Hookers

I just spent the whole day in the presence of women I have know for over 15 years. They proudly call themselves, as do their husbands, hooker, dyers, strippers. The youngest woman in the group is me...45. The next youngest is my mother. She will be 70. The oldest is 102, and one died last year at 103.

I am of course referring to primitive rug hookers.
This is different from latch hooked rugs.

The base fabric is most often burlap. The wool used, and they are very particular it be as close to 100% as possible, comes mainly from Goodwill. Old skirts, men's jackets and suits are taken apart and stripped to use as the loops of the rug.
I have 8 tubs of wool in my attic that my husband refuses to move another time. I have not moved for eight years!

In colonial times, women would use old feed sacks and items of clothing that were too used to be worn to make heavy carpets for the wood floors and to add weight and warmth for winter beds. Today they are seen in magazines as table runners or floor mats.

These ladies meet the first Wednesday of every month and have met for decades before I knew them. They support each other, lift each other up, laugh alot, go to rug camps together and care for each other. I have learned so much from them! They are so kind to beginner me.

I remember the first time I joined the group. My girls were young and the ladies adored them. We met for the Christmas meeting at Mrs. Audrey Williams home. She was a school teacher in the day and Hilary took to her right away! Miss Audrey always wore purple. She even dyed her stockings purple to match everything. Her carpet was purple. She had a lovely collection of doll houses that the girls loved to play with...ever so carefully. Miss Audrey had a Christmas cactus the size and blooms I have never seen before or since.

Miss Audrey always held the December meeting. She always made concord grape pie for dessert and had hot raspberry tea to drink. The next Christmas, Hilary made Miss Audry a paper angel and she kept it when she moved to Missouri and still had it when she passed away at age 103, I'm sure. She even wrote to Hilary after she moved.

We had meetings in the Queen Ann's Inn downtown South Bend where we had tea sandwiches. We have meeting at the Center Library, and we have meetings in members' homes. Everyone brings what current projects they are hooking...some have been working on the same project for years!

The first half of every meeting I always wander around and oogle at their beautiful work. Some design their own, some buy patterns. Some of the ladies enter contests in the rug hooking magazine.

The ladies are getting older and have more than their fair share of health problems, but they show up every month eager to meet and chat and hook.

This month was my turn to host. I made orange pound cake, zucchini casserole...of course! And brought Hilary's German chocolate cake....thanks for sharing, Joe. I also supplied coffee and tea and apple cider. Everyone brings their own sandwich or other lunch item. Usually most make egg salad!

I was thinking after the meeting how sad it will be for me when the years pass. I either must find new rug hookers, or cherish this time with these wonderful ladies..because as it goes, I should outlive them all. I pray that my girls take up this craft someday. It truly is a lost art, that I am so thankful I was let into the circle of.

I enjoy rug hooking artists such as Deanne Fitzpatrick from Nova Scotia. It is my dream to go there and take some classes from her. It is also a dream to attend Cedar Hills rug camp in West Virginia with these ladies.