Out of the Loop

I have been out of the loop -- the blogging loop, the hooking loop, the everything loop.  Spring has finally arrived -- the osprey are back on their nest, the tulips and daffodils are about ready to pop, the sun is shining more, but I have spent the last two and a half weeks locked indoors.  On the same day my husband left for a two week trip to the family sugar bush in Wisconsin, I came down with the worst head cold ever.  It started with a headache and a scratchy throat and just got progressively worse.  Thankfully, I have good friends who kept me supplied with soup and soufflé -- thank you Paula & Ann, thank you Osinski family!

I kept myself busy -- when I wasn't sleeping -- dyeing wool, thinking the moisture the pots produced would help clear my sinuses.  I was dyeing to match colors in some quilting fabrics, so that Janet at Farmhouse Quilt Company and I can tag team teach a matching quilt and hooked rug.  I think I finally succeeded.  Now I need to hook the rug.

I also spent some time on Pinterest and ebay.  My sister Barb sent me a link to an auction of a Grenfell mat, supposedly from the walls of the Dog Team Tavern in Middlebury, Vermont, which burned to the ground several years ago.  (I have a small but prized collection of Grenfell mats.  If you don't know about them, check out Paula Laverty's book Silk Stocking Mats.)  I didn't bid on that rug, but it led me to another -- a woodland scene with a moose, hooked with stockings but not labelled "Grenfell". I'm sure it is Canadian, not sure it is a Grenfell.  Didn't care -- my finger hit the Buy it Now button without me even telling it to!

Now I'm prepping for the first show of the year: 

106th ANNUAL CONNECTICUT SHEEP, WOOL & FIBER FESTIVAL

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Rain or Shine

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Tolland Agricultural Center

Route 30, Vernon/Rockville, CT

My Winter Treat

I love Grenfell rugs.  I love the clean, modern look of them and the immaculate, evenly hooked rows of old stockings.  They are my all-time favorites.  I am lucky enough to own two of these prized specimens of Canadian handwork.  One, a map of Newfoundland,  I won on eBay nearly a decade ago.  The other, two sailors in a boat, is a new auction prize.  I wasn't in the market for another old mat, but when I saw it I couldn't control my bidding finger.

 For more information of the mats of the Grenfell Missions, read Paula Laverty's wonderful book, Silk Stocking Mats: Hooked Mats of the Grenfell Mission.  You can visit her website here: Grenfell Hooked Mats