My Very First Rug…

Pigs must be flying and hell must be frozen over because the Rug Hooking world has officially turned me into a hooker… and I love every minute of it!

It was about 2 years ago now that I began helping my mom, Stephanie Krauss, with Rug School.  I have always vowed that I was not interested in hooking.  Until this Christmas when my aunt, Pam Kirk, sent me a pattern.  I was strangely excited to start it.  I had it color planned the next morning by 5AM.  I never realized how great my moms shop was until I was color planning… SO MUCH WOOL! 

I then began hooking.  I took to it like a fish to water.  I told mom, “I had been watching her, my grandmother (Anne Ashworth) and my sister (Mariah Krauss) do it for 30 years, I likely picked something up in that time!”  My mom gave me pointers along the way.  Everyone had always said she is a great beginner teacher, now I see what they meant.  She has a way of guiding you and offering lots of ideas, while allowing you to go through the artistic process on your own. 

I learned a lot with this rug.  You can see how some of the bears look different.  The first bear I did I outlined and then I followed the outline all around.  The other bears I outlined and then hooked straight lines.  I also learned that pulling loops to make a straight line is difficult – which is why the pine cone tops look like a 5 year old drew them.  Lastly, I hooked the background in two different directions.  I hooked the top and the bottom – then I hooked the two sides.  I couldn’t really see the difference once the rug was completed and realized I could have hooked it all in the same direction.

I really enjoy my time hooking.  I have a pretty demanding job and I find it difficult to close my computer at the end of the night.  I also have trouble just sitting and watching TV – I always need to be multi-tasking.  Hooking has solved both of these problems for me.

Thanks hooking community for never giving up on me!

Congratulations, Steph and Mariah! - by Pam Kirk

We (as in the board members of Green Mountain Hooked Rugs) are so excited that both Stephanie’s and Mariah’s hooked pieces have been accepted for publication in the 2015 “Celebration.”   “Celebration” is the annual juried publication from Rug Hooking magazine. 

Stephanie submitted the large oriental “Persian Palm” which she had completed for Nancy Aldridge Beech.  The rug was less than 1/3 hooked and Stephanie needed to dye wool to match as well as duplicate Nancy’s hooking style.   The rug received the Peoples’ Choice Award at the Green Mountain Guild Exhibition “Hooked in the Mountains” in October 2014.   Mariah submitted a portrait she designed and hooked in black, white and grey tones of her grandmother, Anne Ashworth.  Mariah had completed it to have available for viewing by those attending the last Green Mountain Rug School to be  held at Vermont Technical College in June 2014.   All the pieces selected for the 2015 “Celebration” will be on exhibit at the 19^th annual Sauder Village Hooking Week in August.

Stephanie is an accomplished rug hooker in all genres of hooking; producing gorgeously shaded floral, fruit and scrolls; wonderfully creative geometrics; handsomely colored orientals and inspiring landscapes. She is also a colorist and fabric dyer extraordinaire following in our mother’s footsteps.  Famous also for her ability to repair and finish rugs seamlessly in style of the original, that art of rug hooking keeps her busy.  Stephanie runs the Green Mountain Hooked Rug Shop where she also holds classes and hook-ins.  She is also in demand as a teacher.

Mariah’s bent in hooking seems to be toward her original portrait designs and using wool cut on #2 and #3. Her first project “Aries Woman” was also published in “Celebration”, so it seems natural that her other portrait piece should also find a place in “Celebration”.  Though Mariah has been hooking for only a few years, she is also becoming known for her original designs and her dyeing skills.  She is quite a master at using swatches made up of 28 and 32 values and moving from the lightest of one color through to the darkest of another.  She is also becoming quite skilled in spot and multi-dyed pieces which can be found in the Green Mountain Hooked Rug shop.

I think it is just wonderful that my sister and my niece (mother and daughter) will have pieces published in the same issue of “Celebration.”  A fantastic accomplishment; I know our mother Anne would be so proud of her daughter and granddaughter.

 'Ahmie' 10"x13" designed and hooked by Mariah Krauss

   

'Persian Palm' 70"x105" designed by Pearl McGown, hooked by Stephanie Allen-Krauss

              

An Old-Fashion Winter

Here in Vermont we're having what my husband calls an 'old-fashion winter'... lots of snow and three ranges of temperature... cold, colder, and ya-don't-wanna-know how cold! One morning several weeks ago, I actually did see 30 below Zero on the thermometer outside my kitchen window. 

Pretty cold, but I was happy to grab a cup of  hot coffee and head for my cozy hooking corner in the livingroom. My idea of heaven is snuggling into my chair with a great design, warm wool, luscious colors, soft music, and a couple of hours of uninterrupted hooking! That's January for me.

I always seem to finish a rug in January, too. This year it's the 8 foot runner that I'll be taking to New York in February. I'm still traveling to Long Island, NY periodically to repair hooked rugs from the antique collection on a private estate. I'm wonderfully inspired by these old geometrics, some of which I've never seen before in my 40 years of doing rug repair. My runner is a replacement for one that is just too far gone to repair. Unfortunately, there was a pad glued to the back of original rug many years ago and, when the glue and padding became dry and brittle, the burlap backing and hooked loops split. I can't peel that padding off and I certainly can't get a needle through to secure the loops, let alone repair the splits and holes, so the whole rug is not salvageable. Such a shame, but the good news is that I hooked a replacement using the original as inspiration. I'm looking forward to my next visit to see what new inspirations arise.

Happy hooking to you wherever you may be. 

My New Runner 24" x 92"

 

The Old Runner for Inspiration

I'm Going Hooking - Pam Kirk

This is THE perfect way to start the new year - after 35 years of not hooking with a group, this Thursday I am going to hook with the ATHA Citrus Belle Rug Chapter group! 

Other than a couple classes the last two years at Green Mountain Hooked Rug School, I have not hooked with a group while I worked at my corporate job.  I tried it once in my area a number of years ago, but it just did not work to try to take time out for hooking with a group in the middle of my work day. I was disappointed I couldn’t make it work as I did miss meeting up with others to hook.  The Citrus Belles meet in a location about 45 minutes from my house, and though they meet every week, I am not sure I will be able to do more than a couple times a month. But one never knows, I may get so hooked, I make it a regular in my weekly schedule.

This is the rug I'll be working on...

It's one of our Green Mountain Patterns called 'Ardibil' designed by my Mom, Anne Ashworth. 

It's a perfect Oriental for wide cut.

My Retirement - Pam Kirk

Last spring my company asked for volunteers willing to take a severance package and we would be notified in 30 days.  I had actually planned to work another 18 months, but immediately signed the paper.  Of course, I then decided I needed to talk to my CPA and financial planner to make sure I really could financially do this.  Finding that it was a resounding “Yes”, I was ready to go.  I packed up personal things from my cubicle, cleaned out files, and began to prepare a “process” booklet on how to handle my responsibilities.   Much to my great disappointment, I was not offered one of the few packages handed out.   My job and position was not one of those that could be eliminated.    After a few weeks, and realizing my heart really wasn’t in my job anymore - the goal and focus surely had shifted - I committed to officially retire the end of the year. I had days when I wanted to make it sooner, but decided to stay long enough to get some upgrades done on my house while I was still had a nice income.  However, I began counting down the months, then weeks, until I got down to 60 days, then the count was remaining days to work.  My poor work partner had to endure having people ask me how many more weeks or days I had left, and with glee in my voice and a smile on my face I would give them the answer!  I was READY!  My son was concerned about what I would do to occupy my time after I got my gardens in order.  I told him I had more rugs to hook than I would be able to manage.  Not to mention the other Green Mountain Hooked Rug Board Members kept finding more Green Mountain activities for me to take on.  Boredom was not going to be in my vocabulary.   As the days crept or zoomed closer, I couldn’t wait for THE DAY (12/5) to get here.  Then for me a strange thing happened about 8 days before Dec 5th.  I found I had moments of deep sorrow roller coaster riding between moments of utter delight at the thought of being on permanent paid holiday.  As I ponder on this phenomenon, I realized I had worked in the corporate world for almost 30 years solely focused on getting ahead, earning more money and setting myself up so I could eventually retire.  But the reality of retiring was always a several years away in my mind.  When I turned 61, I said I would retire in 5 years.  At 64, I found I was still saying I would retire in 5 years.  At 67, I decided I couldn’t keep telling myself it was 5 years away.  I needed to make a commitment.  I set the date for being 70 and a half - October 2015 or maybe I would push it out to 71 in April of 2016.  My “spontaneous" decision to leave a year earlier still was not real until the last week I worked.  I cleared out the very last things from my cubicle.  I tried to finish up projects or get them to places where my work partner could pick them up and keep up with them until my replacement was hired sometime after the first of the year.  Emotionally I struggled.  I had no goal anymore; I didn’t have a focus; nothing to keep me going.  What was happening to me?  I am sure any of you who have retired have gone through all these emotions and thoughts.  It was a very wise co-worker who told me as I headed out of the office for the last time, “Enjoy your time off.  This is what you worked all those years for.”  The light bulb went on inside my head - “Yes.  Exactly - the 30 year goal has been reached.”  Now I can play with patterns and wool and dyes whenever I want and for as long as I want!

Hookers never say impossible...

Several weeks ago I found out that my grandson and his parents were definitely coming for Christmas. They live in Maine, about a 3-1/2 hour drive away so I don’t get to see my oldest daughter, Cecely, and her family as often as I’d like. Of course I was over-the-moon with excitement, and happily started making plans about sleeping arrangements, food, and other details involved with the family coming home. Several nights later, though, I woke with one of those ‘OMG!’ moments.  I didn’t have a stocking for my grandson, Emrys, who is 2 1/2! The next morning I decided that nothing less than one of my original hand-hooked stockings would do. I got right to work and the design developed easily, as Emrys is crazy about trains. I knew I had enough time to pull off the design, the drawing, and do the hooking so that my wonderful employee, Evelyn, (who is a terrific seamstress) could whip the hooked piece into a finished stocking. That was last Friday, December 19th. 

 

The background of the stocking is dark green which doesn't show very well in this photo, but isn't the plaid back just great!

Coincidentally, my middle daughter, Lindsay, was visiting that day and she greatly approved of my hooked stocking for Emrys, but she reminded me that I still hadn’t finished the stocking for my youngest daughter, Mariah, which I started about 3 years ago.  ...Another ‘OMG!’ moment. I wasn’t sure I could even find the pattern I’d started, but never say never to a mother... and a hooker. Miraculously I did find it tucked in among my ‘stash’ of wool in a box that hadn’t been opened in ...3 years. I hadn’t hooked much of it and I had used some of the design in another project. I also remembered why I never finished the piece. I just couldn’t hook the deer and make them look right. Could I re-work the design? Over-come the road block of hooking the deer? ...in 5 days?!  I’m a hooker and a mother... Of course I can! It’s December 22nd. I still have 2 days to finish. Plenty of time. Right?

The rest of the story... When Mariah arrived 2 days before Christmas, I noticed she had a hooked piece in her bag. When she pulled it out, I roared with laughter! It was the hooked stocking I made for her (yes, 3 years ago), but it was a different design than what I'd started. I just forgot that I'd done one for her anyway.  Well... now what to do with the stocking I started several days ago? I think I have a stocking I can quickly finish next year when I suddenly have that 'OMG' moment days before Christmas.

Pork Pie Monday

For the past 9 years since Ted and I have been together, we’ve continued a tradition that is decades-old in the Allen Family. On Christmas Eve we invite family and friends to our home for a pork pie buffet dinner. People come during the evening as time and other commitments allow, and some bring salads or hors d'oeuvre to share. There’s wine, dessert, Christmas music, and lots of laughter to round out the festivities.

The special feature of our evening is pork pie, a French-Canadian holiday dish, also called tortière. To save on the stress of preparing pies for 30 to 35 people on Christmas eve day, Ted and I set aside the first or second Monday of December for mass pie-production, with pies to be stored in the freezer until the party. Straight out of the freezer, the pies take only an hour or so to cook in a 400 oven. 

This morning- December 8th- Ted and I rolled up our sleeves and I put on my apron for a day in the kitchen. We started with the two gluten-free, meatless pies in the morning... Yes, we make a meatless pork pie, which one family member with a sense of humor, dubbed ‘pork-ish pies’. We use a product called ‘Veggie Balls’ (vegetarian meatballs) and grind them with some mushrooms and onions, then add the traditional pork pie spices. We finished the pie filling with mashed potatoes from the pot of a dozen we’d cooked earlier in the morning. 

       

Several years ago I tried making a gluten-free pie crust, but the mess was mostly unsuccessful, so now we just buy the pre-made gluten-free pie crusts and they work fine. (Gluten Free Vegetarian)

As I was assembling the Pork-ish pies, Ted began the process of mixing and grinding the ground pork, ground beef and onions for the next eight pies. Ten pounds of meat and four large onions are usually enough filling, for eight pies. Ted sent the meat mixture through the grinder twice, then into the big pot on the stove to simmer for about two hours. That’s our time for a lunch break, and maybe even a little nap.

   

The real production line starts when the meat is cooked. I mix pie dough and roll pie crust for the next few hours.

All ready for the freezer!

It’s a lot of work, but lots of fun, too, with a little Christmas music thrown in for good measure. And of course the final dinner is worth every minute of the preparation.