Another Craft

I do NOT need another hobby. I crochet, I spin, I weave (not well, but I'm learning), I scrapbook, I read. I have a passing acquaintance with tablet weaving, tapestry weaving, quilting, cross stitch, embroidery and ply splitting. Plus keeping up with 4 kids, 3 cats and 1 dear husband. I manage to keep busy. And now I do locker hooking. And I love it.

Vickie and I discovered locker hooking at the 2005 Fabulous Fiber Fest in Santa Monica. But we didn't do anything with it until we went to the Conference of Northern California Handweavers in Modesto earlier this month. One of the vendors was locker hooking to pass the time and gave us a quick demo. We were hooked. (sorry!)

Locker hooking uses latch hook-type canvas, fabric or roving, yarn and a locker hook - a combined crochet hook and tapestry needle.

Holding the fabric or roving below the canvas, you pull loops up through the canvas onto the hook, and then pull a strand of yarn through the loops to hold them in place. Fast. Simple. Easy. And fun.

Vickie is using strips of fabric from her quilting days. I'm using wool and llama roving from my spinning stash. Both of us are doing rugs, an easy first project. The book I bought - Creative Locker Hooking - shows other projects including pillows, purses, bowls, baskets and wallhangings. Enough to keep us occupied for a little while.

In a couple of hours, I was able to do a three row border all around my rug and start on the first design element, a diagonal block. The finished project will be soft, warm and durable. Locker hooking is enough like crochet to be comfortable and yet different enough to be a challenge. Since this rug is a practice piece (probably destined to be a cat bed since AJ has already tried to claim it), I'm going to experiment with circles and several border designs to see what works for me and what doesn't.

And the best part? Locker hooking uses things that I already have on hand so I can justify it by calling it my 'stash reduction' craft.