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

How I love thee Alice, let me count the ways.......

3/12/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
As Ginny closes in on the center of this rug I am overcome with desire to hook it myself.  Once she hits the outside border I might swoon under the sheer weight of my
lust.  You hear comments about artwork speaking to the soul, well this pattern is screaming at mine.  What makes it difficult is that I look at the rug and I know I could be there, I could be keeping up with Ginny loop for loop but it’s a tough reality when the time just isn’t there. I’m a working girl and Ginny’s is now retired so she has the time to dedicate a portion of each day to her passion.  For now, I’ll just have to live vicariously through her, seeing this beauty progress until the day I am able to tackle it myself.    

I have a copy of the pattern that we made a booboo on and can’t sell, so the plan is to hook it and I’ve made a promise to myself to do just that even though it might be after I retire. These days hooking is all about the shop, demos for kits and window displays.  I find very little time to hook for my own pleasure, my home.  I think people are quite surprised to find out my house isn’t heavy laden with handmade rugs.  I’m a bit ashamed to admit there are only two, a compass rose and one I designed for one
of the spare bedrooms called Courtyard. I have the large rug, Catch of the Day but it will remain in the shop for a few years as a demo to sell the pattern and later will find its forever home in my hubby’s study. 
 
Sometimes I feel sad but as I’ve stated so many times before, it’s like the carpenter house that’s never finished.  I am so immersed in all the other aspects of rug hooking I’m worn out by the time I get home.  I’m not complaining nor do I want to sound bitter, I've accepted my lot in life, but every now and then I get a twinge of envy as I see the spark in the eyes of those who have started a new project or just completed one. The pride of accomplishment, the beauty of the finished rug, the pleasure of displaying the heirloom in its forever home.   I believe "he who hesitates is lost", so I hope arthritis doesn't set in cutting my rug hooking retirement short.  A hooker without working fingers is like a pianist without hands. 
   
Not hooking as much as one would like is one of the downsides of being in the rug hooking supply business. Maybe others have it better with partners to help to manage the workload or a slew of employees to take care of the mundane, freeing up time for a bit of pleasure along the way, but I am a one man show and when it comes down to it, accounting, designing and kit making and all else that keeps the door open is the bread and butter of the business, so you see, I don’t have time to make  or indulge in cake.   Maybe I’m a low level energy person, maybe I should get my thyroid checked or take a pill so I could zoom around like a machine, become super woman, extend my 12 hour work day to 16 and do everything on my bucket list.  Yep, there’s a lot of rugs to be hooked on that list, I just hope I live long enough to check them all off.  

Any piece I would hook for my home would be small cut, probably an Oriental or Persian design and a sizable long term commitment.  The little projects I polish off in an evening or two are great for the shop and fulfill that need to hook but I’m realistic about starting anything large as it will just get pushed back as life commands my attention until it becomes a curse to find the time to finish.  
 
I’m speaking from experience.  I started an Oriental a few years back.  The entire Wednesday Main Street Hookers group decided to hook an Oriental rug. Lois Sweeney and Mary Doig, both schooled under the tutelage of   Dorothy Height at the NS Rug Hooking Guild School in Truro, were our mentors and like horses at the gate, we all began in an enthusiastic running start.  

My eyes have always bigger than my stomach so I designed a large hall runner for our home, with Chinese Shou symbols down the length of the center and pagodas along the border.  As always, I went gang busters and almost completed the center field.  I worked in a #3 cut and quite frankly it went pretty quickly so the bulk of the rug was done in a three week period with only the multiply borders remaining.  Thank goodness, being a realist, I announced before I pulled the first loop that it would be a ten year project,  just to save myself the embarrassment of not reaching the finish line.  I think I’ve exceeded that decade so it might be time for a new deadline.  All but Shelley and I have finished and I see she’s putting a push on to complete hers so maybe I’ll have to dig it out and try to revive the passion I had when I first started.  I think I might stray from the #3 requirement just to cut the time down, probably move up to  a #4 to add a bit of speed.  It would hardly make a difference to the eye and quite frankly I don’t have the time to be a purist.  Git er done is more my philosophy these days.    

I dyed the field of the rug to look like faded denim.  The other colours are taken from the large rug in our living room.  If I could do it over I would have made a rug for the front door area instead, which might be where I put “Alice” hooked in the same colours as my Oriental.  The long runner was to be dedicated to a heavy traffic area and now with four dogs it might not be the best idea although ten years ago I hadn’t started collecting poodles! 
 
I called the design Blue Beijing and several people have hooked it so I know the end result will be stunning.  Each person choose totally different colour palettes but a beautiful rug by any other colour is just as sweet.
 

Picture
2 Comments
Adena Clark
3/12/2013 01:53:11 am

Love it! I swear, I will never live long enough to do all the rugs I drool over :)

Reply
Charlene Scott
3/13/2013 12:50:36 am

Ginny the rug is beautiful, I really look forward to seeing it finished and seeing you and all the gang. Perhaps at the first meeting in April.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    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

    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