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.
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.
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