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Holiday Store Hours

12/24/2016

Encompassing Designs Rug Hooking Studio
will be closed between Christmas and New Years.
We will be back to serve all your rug hooking needs on January 3rd!
In the meantime, if you are coming from a distance and would like to get into the shop call ahead (the day before) and book an afternoon appointment and
I will happily open for you.
My home number is 902-624-6411.

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday!!!

YONDER STAR
Designed by Christine, beautifully hooked by Jean Wentzell

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58 and hopefully many more!

12/16/2016

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The other day, while trying on clothes I’d forgotten were in the back of the closet, I was stunned at my reflection in the mirror. I don’t make a regular habit of scrutinizing myself, never have, and with my changing eyesight it’s all a blur anyway . I know I’m not one of those roll out of bed beauties, I accept that I’m average and don’t dwell on it. I clean up well and if I’m getting gussied up for an evening out perhaps I steal a glance or two to make sure a piece of toilet paper isn’t stuck to my backside or maybe a rouge tag is flashing “new purchase”, but other than that, the mirror and I aren’t close buds.

I can’t say I was shocked at the image staring back; maybe a more suitable word would be surprised.   I can’t remember the last time I lingered in front of the mirror, perhaps it was summer when I’d tried on a bathing suit for the first time in years, and things weren’t looking bad so obviously they’re going downhill faster than I thought, gaining momentum as time slips by.

To put it bluntly, my skin is dripping, slipping, sagging, heading south and trying to leave the building like Elvis. For the past twenty years or so, I’ve seen cellulite accumulate and send ripples up and down the back of my legs but that’s pretty much a “so what”, nothing you can do about it and I’m not willing to do the grueling treadmill or a standing bicycle, crunches and stretches to win a losing battle. We gals are soft creatures, lack the muscle our male counterparts are blessed with, we turn to jelly over time and that’s okay, as long as we all do it. I’d hate to think my body was disintegrating while y’all keep looking buff. As long as were all wading in the same wrinkle pool I can live with it.

What surprised me was the rate things have been changing. A few months ago the front part of my legs were looking fine but now the skin is falling down like pants without a belt. Dripping down the insides of my thighs to land on my knees. As we age our knees get wider as all the skin ends up there and I thought whoa girl, I used to see this in the nursing home and knew it would happen eventually, but at 57?

The skin on my arms is looking pretty wrinkled as well. I’ve been getting a bit more sun exposure these days with the boat and I know tanning is hard on skin but I haven’t gotten that brown, maybe a shade darker than cream. I’m still strong like ox and don’t have bat wings and there’s a muscle in there that feels like a medium to hard-boiled egg. I could wrestle a small child and hand them a can of whoop-ass. All the work on the boat has offered up a nice set of biceps and of course cutting wool at the shop, and stirring dye pots, best workout ever!

I feel like a contradiction. I always say aging doesn’t bother me but perhaps it does or why am I writing this bit? I’m two years away from being 60 and that’s ten years away from 70 and only twenty years away from being 80 and we all know how long it takes to kiss twenty years goodbye. Guess I’d better pucker up. 58 years have whizzed by on the wings of a hummingbird so I can hardly expect the next 20 or thirty to go any slower.

I saw a video of Tina Turner at 79 in high heels and a mini dress, low cut at the chest exposing the sides of firm breasts. The dress sleeves were organza and you could see through it to arms that glistened, creamed up to show tight and firm. I know we all don’t have the same skin, some of us have a longer shelf life than others and for me, at 57 with only three days to 58,   there isn’t enough spandex and grease to make me look that smooth and shiny. Go Tina!

Anyway, not sure why I’m writing this? I don’t want to make a big deal out of aging because I accept human fate and the inevitable. I’ve never valued the outside of a body as much as the inside. The person I am trumps what’s happening to my outer shell. I faced facts of aging the first wave of hair loss, it ain’t gonna be pretty! I wouldn’t go back for anything, unless of course I could learn to hook earlier, I’m very content and happy with my life. I am truly blessed.

I plan to go gracefully. No alterations, tucks or tweaks. If I do anything it will be the nonsurgical Spanx, it shrinks, sucks in and drops at least 10lbs, you just have to wrestle it up over the loose flab. It might rearrange the organs a bit but a small price to pay to look good on a special evening out, all tucked in with the feeling of firm that used to be natural.

Until a short while ago, the numbers of my age meant nothing; I barely gave it a thought. But you see this year is troubling. My mother passed away at 58. I was born in 1958 and in three days I will turn 58. Is this some sort of sign? Paranoia is tapping me on the shoulder. It feels like a bad omen, like signs leading to the Bates Motel where life expectancy isn’t on the list of recreational activities. At 58 I am only beginning to discover what I was meant for, there has to be more time. I mentioned my worry to a few friends and they said they felt the same way when a parent predeceased them and they became the same age as when they passed and then they try to brighten my day by saying I am much healthier than my poor mom had been and perhaps this is true. I hope it’s true!   I can’t die yet….my pups need me and all my rug hooking friends might miss me…… Hopefully Sunday when I turn 58, it will be nothing more than a change of number, not the stars aligning to foil me.

Good lord, after all the backbreaking work I did on that boat, working my fingernails down to nubs and sweating like a leaking hose in the sweltering sun, I better live to enjoy the fruits of my labour. Thinking the next Mrs. Little will reap my reward is getting my knickers in a knot. I said to hubby one night on the boat as I was doing a last bit of waxing the cockpit in the dark with only a flashlight to illuminate the area, rubbing until my arms almost fell off, “You’ll be lucky to find another woman to do this kind of manual labour, working like a man beside you. He agreed. I have a whole year to worry about being 58 and if things don’t go well for me, you’ll have big shoes to fill wifey #3, and you’d better like poodles!

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Snow Cones

12/14/2016

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Monday was our first snowstorm of the season. Time for a tire change, root out the warm clothes and ready the shovels. We had to close the shop; the roads were icky and dangerous. There’s always relearning to adapt to the conditions so it’s best to be off the highway with all those folks tempting fate that speed through it as if they have an appointment with a bent fender or worse.

I sat in the house contemplating hooking and I looked outside at the pristine snow gently falling to earth and thought, what does one do when it’s snowing outside? Then it hit me “I’ll make a snowman!” Someone was in the shop on Saturday telling me she would like a pattern of a jolly cone snowman to compliment all the Cone Santa’s that she’s been pulling off her frame. I lost count how many she’s hooked as gifts for family and friends. No two alike and so sweet!

Our Cone Santa pattern has three sizes of santa's so I thought I would stick to the same plan. So I started with the 12” high Snow Cone and made him squat and fat. I decided I would hook them all in the same colours, just manipulate the green, gold and red to highlight various areas. The first one has a wonderful hat with a red background and swirls of white. The second one which is 14” high, more of a tall pinhead kind of snowman, with a vest of red and white squares, these two features will make them cohesive when they stand along a mantle or table. The third one at 9” high and will have a red and white stripe either on his hat or coat. We’ll see…..

I hooked them in a #5 cut but they can be done in the wider strips. I prefer #5 and the detail it allows but it slows down the progress a wee bit although I managed to finish two in two days. Is this bragging? Tonight shouldn’t take long to do the smaller snowman; he’s only 9” high so he will practically hook himself. On Facebook, someone called me #1 Santa’s Elf the way I whiz through them, but they are only small and can be whipped up quickly once the colour plan is down. But I do like the thought of being an elf…..sounds like fun!

I must say making these snowmen while sitting by a fire is the most comfortable way. No wet mittens, cherry nose, frost bitten cheeks and icy feet.

Pattern is available now on Linen $45.95. Get yours and hook one or all of these delightful Snow Cones in time for Christmas. Cheers!

Copyrighted pattern....please do not copy!

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White versus coloured Christmas lights....

12/12/2016

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I’m having an internal debate. White lights versus multi-coloured. It really comes down to choice but are we being fed a pack of malarkey to slant the vote one way? Is it snobbery that proclaims white lights to be better, classier over the not so sophisticated, old fashioned, multi-coloured? Who decides the fate of one over the other? Are there light police or people that think their excrement is a breath of fresh air, calling all the shots? How can Christmas lights be good or bad? Isn’t Christmas one of the most colourful holidays of the year? Why try to dull it down?

How many of you out there have white lights when all you really want is a bit of colour on your tree, like you had when you were a kid? But you can’t be the only one in the neighbourhood to stand out. See the eyebrows lifted on all those white lighters and feel the shun from those that can’t see past the tilt of their nose?

I’ve fallen for this propaganda before. The need to be “in” made me throw out the coloured bulbs for their newer replacement. Then I joined the haters that proclaim loudly how coloured lights are tacky when what right does anyone have to rain on anyone's parade? Oh the power of marketing.....someone came up with this white light takeover and it hit Vogue and all the trend followers jumped on the bandwagon until the coloured light folks became second best.

Like most families, I grew up with coloured lights, those large bulbs that heated the room and if left unattended caused a fire or two. When one bulb blew out there was a scramble and scorched fingers to find the offending culprit so the set worked again. As a child I stared into that magnificently lit tree like a crow in a jewelry store. They were like sparkling jewels, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Their glitz reflected in the tinsel and mercury bulbs surrounding them for extra glimmer and the tree projected on the ceiling and the walls, expanding their beauty to fill the entire room. Those memories will stay with me forever....

But now those coloured bulbs have fallen out of fashion, somehow are low class. It’s all about the white light now. God forbid our lights clash with the tree ornaments. We are asked to hang white lights on our businesses, a united stand for the town, strings of them spanning the entire length of the downtown area. We want to delight visitors to see the row on row of diamonds twinkling as if the cosmos have chosen to settle on our town. Some have rebelled, perhaps for the mere act of it or maybe they can’t afford to switch when they have perfectly good lights with years of life remaining. As I drove through town I marvelled at the twinkling buildings, most white, some coloured and I was torn between which ones were most appealing, which ones speak to the artist in me, which ones would spark a child’s interest? It was unanimous; the coloured lights held more delight. I felt young and as I basked in the glow of the multi colours, a portal to my childhood.

I conformed and put up white lights and that is all I have on my home tree but maybe it’s time for a change. I found some delightful led mini lights that run off a battery pack and put them on top of my kitchen cupboard for the pot luck hooking party, draped along old tins and speckle ware that display there. I put them in a large bowl of blue and white china balls, and the lights glow like the embers of a fire. Their shine is full of awe, a depth that transports me elsewhere, to a time when everything about Christmas was a wonder. I do like the white lights, they remind me of diamonds, a girl’s best friend, and the best part about being a grownup, I can have it all.

On my way home from work Saturday evening I drove by Mary’s house. Her front window framed their large, ten foot Christmas tree ablaze with lights, peppered with hundreds of miniature orbs of colour, predominately red with green and gold mixed in. It was the most beautiful tree I’ve ever seen. Tall and stately, it was so exquisite it tempted me to knock on their door to bask in its glow. I’ve never had that feeling from a white light tree before. I didn’t act on my urge, I had pups waiting for me needing to go outside so I passed by but the picture lingered longer than the actual view. I’ve thought of it a lot over the weekend.

I came home to my little LED slights that I’ve left on day and night since they were hung. They make me far happier than white lights have ever done. I can be classy elsewhere, use silver napkin rings to keep up with the Jones. This year our tree will have white lights because that’s what’s stored in the attic and maybe I won’t change as they are too good to discard on the basis of their lack of colour, but I will subsidise with the multi coloured ones for a bit of nostalgia elsewhere, relay the warmth of my childhood and all the fond memories this time of year brings.

So my decision? My vote is for multi coloured on a 60/40 split. I like both and will use them appropriately. I just don’t like being told I can only have one or the other or that somehow I’m less sophisticated because of an “inappropriate” choice, rebel that I am....

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Preparing contours on rugs for finishing

12/9/2016

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Hooking an odd shaped rug leads to the challenge of finishing those edges. Not all rugs are cookie cutter flat sided, squares or rectangles The simple circle with its lack of corners is easy to whip but some shy away because people tell them it’s more difficult, therefore missing out on the opportunity to experience a lovely round rug that fits in any space of the home and is never askew.

Recently my aunt finished hooking three Christmas stocking for her grandchildren who live in London, England. She’ll soon be flying to spend the holidays with them and those stockings will be hung with care in hopes that Santa will soon be there. What a beautiful gift of a grandmother's love, a gift that will keep on giving well into adulthood as part of their tradition. Who is too old to not appreciate a stocking full of goodies?

When it comes to working on a stocking the easiest and fasted part is the hooking. The sewing that follows is all hand work, tedious and finger pricking. It’s one of those bleed projects, a good one for quick testing of blood sugar levels. Everything has to be done by hand, no cutting corners or stitching around with a machine. Oh the dreaded needle….my worst nemesis.

First I sew the zig zag using the machine. I leave an excess of 1 ¼” all around the finished rug for working with. That’s the easy part. Once the stabilizing stitch is around the rug it can be cut out.

The changing shape of the stocking holds all the challenges of finishing. Straight sides turning into inside corners and then following around the toe. Folding over the 1 ¼ selvage on an inside corner takes a bit of ingenuity and the best practice I’ve found is to sew in V’s in these areas and then snip them in close to the row of loops and then it is easier to pull it toward the inside of the stocking.

I like to simplify jobs when possible so instead of using a needle and thread to sew this excess to the back of the rug to keep it in position while I sew on the backings, I use an iron, a wet towel and steam it down. Quick as a bunny! The stocking has to be lined or when Santa puts toys in and children take toys out, they could snag a loose loop or that wonderful curly mohair hooked into the piece for accents, and pull the entire length of it out.

I prefer doing the lining separately from the backing so that it is engaged before I attempt to put on the back pocket. I think it’s the simplest way for me but I’m open to suggestions if someone has a faster way! That backing pocket needs more work, with a hem on the top of an 1 ¼ high to make it sturdy enough to accept a hanger. That can be done on the machine before it's hand stitched on.

So this is how to prepare the stocking for the liner and the backing pocket.

Finished all the hooking, trimmed all the strings and then steamed to perfection!

I've zig-zagged all around the stocking then add the V's to the areas that curve inward. Cut right into the V as close to the edge as possible leaving several strands of linen before the edge of the loop so the rug edge isn't compromised.

The V makes the outside edge of the excess agreeable for positioning on top of the back and once streamed it will lie perfectly flat to the back. The toe area needs to have a fold here and there to deal with the extra linen as I lay it down around the curve.

I position the excess edge with my fingers then lay on the wet towel and steam flat.

All steamed and zig-zagged. The excess is now flat to the back of the rug. Quick and easy and in my book, better than having to hand stitch it there.

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Holiday Store Hours

58 and hopefully many more!

Snow Cones

White versus coloured Christmas lights....

Preparing contours on rugs for finishing

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