the hooker’s return

I have recently begun hooking again and as I messaged to a friend, I am happiest when I am hooking. Knitting is great too, but it just doesn’t enable me to tell the stories I need and want to tell.

This new cycle of hooking began with an online group of women looking to spread love and compassion to those involved in the front line of Nova Scotia’s recent tragedies. ” A view from my window with love” is a chronicle of hooked rugs having symbols and colors of a beautiful province now seeped in sadness and loss. It also provides hope in community.

It’s hookers at their best.

Primitive rug hooking is a wonderfully calming past time, introduced to me by Deanne Fitzpatrick. Through her I learned the basics of rug hooking and rug designing. I buy almost exclusively from her because she is honest and authentic and she sells great product. I love experiencing her stories both in her writing and videos, and of course, through her rugs. Her shop is a place of refuge.

And so is the craft itself. It is so easy to get lost in the rhythm of the hooking, especially if you have your materials all laid out in front of you with tons of natural light and a kitty at your feet (or laying across the top of your rug while it’s in its frame).

In this past year of mourning, I have missed so many people and things. Hooking has been one of them. A bright spot was a small kit I made, brought to me by my loving friend Rachel, soon after Pat died. I remember opening the box one morning, and with everything at my fingertips, I hooked away! It was fantastic. Thank you, Rachel.

But, to hook is to think, and I have struggled with that process for awhile now. Your mind is either fogged in or way too sharp and neither one lends itself too well to silence.

Yet hope is the thing, isn’t it? And I never stopped observing those people who would make excellent hooking subjects! So along comes Megan with her incredible fashion sense : a shimmering white party dress with slouchy bright pink socks. Are you kidding me? Or my long, lanky, shepherdess colleague with the unruly hair. Vintage!

And then, the handsome father image standing close to his girl, wearing a wide collared, startling orange, dress shirt. Help me, Deanne, let’s get busy.

It’s exhilarating. I have online marking to do, and a fierce little sheltie nipping at my toes, and I feel fantastic today knowing what projects await.

So, the frame is in place, ready for some little rugs while I wait for my online order from Deanne. The sun is shining and Bea and I are listening to comedian John Pinette, a favorite of her Dad’s (need I say more?). Somewhere local there is a sausage farmers’s wrap with my name on it.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.

Happy hooking…

Melissa

Additional hooker notes:

• I miss you Viola and Janice xo xo
• Cannot wait to teach you how to hook, Ellen 🙂
• Thank you for your generosity, Deanne <3
• Bless you again, Rachel xo