Here is the mat commissioned by the Stewart Hall Museum when the Grenfell Exhibition was on.Designed by myself and hooked on by several members of the St Henri Rug Hooking Guild iincluding myself.It was in Celebrations the next year and is hooked entirely with hand dyed panty hose-in horizontal lines as were the Grenfell mats.It is a good size ,about 32'' X 20''.Colours are better in real life of course!
A history of these mats can be found by googling ' Grenfell ' mats.
Here as promised a few hints . . .on
How to Hook with NYLONS or (Pantyhose)
Nylons can be hooked in any direction and into any type of design you want . The Greenfell-style mats are usually hooked in straight rows horizontally.
Nylons can be dyed easily –just as wool . . . . same methods. Small pyrex dishes covered with saran wrap and a hole pricked in top. . . .. zapped in a microwave are what I liked to use.
Technique:
As with all hooking there are always different ways to hook with the fibre you have chosen.
I will try to discribe here what worked for me.
Use a good sharp pair of scissors and jewellery tweezers are helpful to pull your loops and organize them neatly.
1. Cut your panty hose horizontally across the legs about ½’’ wide – giving you circles.
2. When ready to hook the circle- Pull stretched it and it gets narrower –sort of like a #3 cut in wool.
3. Snip circles once to get a strip . . .the edges will roll in towards the right side of the material . .
NOTE* therefore if you dye the nylons put them inside out and then dye!
4. Hook in almost every hole . . .pull the strip up higher than you would normally . . .. as it is stretchy and shrinks back down after it is hooked.
. . .remember that for smooth hooking the rolls of strip will be on the underneath side of loop.
Grenfell mats were finished with the ends to the underneath side of mat but there really is no need to do this.
-Bring ends to the top as with wool strips. Remembering that tweezers can help to adjust and shape loops once they are hooked !
Good Luck!
Nylons can be hooked in any direction and into any type of design you want . The Greenfell-style mats are usually hooked in straight rows horizontally.
This is my little Grenfell style mat -it is about 12X12'' as I seem to remember . .and the POLAR BEARS are still having a hard life . . .nothing has improved for them.
This old antique rug hug in the living room of my childhood home . . . .I have always loved it and it is totally responsible for me learning to hook my own rugs!My father bought it in St Jean Port Jolie Québec on the St Laurence river in 1936 for $3.50 -which he had to borrow from his father!yes he eventually paid him back . . . .. It was originally a painting by Clarence Gagnon,famous at the time and his work so well loved that he was copied by artisans all over the province-much to his dismay!! copywrite infringement was not fussed about in those days . . .This pattern was hooked many many times -I have seen different versions of it in several places.
Now . . . . .the fireplace-is made of hand picked ROCKs from the shore nearby and is a work of art by itself!
I have a passion for rocks ,the house is full of them . . I have brought them home from far away beaches all colours and sizes . . .these rocks are all from the same beach and lie side by side round and jagged. Beautiful to touch and look at every day . .. .
EGGS for breakfast anyone?
