RIP Burlap.....

Let's have a few minutes of silence for the passing of an era.
RIP BURLAP, you've had a great run!

Okay it’s official.  Encompassing Designs is out of burlap and there will be no more. We will begin removing the pricing on the website and only list the linen patterns.  We do have quite a few designs on burlap hanging on the racks in the back room but once those are gone, well so long, good-bye, farewell, au revoir, ciao, adios and sayonara!

I might be one of the few that are saddened; I liked burlap and thought it had a bad rap.  Burlap today was nothing like grandma had to use, it was woven specifically for rug hooking so how bad could it be?  Sure it smelled, being sprayed with petroleum based product for longevity, and yes it shed fibers all over your work and clothes like dog and cat fur, it turned yellow in the light, couldn’t be washed and became brittle with time but I never worried about any of those things.  I’m not one to control things beyond the grave so I’m not concerned about rugs being passed down, after all we are all potentially forgotten in only two generations. If one of my rugs survive it will be just a mat on the floor, not hey, “Great Granny Christine made that for ya! “

I’ll miss it and I’ll let you in on a little secret, I stashed a few yards away for myself and no one will be able to pry it out of my cold dead hands so don’t ask me to share. Sorry, ownership should have a few perks and this is one of them.

I like that burlap rugs hold their shape.  When I finish hooking a project it is completely square or round, whatever it was supposed to be.  And it had a stiffness to it that made the rug feel solid.  I’m definitely an odd bird because I’m pretty much sitting on this fence alone.  I’ve met few that agree with me although I do know there are a few tears or sorrow out there.

I’m asked constantly why I can’t buy it anymore.  The supplier that sold it to me went out of business and never shared the source. I’ve tried to find out but to no avail. And quite frankly, if it did come from Scotland as I’ve been led to believe, the cost of shipping has tripled and exchanges are out to lunch, I’ll bet the price would have gone up to the point where it matches linen and quite frankly, the biggest draw going for it was  the price.   I hear there are burlaps in the states that are of equal quality but getting it shipped here is not only expensive for the freight, the exchange is about 35%. No one in their right mind would pay a linen price for burlap.  Even I would scoff at the suggestion and I like it.   Businesses can’t afford to have product on the shelf that they can’t sell.

So let’s respectfully bid farewell to a part of rug hooking history, at least at my shop. Truthfully, in the last few years, since teachers have promoted linen as the best backing and the younger generation hookers prefer comfort and softness to our old time suffering with a scratchy, rough and shedding backing, we sell very few patterns on burlap anyway. Like the hundreds of species going extinct every year, burlap might soon be on that list.