Australian Locker Hooking: A Down Home Craft From Down Under

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WHAT'S NEEDED?

To try your hand at locker hooking, you'll need a locker hook, locker cord or yarn, rug canvas, a yarn needle, wool, and—if raw wool is to be used—a metal comb or wire-bristled cards

. The locker hook (see Fig. 1) resembles a rug hook or heavy crochet hook with a large eye opposite the hook end. Like a traditional rug hook, it has to be fairly deep to accommodate the thick fibers used. If locker hooks aren't available at your local craft shop, they can be mail-ordered (see the end of this article for the names and addresses of two suppliers).

Locker yarn should be sturdy cord or yarn just fine enough to be easily threaded through the hook's eye. Four-ply knitting wool is the ideal yarn, but other types can be used successfully. Any color is suitable because the yarn doesn't show . . . but it is best to choose one that blends with the basic color of your hooked piece.

Sized rug canvas without a plastic coating is used for the backing. Plastic-coated canvas is the type most often found in craft outlets, but it cuts the wool fibers and won't soften enough when washed to be compatible with this supple filling. Cotton or cotton-polyester canvas also seems to serve the purpose better than the 100% polyester variety. Be sure to specify which type you need when you buy. Mesh size of three or four squares per inch is suitable.

A yarn needle, easily purchased in any department store or craft outlet, is needed for concealing the locker yarn ends and finish ing the edges of the project if it's intended as a rug or wall hanging.

Wool, when it's kept out of the clutches of factories and protected from destructive chemicals, is a soft, durable, warm, lovely, luxurious fiber. It's neither harsh, nor prickly, nor as allergenic as many people think it is. The wool you use can be freshly sheared, or washed and carded, or in "roving" form (washed, combed, and formed into smooth, long hanks). Of course, freshly sheared wool will be the material of choice for most folks who raise sheep . . . but if you find that wool smells much better on the hoof than in the house, you might want to wash the fleece in a mild detergent or soap, rinsing it well and letting it dry before using it. Don't wring or agitate the wool when washing: It will soak clean. (Wash and rinse the fleece in water of the same temperature.)

A metal pet comb can be used to separate the wool fibers, creating a light, fluffy mass and removing any leftover dirt or vegetable matter that may have remained in the fleece. Metal combs can be purchased at pet shops, department stores, or grocery outlets.

If you can get them, hand cards (Fig. 2) are useful to straighten the fibers, but they can be quite difficult for a novice to use. A few U.S. mills will, for a fee, wash and card raw wool for you. They'll return it as wool batts (large pieces of wool suitable for quilts) or roving, which is available in craft and yarn outlets.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Australian locker hooking is best suited to simple patterns. If you decide to follow a design, just draw it on the rug canvas with a permanent fiber-tip pen or acrylic paint.

If your project is a pillow or any other article having seams, be sure to leave three or four rows of canvas for your seam allowance. In the case of rugs or wall hangings that require finished borders, you'll want to fold back two or three rows on the edge to make a selvage. I like to clip out the corners with scissors rather than try to hook through four thicknesses of canvas (Fig. 3), and I sew the folded row in place using the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine.

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