Tanya visits again, with more goodies

Libby: I was wondering if you could tell us about the patterns- how do you use them?

TANYA-- Well, there are several different backings that can be used when rug hooking, we only use Monk's Cloth and find it to be the best backing. Monk's Cloth is soft and easy to work with, it is 100% cotton, very durable and forgiving. By forgiving, I mean, say you hooked a row and do not like how it came out, you can pull the yarn back out and re-hook in the same spot as needed. The Monk's Cloth will also allow you to do this without damaging the backing and it will never look like you re-hooked any of it. Using this backing and the punch needle method, you can Never mess a project up.
We hand draw all of the patterns onto the Monk's Cloth - we simply use a permanent black sharpie marker and draw. We offer the blank Monk's Cloth - cut and surged to any size - so you can draw your own designs if you would like.
The Monk's Cloth the pattern is drawn on, looks a lot like cross stitch fabric, it has small holes and a white line running every 2". You will hook over the pattern, so you don't need to worry if your design is perfect, you will not see the drawing of the pattern at all when you are finished.

I always tell people, don't feel you have to have it so perfect and when hooking have fun with it, all pieces will be truly unique, and you don't want it to look machine made.

Libby: About the yarn- do you use it right out of the paper that is wrapped around it, or is it better to take it out of that and wind it in a ball, or is there something better to do?

TANYA-- All of our rug yarn comes in 1/4 lb skiens, there is no paper around the skien, but you do need to break it open and unwind it. Take the two ends and just open the skien up, it will be connected usually in a couple spots with knots, I just simply cut these off and remove the excess (the knot) and then start with one end and unravel the yarn.

After you have it unraveled you can use the hand method and wind up into a ball, some have told me they put their ball of yarn in a big bowl or something to hold it so it doesn't run off while your hooking.

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