Australian Locker Hooking: A Down Home Craft From Down Under

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Corners and turns require a special technique if they're to be neat and secure. Here's how it works.

When you come to the end of a row, run your hook all the way down through the next hole in line. Pull the locker yarn taut, but not tight, and decide which direction you want to hook in next.

If you want to go at a right angle to your first row, move back one hole—to the one in which you last hooked—and bring the hook all the way up through that hole right next to the loop it already contains. Then begin hooking to the left (Fig. 10). This procedure should be followed whenever you turn a corner, and will create a clean right angle.

If, on the other hand, you'd rather go back alongside your first row, bring the hook up through the next empty hole to the left. Give your piece a quarter turn to the right, and then begin hooking toward the left, beside the first row.

Craftswoman Joan Rough—owner of Fox Hollow Fibres and author of Australian Locker Hooking: A New Approach to a Traditional Craft, which was the primary source for most of this information—explains it thus: "Always bring the hook up one square behind the one in which you'll hook the first loop of any row in a new direction."

When you come to the final stitch, after filling all the holes in the canvas, run the hook down through the next filled hole, drawing the locker yarn after it, and remove the yarn from the eye. Thread the end onto the yarn needle, and weave it in and out the back of the loops and the canvas so that it's firmly anchored and hidden from sight. Trim any ends.

FINISHING UP

Edges can be finished in various ways. When making a pillow, for instance, you can hand-sew a backing or stitch one on with a sewing machine. Other projects can be whipstitched along the edges with raw wool or homespun yarn for a decorative effect. Another attractive alternative is to hook a fringe around the edges, using a lark's head knot (Fig. 11) . . . or, if you leave the outside row of holes empty until last, you can crochet a finished edge, using one stitch per hole.

Locker-hooked items are easy to care for and can be either dry-cleaned or washed. If you choose the second alternative, just remember to soak—not agitate—the pieces and gently squeeze the water through; and be sure that the wash water and rinse water are the same temperature (not one warm, the other cold).

SOURCES AND RESOURCES

Joan Rough's instruction book (mentioned above), which includes one locker hook, can be ordered from Fox Hollow Fibres, Rt. 1, Box 161A, Glasgow, VA 24555 (brochure free with SASE). Kits and materials are available from Hand-Dun Originals, 500 N. Augusta Dr., Augusta, MI 49012 (catalog free with SASE). As of this writing, the prices on locker hooking equipment are as follows: locker hook, $2.50; instruction book with enclosed hook, $6.95; project kits (including wool, locker yarn, book and hook, and canvas), $13.00-$19.00. These prices don't include shipping and handling costs or sales tax.

Crafts people who are skilled at such things might want to try making their own locker hooks from wood, bone, or metal. These should be about 6-1/2" long (shaft diameter about 1/8"), with an eye at least 3/8" long and a hook equivalent to size H or 8 as standard crochet hooks are measured.

As the photographs show, Australian locker hooking lends itself to some handsome designs . . . and lest you think the pieces are fragile, one craftswoman I know has had a locker-hooked rug on the floor of her foyer for five years, and it's still bright, beautiful, and intact.

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