Recycling On St Thomas

Not too long ago we visited St. Thomas Island and found a thriving craft market located down from the pier, along the beach. In one of the small booths a young woman was hooking a rug with what looked like scraps from many pieces of clothing. At her feet was a basket of her finished rugs for sale.

The photo shows the backing which looks to be some sort of recycled bag. I have used it in the kitchen and washed it in the washing machine. Since it was hooked leaving many "vacations" quite a few of the strips pulled out but were easily worked back in.

The woman was quite proud of her work and asked if I wanted to take a photo of her with the rug. Of course--provenance is everything--now if I could only find that photo!

Still More Bling

This is a pin Darcy designed to teach on March 19 to the Strawberry Hookers at The North Branch library in Lakeland. They meet at 9:30 am and Darcy has made kits with each pin individualized.

More Wooly Bling

Joyce, past president of the the Strawberry Rug Hookers for 8 years and a certified Pearl McGown teacher, designed a name tag pin for herself using some mixed media. The hook is a combination pin head/stained dowel hooked on linen. More bling to be posted later.

Bling for Rug Hookers

When you attend workshops, rug shows, or regular hooker gatherings, there is usually a proliferation of bling of the pin variety. The Strawberry Hookers of Lakeland FL had an exhibit at the local library and pins were well represented along with rugs, chair pads, pillows and santas. Usually worn on their aprons, the pins are usually made of scraps from projects hopefully finished.

President Linda 1 (there are 2 Lindas in the group and possibly a 3rd Linda will be joining the group), proudly displayed an array of wooly bling.

Since I enjoy not throwing anything out and finding new uses for scraps, Linda's pins offer new possibilities for the growing "too good to throw out pile" accumulating in the wool studio.