What made me fall in love with rug hooking / punch needle were the rugs that told stories. I love stories, I love hearing stories, how people came to where they are now, their history, their locality, what is unique to them, what makes them tick! Maybe it’s an Irish trait as we do love spinning a yarn (aka tell a story) to whoever will listen!
There are 2 stories well actually 3 stories behind this rug, the first being the actual picture itself! It was originally from a photo I took of my husband and son while on holidays, in Land’s End Cornwall a few years back. I remember the beautiful summers evening, it was quite at that time of the evening, with the odd straggler walking around like us. I don’t know where the actual photo is now, probably held digitally somewhere on some device or on some cloud far far away.
The second story is when I started the rug, so I finished it November 2020, Covid has made me finish up a lot of unfinished projects!! I started it when myself and my friend went on one of our annual trips to the Reeth Rug Retreat in the Yorkshire Dales in 2018!! I came home with the outline of my husband and son and the grass area nearly complete. As I said Iike talking, and more so listening, listening the the yarns and tales that the ladies who were in my class were telling, there were a lot of laughs!!! I find that with the rug hooking community, it is small but it is strong and there is a world wide network that I am slowly hooking into! I was using one of my gripper strip frames to do this rug but found it hard to get to the centre areas, so I used my Morgan Hoop Frame and it was wonderful, made it all the more pleasurable to finish. I can highly recommend the Morgan hoop and they are available in my shop.
The third story is the hook. I came to class with my hook but was having no luck with it really, it was very frustrating and I felt like throwing the whole project away, however my teacher, the wonderfully talented, Heather Ritchie came to my rescue and gave me her hook to complete my rug with and for keeps!!!! It made my day. When I was hooking I thought of Heather and all my friends I met in Reeth and the journeys myself and my friend have been on. Heather’s hook had a story too, made by her husband and chewed by her dog Alin, who can be seen in her social media pics while out walking the moors. It makes me smile. It is apt that I finished this rug when Heather celebrated her birthday recently and today is International Rug Hooking Day! Happy International Rug Hooking Day to all my fellow rug hookers worldwide xx
