My visit with a lone Rug Maker from Augusta, WA

As we continue our trip through the southern part of WA, we stopped at Augusta,  a small town on the south western most tip of WA. I went there specifically to meet and talk to a fellow Dutch woman,  and a lone rug hooker in this town. Lies learned about rug hooking while holidaying in Canada. While visiting shows and rug hooking shops she became hooked and during her follow up visit booked herself into a week long workshop at one of the Rug Hooking Schools. I spent a couple of hours with Lies and during this time we chatted mostly about our individual rug hooking adventures.

Her first rug was a variation of the tree of life. A very ambitious start for a first, but she did it magnificently. This lovely rug, measuring approx. 750 x 1400 is hooked in a #5 with woolen strips.

For the last three years Lies has been working on a story rug she calls, 'Windows of my life' and which depicts times in her life that have special meaning for her. It is about 900mm x 1500mm and also hooked in wool. Lies dyes all her own wool for her rugs. Suffering a lot from arthritis she only allows herself short stretches of hooking at the time. I suggested that rather using a pencil hook, she might find it kinder to her hands if she used a Les Ritchie bent hook and rather than holding it like a pencil she palm the ball handle which is a lot more comfortable. The time soon went, and upon saying goodbye promised her that I would do a writeup of my visit with her on the Victorian Rugmakers Blog.

Windows of my Life