Kingston - OHCG Annual

People browsing the OHCG rug show

Last weekend I went, with a bunch of "hooking" friends, to the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild's 47th Annual Meeting and Show (otherwise known as "the Annual"). It is in a different place in Ontario every year. This year it was in Kingston and 6 of us stayed in a lovely cottage on Cranberry lake about half an hour north.

It was a full vehicle and 2  happy hookers

We were able to book the cottage from Thursday to Sunday, so got a jump on the weekend and an extra day hooking at the cottage before we had to go into Kingston to set up our Guild's (J.J.Ruggers) display. Friday evening I helped as a volunteer judge so got to see the show early in an intense hour of viewing and assessing the comparative merits of a wide variety of rug hooked items. It was a great learning experience.

 One of the beautiful rugs that won

Saturday was spent at the annual meeting, viewing the show again, shopping for rug
 hooking supplies and generally socialising. Back to the cottage by mid afternoon and hooked, drank, ate, gabbed, laughed, the usual.

Piles of wool for sale, heaven for a hooker.

Sunday we cleaned up the cottage, went back to the show and then took down the the display and headed home.
It was a great weekend of fun with friends and rug hooking awe and inspiration. I have been to about 15 annuals (I think, I really can't remember when I started hooking) and have found some, in more recent years, to have nothing truly impressive. This one, I was back to being awed by the artistry and skill of Ontario's rug hookers.

 Note: this was my first blog post using a Samsung Galaxy tablet. In spite of all the hype, it is not as easy to use as a computer for this type of thing and I had to (with tech support) download a different browser to upload the pictures.