RICK HERRICK

508-693-8065

(herricklr@verizon.net)

Earlier this summer Lyn and I were at the home of Bob and Liz Huss for dinner. When I started to sit down, I noticed this beautiful chair seat of the East Chop Light. “Where did you get this cushion, Liz?” I asked.

“I made it for Bob,” she responded. “I’m a hooker, Rick, or didn’t you know?” I didn’t know, and I was both impressed and intrigued. When I continued to badger her with questions, she invited me to her hooking class.

Rosalie Powell began hooking when she was eight years old. She has taught hooking classes for more than thirty years. Her beautiful home in West Tisbury presents many testimonies to her talent as an artist. Her work decorates the walls, the mats on the floor, and the cushions that sit alongside the armrests of several sofas. She also has an important East Chop connection. She was a waitress at the Ahoma Inn as a teenager.

There were seven women in attendance that day. Rosalie opened the class by reporting what she had learned at a recent workshop for hooking teachers that focused on color. Color harmony is an important component of this ancient art form that dates back to the Vikings. Swatches of wool are carefully selected with regard to color. To create special effects, the wool is often dyed.

After her introductory remarks, Rosalie circled the room commenting on the work of her students. I watched Liz with fascination. She was working on an attractive arrangement of flowers and grapes, a pattern that she sketched free hand with a black magic marker on the burlap foundation.

As she worked to add shading to a leaf on one of the flowers, she sheepishly grinned over at me and commented that she was rather new at this game. I didn’t buy her confession of humility for one minute. The shading was intricate and impressively executed. In no way was this paint by numbers. It is rather a highly skilled art form.

The women I spoke with at the class had highly practical reasons for undertaking this work. Some were telling family stories through their art, others were making a gift for a special friend or family member, while others were making impressive decorations for their homes. Not one planned to sell their work at a craft show, although the quality of the work was certainly saleable. The bottom line was that these women did not want to part with something that was so important to them.

Liz hooks to honor the memory of her mother, a talented hooker in her own day. “Many women hook because it’s relaxing. The repetitive motion has a rhythm and is like meditation. I haven’t quite got to that point, but it’s so much fun to work with color and the texture of the wool.”

When I visit the Husses next summer, I will have two chair seats to admire and maybe an intricately patterned rug hanging from the wall. It was both fascinating and an honor to watch these women continue this time-honored tradition.