Australian Locker Hooking: A Down Home Craft From Down Under
(Page 3 of 4)
It's easiest to begin hooking in the third row from the
edge (Fig. 4). Thread the needle eye of the hook with
approximately three feet of locker yarn, and take a piece
of wool that's been stretched to about the width of your
index finger and tapered at both ends. The wool can be
shaped by grasping a clump in both hands and gently but
firmly pulling until it reaches the size you need: thick
enough to fill the holes in the canvas, but thin enough to
pull through easily.
If you're right-handed, you'll work from right to left.
First, weave the threaded locker hook in and out of the
canvas to anchor the end of the strand in place (when you
get more familiar with the technique, you can generally
just let it hang loose). Then hold the canvas in front of
you, with the hem on the underside, and draw your hook from
the bottom to the top through the second hole (Fig. 5),
leaving several inches of locker yarn hanging loose on
top.
Now, holding the lock of wool in your left hand underneath
the canvas, run your hook down through the next hole. Lay
the strand of wool over the hook, at a point about one inch
from the tapered end. Fold that short end under the hook
and back into the main strand of wool, making a loop on the
hook (Fig. 6). Draw this loop up through the hole and
leave it in place on the hook shaft while you pass
the hook down through the next hole, catch another loop of
wool, and draw it up through the hole (Fig. 7). In a sense,
you're crocheting through the holes of the canvas. Continue
in this way until you have three or four loops—or
however many you feel comfortable with—on the hook.
Then draw the hook and the locker yarn through all the
loops, locking them in place on top of the canvas (Fig. 8).
RELATED CONTENT
Buying or building a small home is a great way to significantly reduce your energy use, and you don...
There are thousands upon thousands of abandoned farmhouses scattered throughout the U.S., at bargai...
I'm renting an old Finnish homestead near Nolalu, Ontario....
A community canning center is the answer....
You don't have to be Irish to make a sturdy walking stick or cane, known in Ireland as a shillelagh...
When you run out of wool, simply elongate another piece,
tapering the ends as before, and overlap the ends of the
old and new pieces (see Fig. 8 again) so that the overlap
is no thicker than the rest of the strand. The fibers will
interlock . . . but catch up any ends so they don't show
and there's no indication of a splice (which could be a
weak spot in the finished piece).
When you're about six inches from the end of your strand of
locker yarn, pull it out of the hook eye and let it hang
from the front of the canvas. Rethread the hook and begin
hooking in the next hole as if you'd never run out of yarn;
but when you pull the new locker yarn through the hoops,
leave a six-inch tail hanging on top of the canvas. This
end, like the end of the old yarn, will be woven in later
with the yarn needle (Fig. 9).
SQUARE THOSE CORNERS!
