I am heading down to the city right after work tonight, for an early start to my weekend (meeting up with Elaine and heading to see this tomorrow...yay!), but wanted to try and squeeze in a quick post before I go. And what is quicker than plagiarizing my own words (from an email I sent earlier in the week to Liz)....?
I often find the tails (vs. loops) can be distracting when I am looking at rug hooking - especially when two tails are pulled up next door to one another. Here are my secrets showing some of ways that you can 'hide' your ends/tails in your hooking......(hopefully the words combined with the illustration below explain well enough - let me know if you have ?? in the comments - or if you have any secret methods of your own to share...thanks!)
At the beginning of a row.....
Pull up your end/tail, just in a bit from where you would normally start hooking. Go back and pull up your first loop. Continue forward and pull up your 2nd loop, just past your tail/end....and continue hooking normally. (1) If you can try to adjust your initial tail (when pulling up your first loop) so that it is at exactly the right height, you won't need to trim it. This lack of trimming will further help to 'hide' it, since the fuzzy end is far less obvious than a freshly cut end.
At the end of a row.....
Hook normally until you have ~1" of wool remaining on the underside. Carefully pull up just the tail/end, leaving a loop below the surface. Pull up that loop, and adjust the last loop's height by pulling on the tail/end. (2) This does take a little practice to get the hang of it, and keep your last loop from twisting. I find that pinching the loop below helps considerably.
Starting in the middle of a strip.....You can also start hooking in the middle of a strip of wool - to avoid having too many tails line up along one edge, if you are doing straight rows of hooking. Just start hooking your first row anywhere along the strip, then carry on hooking with the remainder of the strip in the next row (above or below) (3)
Hide in the ditch....Finally, you can also just pull up your tail 'in the ditch' between rows, perpendicular to your loops. (4)
P.S. My Auntie Jean (Armstrong) taught me the first trick (hiding your tails at the beginning) when I first learned how to hook. I figured out the others on my own.
