Sauder Village Rug Show was Great - Again!

My mother and I made our annual one day trip to Archbold, Ohio for the Sauder Village Rug Show. This was the 13th annual show, and I think I've been to at least 12 of them, maybe 13. The first time I went, Cindy Jones drove and I went with her and Dianne Klamik. The trip was about shopping for antiques as much as going to the rug show. Cindy used to drive 18 wheelers and I was definitely car sick by the time we finally reached Sauder. I don't remember being able to enjoy much of the rug show - however, this show was entirely different.

We arrived before there was much of a crowd and were able to really see all of the rugs without bothering people with my mother's wheelchair. It wasn't long before I found my favorite rug. It was in the Celebrations portion of the show and it's called "Warrior Horses". On my first trip through the show, I took a cursory look at the rugs and I thought the horses were given their multi-dimensional shape by needle felting or possibly hooving, but a closer look later on revealed the horses were hooked with raised #3 loops. They were hooked through a plaid fabric - some kind of stiff even weave that I've never seen before.

I posted almost fifty photos of the show on Rughookers, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rughookers

so I won't repeat them here.

I also told about my great chance meeting with June Mikoryak. She spent quite a bit of time telling me about the color plans in rugs hooked by her students. I really could see the difference between her students and other rugs, she really is a color expert. The secret on several of the rugs was just the right bit of spark, or poison. The poison color was one that you wouldn't normally include in the same color palette as the rest of the rug, usually a much brighter color. Those almost unseen additions added a depth and spark that set Mikoryak rugs apart from the other rugs - I'm afraid quite a few of the other rugs started looking quite dull to me.

June also taught me about something I'd never heard of before called "antigodlin" or "antigogglin" hooking. It's done so the loops look like rice thrown randomly in a bowl.

The photo is a close-up of a petal on a flower on a large bedrug hooked by Ann Bond.

June Mikloryak said she studied the old rugs and the old books and realized the old hookers used this antigodlin technique - it certainly works well in Ann Bond's bedrug. June said the trick is to be sure your bottom hand is keeping the strip from twisting. She also said there might be spaces left between strips and you can go back and fill those in. I think I learned more from my chance meeting with June that I've learned in classes. I've always heard about using poison in color planning but have never seen such good examples, examples where the poison doesn't even show up unless you know what to look for - I think now I might have enough nerve to try sneaking in some poison myself.

Casserole Dyeing and Hooking without a Pattern

I ripped out my second attempt at hooking with really wide strips and decided to just play. I found myself hooking a person, who turned into a teacher of rug hooking. Then I had to hook her students. So far, I have two of them hooked.
I'm not sure if this will become a round chair pad or what, but I'm certainly having fun with it - lots more fun than those hit or miss round mats.


I've changed the shape of the "teacher" several times, but she still is pretty strange - sort of a tough task master I guess.

The first student is a round, fluffy one - sort of a common type of hooker.

The second one is the thin, maybe nervous, very precise hooker - probably hooking a room-size rug with size 2 strips. I haven't come up with the third hooker yet, I'm waiting for her to show herself.

I put some stainless steel pans up for sale yesterday, on Rughookers Bulletin Board and on Wool Snippets Marketplace. I acquired them, sort of accidentally, yesterday at an auction. The auction was put on by Braun and Helmer, my favorite auctioneers - well, actually, the sons of my favorite auctioneers. It was mainly an auction for farm equipment, so I went with the idea in the back of my head that I might be able to pick up some replacements for my antique haying equipment.

There were some other things besides the farm equipment filling out the auction - there was a huge bear rug, and I turned around once while looking at the display of goods and almost put my head in that boar's mouth. Ugh!

I enjoy watching the men at farm auctions - they always take some time to tinker with the engines. This 1970 truck was a favorite gathering place. I enjoyed seeing the truck - it used to belong to the Dexter Fire Department - it came to my farm when a neighbor called them and said it looked like I had a grass fire that was getting away from me. I was a bit irked when the firemen showed up because I was sure I had the fire under control - but it was nice to know they were available if I was wrong. That was the last time I cleared up the roadside weeds with fire. Anyway, I think the truck probably found a good home and it won't surprise me to see it in one of our local parades sometime soon.

There was a long table full of restaurant equipment - turns out the man who was selling his haying equipment is an executive chef. There was a great big huge stainless steel pot and I was picturing filling it was ten yards of wool for dyeing when I realized some other people were also admiring it. I chatted with them a little and learned they had some kind of organic non-profit and were contemplating getting the pot to feed the poor - kind of kicked me away from my plan. I was still thinking about them when the auctioneer started the bidding on the stainless steel pans that would be perfect for casserole dyeing. I figured I could use a couple, so I jumped into the bidding but was distracted by thinking about those non-profit people - well, anyway, somehow, instead of a couple, I ended up with 23 stainless steel pans - quite a few more than I can use. So, I put together my thoughts about how the pans could be used and offered the pans for sale with an instruction sheet - 13 of them were spoken for before lunch today. whew! maybe it wasn't such a big mistake.

Some Wash Up, or...um..Wrap Up

I explained on Yahoo Rughookers what happened to this sad little rug after I posted on this blog that I had finished the hooking. I steamed it, dried it, then put it on the floor under the card table I was using as a work table. My dear dog George used it like a puppy pad. I discovered what had been done when I saw some discoloration of the monk's cloth that I hadn't cut off for binding yet. Later the same day, I had to take George for a visit to his doctor and it turned out that the rug became diagnostic - George has a bladder problem, possibly very serious - so, I couldn't be upset with him, but I was afraid the little rug was ruined. I poured carpet soap full strength on it, then washed it off with cold water, then used a special pet cleaning soap and soaked the rug all over again. I took it outside, put it on a mesh table and rinsed the soap off with the garden hose - talk about mistreatment! Then I left the rug out in the sun for several days. Some color bled out, but the rug dried and the smell disappeared - at least to human noses. I tested the smell factor by placing the rug on the dining room floor again and Patches immediately stepped up to smell exactly the bad spot. So, this little mat will never again go on the floor and will probably never be a table mat either, but it did help diagnose a health problem for George and it also answered the question about how to wash a hooked rug. I think I should be pleased that it was hooked on monk's cloth and not burlap.

This circular mat is hooked with strips one inch wide. After reading the 1930 book by Mary Perkins Taylor, I thought I'd play around with some very wide strips. For some unknown reason, other than it was very late at night, the strips became twice as wide as Ms Taylor suggested. It wasn't easy to pull the strips through the primitive linen, I had to resort to the largest Hartman hook and still had to fold the strips in half.

The loops became pretty thick lumps that would make a very stiff and thick mat, maybe useful as a hotpad, but not particularly appealing. I am planning to pull these strips out of the backing, tear them in half, and try again.

In an earlier post, I showed a photo of my mother with her grandaughter - here she is again with her great-grandchildren. Max, who spent his early years in Kenya, and Zoe who has lived her three years in Guatamala. We were very pleased to have their annual visit home coincide with Grandma's 98th birthday party.