First Hook

Happy February from Julie, the Rookie Hooker!

It's been a while since my last post because honestly, I've had nothing to share.  However, things are now buzzing in my journey to become a full-fledged hooker.  First, I bought a new hook, and it was pretty darn exciting.

It's a brand spankin' new Hartman hook. 

And it's mine.  ALL MINE!

I tried the ball shaped handle and the pencil-style handle, but I have sort of long hands, and I found that my pinky finger and ring finger wanted something to hold on to.  It was really a window into my controlling tendencies.  ALL FINGERS MUST HAVE SOMETHING TO DO!  Hopefully I'll get over that, and I would imagine that in time I will get the other styles of hook as well.  I can already see the direction this new hobby is going.

The other exciting thing is that a hooking instructor, Lori Rokusek from Dubuque, is coming to the Bee Line Townsend facility to teach a group of us to hook!   Wow, the sacrifices I make for my job!  She'll be here at about 10 a.m., we're giving her a plant tour, and then she's going to give a mini-hooking demonstration in our conference room for our employees.  Most of the guys are interested in learning the mechanics of how rug hooking works, and why the cutter and cassettes are an important part of the final projects, but there is a handful of us who are excited to learn how to start actual projects.

My first project is going to be our company mascot, Bucky Bee.

I'll probably stay away from the words in the logo, since everything I read about lettering in Rug Hooking Magazine, Wool Street Journal, and ATHA seems to indicate that it can be tricky, and I do have the tendency to bite off more than I can chew.

Lori Rokusek from Dubuque came to the BLT plant last week to teach us beginning rug hooking.   A lot of the guys in the plant came in to see the mechanics of hooking, the history, how to do it, etc.  A number of them actually hooked a row, and they weren't half bad!  I have the frame with the sample piece on it outside of my office, and I've caught a few guys coming over to try it again.  I only got to do a few loops because I wanted the other people to have their chance, but Lori is coming back tomorrow and I plan to monopolize her time.

This weekend I get to travel to Lenexa, Kansas with the wonderful Katie Lane from Townsend, where we will attend Marilyn Schmidt's Hook In - I'll be excited to bring a project with me!

What hooks do you use, and which is your favorite?

New Year, First Project!

Hello all! 

I hope everyone had a terrific Christmas and will enjoy a relaxing New Year.

We've been so incredibly busy at the Bee Line Townsend Beehive - we got a lot of product out the door to show up under those Christmas trees, but due to a virtual tsunami of orders, we still have quite a few orders to get out.  We expected a wave of orders, but not quite this big!  Have no fear, we are working diligently to get every order filled in a timely manner, but we also want it to be right.

On that note, even though we are the Original Townsend Cutting Tools, we are making them in a new facility with new people tooling them, so if anyone gets a blade or cutter that doesn't run like expected, please let me know immediately at rughooker@beeline-co.com and we will get right on it.  Promise.

So I'm really itching to get started with my hooking.  I went to a few hooking websites to find a nice starter kit, and guess what?  Everyone was sold out for Christmas!  Since I'm in the industry side of the equipment, I can relate, so I guess I will have to be patient.  I've also found an instructor who might be willing to come to our location to teach, so hopefully I can get that on the books in January, weather permitting.  We've been hit with a few ice storms and a lot of snow around here, so everything is tentative until March!  I was thinking about the Lenexa, Kansas show at the end of February, when I'm driving to Des Moines to pick Katie Lane up and we road trip to the show, and I was sending my anti-ice storm wishes to Mother Nature.  I hope she's listening!

If you didn't see them on Facebook, here are some fun pictures from our shop:

Shiny new cassette bodies, ready for shafts and pressure ring and gears and such.

Aren't they pretty?

Shafts ready to go into the cassette bodies. 

I love how these look all grouped together!

So I'm still in my starting stages of my hooking journey.  My goal is get a starter kit and start messing around with it by the end of the month.  A girl can dream....

Happy New Year, see you in 2011!

It's Showtime!

Hello all!

Things are still buzzing at the Beehive, where we are working our hardest to get those Christmas wishes out the door!

Today, however, I'm taking a moment out to do my travel budget for 2011.  So far, I'm going to Lenexa KS in February, Sauder Village in August, Stillwater MN in September, Lincoln NE and Lancaster Biennial in October, and Vermont in November.  What other shows should I attend?  I want to see it all next year!

You can let me know by e-mailing me at rughooker@beeline-co.com.

Thanks, and have a terrific weekend!

A Day in the Candy Shop

Hello all!

It has been crazycakes in the Bee Line-Townsend world!  The orders for cassettes and cutters have been pouring in, and we've been able to ship some cassettes.  Orders with cutter bodies should start going out this week, we're waiting on our sticker to put on the new Cutter Caddy, of all things.

However, I did get to go on a very fun field trip last Friday - the first leg of my journey as a Rookie Hooker!  First, I stopped at one of our storefronts, The Woolen Needle, in Williamsburg, Iowa.  I have pictures, I need to download them at home and post tonight.  Carla, Annette and Julie have a beautiful shop, chock full of goodies and customers.  I didn't get to stay nearly as long as I wanted, because I needed to get on the next leg of my journey, but long enough to know I will need to make a return trip soon. 

Then, my husband drove to our next stop - Altoona, Iowa, where Sharon Townsend opened up her lovely home to us.  Steve Woodward, the VP of Operations for Bee Line Company, Katie Lane, and Dean, the engineer at Townsend, were there as well.  We all chatted about the new product, and stood gawking at Sharon's beautiful work.  Her studio is fantastic.  Very light and bright, with bins and bins of neatly folded wool.  I started touching EVERYTHING.  I was like a toddler, touch touch touch.  If you've never met Sharon, let me tell you, she is graciousness personified.  I also got to see the lovely Katie Lane again.  Double Bonus!

Sharon, Katie and me. And loads and loads of gorgeous wool. 

It looks like my arm is around Katie, but I

might have my hand in a bin of wool.  Don't tell.

Then, we made the guys pose for a picture, Dean on the left and Steve on the right:

I don't think they were touching any of the wool.

Apparently I am the only one with boundary issues.

I talked with Sharon about how she got started, and different projects she is working on, and some of her favorite pieces.  There is joy in that studio, this I know for sure.

After seeing Sharon and Katie and crew, my husband and I drove to our final destination, the Iowa Junior Honors Orchestra in Ames, home of our alma mater Iowa State University, where our 8th grader was playing.  A perfect end to a perfect day.

Thanks for your e-mailed suggestions so far!  It's so helpful!

Weird weather today - is it warm in Iowa, with a cold front coming in, so there is a Tornado Watch right now.  Hopefully this dissipates by Thanksgiving!  Happy travels and a terrific holiday to everyone.



It's Alive... It's Alive!

It's a pretty exciting day here at Bee Line-Townsend!  After days and days of waiting, the website is finally live!  You can now order your Bee Line-Townsend cutter products on our website.  This has been a bit like having a baby and going past your due date, except this time my mother-in-law isn't going to send me flowers with my husband's name on them.

SO.  Enough about cutters.  I need to get to work with some hooking.  I have a few people who are willing to teach me, but none of them are local so I have to wait until I see them.  I have never been known for my patience, and I cannot stop thinking about hooking.  Here is my dilemma - there aren't any shops that I know of nearby, and I want to buy a hook and some rudimentary supplies.  I know there aren't many readers here yet, but if any of you who may stumble across this site have some tips for me, I need to know:

What are the startup essentials for a Rookie Hooker?

Where do I get them?

Do you recommend starting with a kit?

I already have access to the best possible cutter and cassettes, so I can cut any width strips.  Let me know what I need beyond that.  I look to you, wise hookers.

What Can Brown Do For Us?

Today at Bee Line Townsend we are having a training session with UPS to see what Brown can do for us to ship all those cutters and cassettes people are wanting.  Mr. Brown did not bring any snacking items, so already Brown did not do something for me, but he seems like a nice guy.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking to a few of our storefronts who sell the Bee Line Townsend products for us.  They are all terrific people, and I wish I could be in each one of their shops.  One customer I spoke with today found out I am originally from Fremont, Nebraska, and she is in Papillion, and told me about a wonderful shop in the Valley, Nebraska area called The Rug Hooking Store.  She described all of the amazing wool and tools, and it's all I can do to not get in my car and drive there and start touching things.

I can tell already that this is going to be a dangerous interest.  My husband should be cringing.

I like to do tile mosaic work, but I only like to use vintage china plates, particularly state plates.  I frequent Goodwill and the Salvation Army and garage sales, and lug home stacks of plates.  There is a room in my basement, the Mom Cave, and it is chock full of plates, waiting for me to take my aggression out on them in a big plate breaking session.  I'd better get breaking, because I can already see the future, and it is in bins of beautiful wool, waiting to be stripped into worms.

Since my candy shop is still off-limits to me, I guess I'll go see what Brown can do to get your equipment to you.  But I want to see pictures of the finished products!

Exciting week!

I've had such an exciting week here at Bee Line Townsend!

I finally met the amazing Katie Lane, who shared some of her homemade granola with me.  Let me tell you, that stuff is Ah-Maze-Ing.  Yum.  Anyone who shares their granola is okay by me.  Katie and Shari and I had a terrific two days, contacting storefronts who sell the Townsend Cutter and getting them the info about the new Bee Line Townsend Cutter.  It was great getting to "meet" some of you!

Here is a picture of the new Bee Line Townsend Cutter, or as I like to call it "The BLT":

Wool, meet the BLT.  BLT, cut the wool.

As you can see, the new cutter is black instead of chrome, but otherwise it is just the same.  Katie brought her cutter and a #8, and she used a new #8 in her cutter and an old #8 in the new cutter, and it was all cutting like butter.  We were really pleased.

Here is some increadibly gorgeous dyed wool Katie brought that we ran through the new cutter.  The picture does it no justice at all, that wool was beautiful.

I joked with Katie that I am the Luke Skywalker to her Yoda. 

If Yoda was really pretty and made great granola.

My time with Katie was too short - she is such a wealth of information!  She returned home yesterday after two days together, but I'm looking forward to her return, as she is going to show me some rug hooking tips to get me started on my Rookie Hooker journey!  She had a lovely rabbit design started by Sharon Townsend with her, only the head was done and I think she said the wool was cut with a #4.  Just lovely.  I can't wait to get started, but I have no illusions that my projects are going to look ANYTHING like that rabbit head for a long time.