put my feet up and enjoy the benefits of the trade while sitting in my studio wingback hooking my latest design.  I have this crazy dream, I would love to hit send on an order form and have finished goods arrive on our doorstep, but the reality is, we make the bulk of our products, take raw materials and create our patterns, dyed wool and kits. 

Several times Shane has commented on the laughter coming from the shop that is adjacent to us. They are always having a merry old time over there, their laughter permeating the walls, their retail shop is like an open-door party.  He said he wished our studio was that much fun to work in.  I said sweetie, they don’t make their inventory, it comes delivered by UPS.  We could all laugh our bloody arses off if we didn’t have to work over hot steamy pots, eight simmering pots are so loud conversation isn't even possible let alone be laughing at someone's funny. Drawing patterns until our hands are tattooed black from the marker and our backs are protesting, inhaling wool dust and wearing out our shoulder sockets as we crank on cutter handles, cutting kits for HOURS on end.  We have more than one kit that takes a day or two to dye the wool and five hours to cut it, imagine the fun in that?  It’s not heavy labour like digging a ditch but it’s still exhausting work.  And cutting wool for that duration means the entire shop is covered in a light coating of wool fiber, we are slipping and sliding around the cutting area, our shoes like skates on ice, a work hazard for sure. Then having to vacuum every surface in the vicinity.  Glamourous? I think not. The work we do isn’t pretty, only the end result is. 

Sure, we could laugh it up too if we only had to chat up customers and put the latest merch on our shelves, unpacking boxes as they arrive like Christmas presents full of glorious product.  The laughter would ricochet off our walls like ping pong balls.   Our work isn’t difficult but it is still work and we are hustling as well, always on the move rushing to get orders in the mail as soon as possible.  Some days you can cut the stress with scissors as we work to a deadline to make it to the post office Friday by 3:00 pm.  No laughter there.  We’re basically assembly line workers, minus the assembly line and we’d all rather be sailing…..I mean hooking. 

In retrospect I should have picked up knitting needles and fallen head over heals for yarn. Completing wholesale order forms and filling the shop shelves with luxurious wools from around the world, rainbows of rich colours and textures that are available because someone else did the work.  One my way to work each day I look through the windows of Have A Yarn and think what a beautiful shop.  All that gorgeous inventory they didn’t have to dye and spin, just label and display.  Oh, how I would love to stock product I didn’t have to make and then sit in my comfy chair to knit away while I look out over my little empire of yarns for as far as my eyes could see. Ooh la-la. 

But I met and fell in love with rug hooking. It’s been a good marriage and after 21 years with Encompassing Designs I’m still in love, but I am courting the comfort stage of the relationship. All the thrills and excitement are dulled from two decades of the daily grind. I still get a thrill designing patterns but I don’t have a lot of time to do that at the studio so it spills over into my evening at home chewing into my personal time.  Now I might sound like I’m complaining, and maybe I am but fortunately I still look forward to going to work and that feeling I get when I first walk in the door and see that beautiful rainbow awaiting me, well it’s pretty incredible and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  It’s like the movie Groundhog Day.  I get a little tired each night and wonder why I still do it and then when I wake the next morning, I’m ready to go again. Entering my shop door takes my breath away every single day. I am not ready to retire, I’m still on this journey and I’m excited to see where it all ends up and I thank you all for making it possible. Yes, I do complain about making kits but it’s bitter sweet, I don’t like the assembly and cutting but when I staple the bag topper label on the finished product, I feel rewarded for a job well done and I know the customer will admire and appreciate the above average quality of their purchase. 
 
What I need to do is get back to the grassroots of why I started Encompassing Designs.  The love of hooking!  I am capable of so much and I want to fill my home with labours of love.  Isn't that the big reward, the frosting on the cake, the raison d’etre, the creative joie de vie, the fuel in my tank? So, lets hope 2021 means my hook gets a bit of wear, my scissors grow dull while my creative juices sharpen, after all that’s what its all about. 

I did hook a Hit & Miss pillow topper in January and that old passion bubbled up like hot molten lava.  At that point, I hadn’t hooked in a year so I took on an easy project to break back into it, one that didn’t require a lot of thinking to make sure I hadn’t lost my technique.  It was thrilling and I was almost giddy with excitement.  As the rug evolved beneath my hook, I fell in love all over again, so much so I couldn’t sleep that night thinking about what my hands had created.  Thank goodness I’m not in a loveless craft relationship, drained from years of toil.  Thankfully it can still make me smile and give me a few thrills like it did when we first met. 

Last week I finished my Sea Monster, another riser for the shop stairs.  That was pretty exciting too.  I hooked it in my favourite #3 cut, so it took a bit longer than usual but I enjoyed working with the colours as they brought the monster to life, why he almost swam away from me!  I only have five more to do to complete 15 and I'm in a bit of a quandary because it's difficult to decide which designs to pick. So much choice and I want to do them all!   It sure feels good to be back in the saddle and I hope to stay in it, hopefully not falling off the horse again, at least not for awhile.   
     

Picture
2 Comments

What's new for you!

3/9/2021

23 Comments

 
We are selling the remaining Swatches for the book Past & Present Antique Colours & Spots because the book is no longer available. Regular $55, they are going for $30 a set.  Few left.  If you have the book and always wanted the swatches this is good value as these sets were expensive to make.   
Picture
Picture
Picture

Deborah, Shane and I have been doing a bit of COVID designing.  Below are some of the new designs we offer on the website.  Some were requested while others just popped into our heads.  
Gingerbread Houses Ornaments
Picture
Sugar & Spice Ornaments 
Picture
Homeward Bound
Picture
COUNTING ON YOU LINE OF 16" X 16" RUGS FEATURING NUMBERS (4 MORE TO COME)   
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Gourd-geous
Picture
Eeeekk...!
Picture
Iconic Mahone Bay
Picture
Flying Formation
Picture
Inception
Picture
9 new additions to our Nautical Riser Line All are 5" x 29"
Octapus's Garden
Picture
$and Dollar$
Picture
Deep six
Picture
Dory Dozing
Picture
Ebb Tide
Picture
Waves
Picture
Sunken Treasure
Picture
Whale Tale 
Picture
Regatta
Picture
Adirondack Chairs
Picture
Vintage Suits Riser
Picture
I'll Be Gnome For Christmas 
Picture

Dragonfly Coasters 
Picture
Picture

Put Your Right Foot In....
Picture
My Dear Donkey
Picture
Quatrefoil
Picture
Criss-cross
Frosty's Family Tree-Skirt Mini
Picture
Picture
Roundabout
Picture
Fandango
Picture
Bordertown
Picture
Roundabout
Picture
Christmas  Ornaments III
Picture
Christmas Ornaments II
Picture

Gnome Cones 
Picture
Stay The Blazes Home 
Picture
We Rise Again
Picture
Home for the Holidays 
Picture

23 Comments
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Christine Little has been ranked #5​ out of the 60 top rug hooking bloggers by Rug Hooking Magazine!

    Picture
    Picture
    Max Anderson, Australia, recipient of my Nova Scotia Treasures rug.  An award of excellence for promoting Canada through his writing.  
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    July 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

    Picture
    Picture
    Gift Certificates are available for that special rug hooker in your life!  Any denomination, no expiry date! 

    Picture

    Categories
    (Click on the categories for past blogs)

    All
    Announcements
    Beginner Class
    Christmas
    Colour Planning
    Contests
    Copyright
    Coupon
    Customer Rugs
    Cutter Servicing
    Dyeing
    Equipment
    Featured Hooker
    Giveaway Draw
    Guest Blogger
    Guest Blogger
    Health & Fitness
    Home & Heart
    Hooked Rugs
    Hooking Groups
    Hook In Talk
    Initially Yours
    Jibber Jabber
    Just A Bit Of Fun!
    Life's Experiences
    Life's Experiences
    New Design
    New Ideas
    Pattern Of The Week
    Patterns Hooked
    Pets
    Rants
    Recipes
    Rememberingfbe7326ff7
    Rug Schools
    Show & Tell
    Show-tell
    The Rant
    Tips Technique
    Tips Techniquef0cd117ab4
    Visitors
    Workshops

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture





















    Picture
    We have a pot to "Fiz" in!

Shop Hours:
Monday - Friday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM 
Saturdays 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
We are closed during ice and snow storms
​so please call ahead.  If school is cancelled we probably are as well.  

Toll Free: 1-855-624-0370
Local: 1-902-624-0370​
encompassingdesigns@gmail.com

498 Main Street
P.O. Box 437
Mahone Bay, N.S.
Canada B0J 2E0

​Follow us and keep up to date
on our specials, new products
​and events!
Picture
Picture
Picture


Home
Shop
Ordering
Blog
Our Story
Workshops

Contact Us




​​​© Copyright 2023 Encompassing Designs. Website by SKYSAIL