Textile Museum Yard Sale

The Textile Museum is hosting their Yard Sale again! 

The museum collects donations throughout the year, from individuals and from businesses (like fancy schmancy decorating stores), and it is all organized and put out for sale.  It’s usually a wonderful smorgasbord of stuff:  upholstery samples, quilting fabric, yarn, needles, antique lace….you name it.  Plus, while standing in line (it’s VERY popular) you meet a wonderful folks with a wide array of interests.  The conversations you strike up are fascinating.  Note that all of the good stuff doesn’t go at the start:  they usually put out fresh stuff throughout the sale….so there’s always something new to see.

Many many years ago i worked across the street from the museum and would arrange my breaks/lunch for multiple trips to the annual sale.  If you’re going to be in/near Toronto, consider heading over!

Rug Registry October 2

 We’ve had some questions about the upcoming Rug Registry on October 2, so here’s a wee video that hopefully explains all.  

https://youtu.be/5Zu5EUssORA

Catherine Starbuck

You will be saddened to hear that long time member Catherine Starbuck has passed away.  Although she hadn’t attended rug hooking in the past while, she was an active member of our group, Colborne and Brighton.  

Here’s a lovely tribute to her, written by her friend & fellow rug hooker, Nancy Crapper:

Catherine has been a member of the Cobourg hooking group for many years.  She also belonged to Heritage Hands in Colborne & took classes at both Loyalist College, Germaine James & Dorothy Haight in Picton.    She was also a regular member our our little kitchen hooking group in Brighton.

A little less than a year ago Catherine & her husband Peter moved from Brighton to Campbellford to a Seniors Residence, as she was having both memory & mobility problems.   Last winter she had a fall which made self care difficult, so she was transferred to a nursing home in Napanee, where her son & family live.   She passed away June 8, quite suddenly. 

Catherine was a beautiful rug hooker, her designs, many of which her husband drew for her, were not just beautiful, but her colour choices & the hooking itself, was exquisite.  She also did beautiful cross stitch. 

Catherine was a kind, warm person, quiet, but always willing to help anyone, anywhere.  She had a lovely smile & was a warm, welcoming presence everywhere she went.    She will be missed.

 

Another visit with Joyce

We gathered again at Joyce’s lovely home in the countryside for a morning of hooking, chatting and noshing.  The weather cooperated and we were able to sit indoors and out.

Thanks again to Joyce for hosting us!

Here are some photos of the event, courtesy of Christine:

This is Joyce’s rug, but Christine’s version of it is coming along quite well!

Hook a Van Gogh Masterpiece

 

Yes, indeedy - we have an upcoming in person class with Carol Shewan on Sept 26, and space is available for a few more folks!

This one day workshop will focus on hooking pictorials, specifically how to achieve the impressionistic look of a Van Gogh masterpiece. The class will run approx. 6 hours, 9:30- 3:30, with a break for lunch. 

 

Students are encouraged to pull wool from their stash but the teacher will bring a selection that can be purchased during the workshop.

Instructor - Carol Shewan - cshewan@kingston.net

September 26, 2023

Grace Christian Reformed Church, 440 King St. East, Cobourg

Cost $160 - includes course and 1 pattern (pattern images below, either Starry Night or Wheat Fields with Cypresses, both approx 16x22”)

Send $160 payment and your pattern choice by e transfer to northumberlandrugs@gmail.com

If you would like a second pattern, please let Carol Shewan know. The price for the extra pattern will be $70 plus HST payable to Carol Shewan on the day of the course.

Wheat Field with Cypresses

Rug nirvana….

As part of a recent trip, i visited a women’s rug co op in the south of Morocco.  It’s located in a village called Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage site located on the southern edge of the High Atlas Mountains.  It has also been used as the location for several movie productions (Gladiator, and Game of Thrones-season 3).

The villagers are Amazigh (aka Berber), and have a strong tradition of colourful textiles with intricate details. The lady below was wearing a black dress with lace/embroidery detail, and had hennaed fingers. 

The Coooperative is called Aknif Lglaoui, run by local women looking to generate income and educational opportunities.  There are about 60 women involved, mostly working from home, with a few folks staffing their show room in town.

These ladies do it all from start to finish….they collect the fleeces, wash them, card the wool, spin it and dye it….then they get to work on the weaving  

The looms we saw were constructed with vertical i-beams and cross bars of wood (approx 2x6 size).

Their show room is packed to the ceiling with all manner of rugs for sale, and they willingly pull them out for potential buyers to peruse.

Price-wise, they were fairly reasonable - we estimated most prices to be in the $30-$70 cdn per square foot.  Waaaay cheaper than would typically be charged for a comparable size hooked rug in Canada - there is at least the same, if not a ton more, effort put into these rugs as a hooked rug.

An interesting tidbit on care of these rugs:  in winter, the rugs are used “good” side up.  In summer they are flipped over and used good side down.  This allows for any embedded dirt to be extracted during daily use.  There is snow in the Atlas Mountains not too far from Ait Ben Haddou, but i doubt they use it to clean rugs there.

The rugs fall into 3 distinct categories, based on the materials to construct them:

- woolen rugs

- agave silk rugs

- boucherouite rugs

All of the rugs use a cotton warp as a foundation.

Woolen rugs

These use the wool that was carded, spun and dyed by cooperative members. Dyes are largely natural: indigo for blue, pomegranate rinds for yellow, etc. There were several instances where coloured fleeces were used in their natural state. 

Left: natural gray fleece; Right: natural brown fleece. 

Some rugs have symbols woven into them, some have symbols embroidered, and some have them knotted.  Embroidery and knotting is usually done as the rug is woven, not added afterward.  Some rugs are completely done via knotting, and have a shaggier appearance.  The ends on the embroidered rugs are not woven in or knotted - they’re simply left loose on the reverse side. I suspect that these will felt into the main body of the rug over time.

We were given a page detailing the meaning of some of the symbols they use.  Here’s a link to a website detailing some of them.  

Here is an example of all 3 methods:  the upper symbol is embroidered, the middle symbol is knotted (and trimmed) and the lower symbol is woven.

Here is an entire rug done via latch-hook method - ie the rug is woven, and then tufts of yarn are knotted into the woven base.

Another style of woolen rug looks more like a patchwork design, but is created line by line.  The colours in these are fairly balanced so the weaver must keep track of what they are doing as they go along.  A 5x8 rug can take 8 months to complete - worked on as time permits.

I don’t have any examples of these rugs taken at the cooperative, but here are some from other shops, to give you an idea of the patterns.

I didn’t ask, but i suspect these rugs represent ways of using up your stash.

Agave Silk Rugs

These were a revelation to me.  The Agave cactus - where we also get sweetener, and tequila from - are used here to produce silk.  The agave leaves are crushed and the fibres extracted and dyed.  Here’s a link to an article on how to make the silk.  

Rugs made with agave have a very different feel to wool rugs, and seem almost like an outdoor rug.  The designs on these rugs are often embroidered on.

One of the ladies on our tour bought a long runner, but arranged for the cooperative folks to cut it into 2 pieces, and refringe the ends.

Boucherouite Rugs

These are rugs that are made from old clothing (sound familiar?).  The patterns used for them are not as precise as for the woolen rugs.  Sometimes they are woven into a simple rag rug.  Other times they are knotted into more of a Proddy style.  Sometimes you see them made with yarn.

I had to ask to see some, and was taken into another room, but later i realized that we were all sitting on them during the presentation.

Most of the fabrics used in these are synthetic - both woven and knit.  When i asked about the materials for boucherouites all of the ladies tugged at their sleeves to indicate that they used old clothing.

Here are some more boucherouites seen in the souks of Marrakech.

….and yes, i bought a woven one (not a boucherouite) at the cooperative.  Natural gray wool, with embroidered, knotted and woven Amazigh symbols.