By By KATHIE HEMPEL / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Traditional hooking arts are a passion of the women of three area rug hooking clubs. These ladies do not limit themselves to rugs alone.
Wall hangings, above the door wool art and even some mixed media work – anything their imaginations can dream up, they make up. Many are also ardent quilters as well.
Ladies from three rug-hooking clubs gathered at the Niles Library April 4. The joint meeting brought together ladies from Niles' Michiana Rug Crafters, Fiber Friends of Goshen and the Council Oak Chapter of Traditional Hooking Arts from South Bend.
Rug hooking enthusiasts like Barbara Webster of South Bend, Ind. are veterans of the craft. She brought an Oriental-styled rug she made in 1983. It remains vibrant and durable after 20 years.
Shirley Neville of Niles, has only been involved with rug hooking for three years and considers herself a relative newcomer.
"Char is my quilting friend. I always wanted to know how to do this but didn't know anyone who did it. She got me going on this," Neville said.
Char is Charlotte Southworth, also of Niles. Her current project is a kit of a series of chair pads illustrating a number of different herbs.
New fiber artists often favor kits like these by designer Elizabeth Black, according to some of the hook artists. Southworth is quick to point out that kits have varying degrees of difficulty.
"Kits have the advantage of having 'cheat sheets' included. The sheets point out the spacing of the various colors. It's almost like working a paint by number," said Marge Collins, hostess for the day.
Collins has been working with wool and hooks for more than 12 years. She demonstrates a Bliss Strip Cutter, which has a variety of different blade heads to vary the width of the wool strips cut for the works.
"When hooking first started, all the cutting was done with scissors. Some purists still believe it cannot truly be a traditional piece unless it has been cut by hand,' she said.
A variety of processes are used to dye the wool fabrics to just the right shade. While some commercial dying is done, some techniques are as simple as simmering the wool in a pot with soap.
"We can get a variety of shades and mottling to the fabric just by how long it is in the bath and whether it is stirred or not," Collins said.
Joyce Sherk belongs to both the Fiber Friends and the South Bend group, though she lives in Niles. The former seamstress tends to work with more primitive patterns using wider strips of wool.
"This is addictive, like grandchildren," she said.
The group gathered in the basement of the library agreed.