Wow, what can I say… it has been an amazing last couple of weeks. At the beginning of August 2024, I had the absolute privilege of heading over to the USA in the name of spreading British rag rug cheer. What on earth does that mean you may well ask! Well, the amazing guys at The Woolery in Frankfort, Kentucky (a fine purveyor of all things fibre) now stock our gorgeous woollen blanket yarn and invited me over to introduce the product to their US customers. We arranged the dates so that I could turn the trip into a proper rug hooking holiday with a special two day visit to Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week (but more on that to come).
I tagged on a week’s of non-rag rug related holiday after the “work” part of my trip and below is a paired down account of what I got up to over the two weeks. Hope you find it interesting!
Sightseeing in Kentucky
My trip to The Woolery started with a nine hour flight to Chicago followed by an easy change to an internal flight to the city of Lexington. I was met at the airport by the incredibly kind owners of The Woolery, Wave and Perri, who would be hosting me for the first week of my stay. Bless them, my flight didn’t get in until past 11pm, but they still insisted on coming to pick me up from the airport. This super warm and kind-hearted welcome was an early indicator of what was to come. The Americans sure know how to make people feel at home and the interesting and friendly people I met along the way are a big reason why I had such a great trip.
The first couple of days of my trip were spent getting used to the time difference and sightseeing. Perri anticipated that I may be a little jetlagged, so eased me in slowly with some proper Kentucky hospitality. I knew very little about Kentucky before heading out there. In fact, without exception, the first thing friends mentioned when I said I was going to Kentucky was KFC. Beyond tasty chicken I didn’t know much. Well, I learnt pretty quick that Kentucky is famous for three things according to my host, Wave…
1) Horses. Kentucky is THE place for horses. There are thought to be around 450 horse farms in the state (what we call a stable I think) and the equine industry generates a whopping $6.5 billion per year to the economy. Now that’s serious business!
2) Bourbon. Apparently the limestone topography of the state makes the water perfect for making bourbon. Who would have known! Quite a few people it seems as there are now over 100 licensed distilleries in Kentucky alone. I wasn’t sure what the difference was between bourbon and whiskey before I travelled to Kentucky, but apparently whiskey is the umbrella term for any alcoholic liquor made from fermented mashed grains. All bourbon is a whiskey but not all whiskey is a bourbon. For a whiskey to qualify as a bourbon it needs to be made from a grain mix that is at least 51% corn, and can only be made in the USA (it’s a protected term). An additional fun fact for you is that, bourbon is always aged in new wooden barrels, never pre-used ones.
3) The Woolery. Obviously! According to Wave, Perri and now me, one of the main reasons to visit Kentucky is for sure The Woolery. It’s your one-stop shop for all things wool, weaving, fibre, punch needle, rug hooking… you name it. A true Aladdin’s cave of craft supplies.
During my Kentucky sightseeing I visited picturesque horse farms, Keeneland racetrack and Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. I also attempted to eat the largest slice of chocolate cake I’ve ever seen come out of a restaurant while at a food establishment loved by the locals – Malone’s. Below are a few photos from my Kentucky sightseeing.
The Wonder that is The Woolery
After settling in for the first couple of days, I finally got to visit The Woolery itself and boy was I impressed. What a fabulous business. I met the team behind the Woolery and got to browse through their vast stacks of products. It was so much fun to see our Ragged Life wares on display in a shop in the USA – quite the pinch-me moment! While I was there in the shop, we filmed a few techniques videos, which we’re planning to share with you guys in the coming months (including one on peg loom weaving, for example). It was also fun experimenting with resident weaving expert Amy who is an absolute fount of fibre knowledge. She taught me a neat way to tidily knot my warp strands shorter on the peg loom, for example, so that they wouldn’t get tangled as I worked (a tapestry butterfly for anyone interested in that technique). Below are a few photos of The Woolery and Amy, including a rug she wove on her loom using some of our neutral coloured blanket yarns.
Road Trip to Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week
In a stroke of good fortune, I was able to coordinate my visit to the USA and the Woolery at the same time that Rug Hooking Week was taking place at Sauder Village in Ohio. I’d never heard of this show before, but apparently it’s THE gathering for rug hookers from across the States, Canada and beyond… It’s an absolutely amazing event with experts running workshops, demonstrations and talks, exhibitor stands where you can buy all your rug hooking materials, and much more… However, the real highlight of Rug Hooking Week is the beautifully curated display of hooked (loopy) rugs. What an absolute treat they were. Needless to say, I was blown away and took as many photos as my phone could stomach.
Rug Hooking Week was so incredibly packed full of beautiful stuff that it warrants its own full blog post (stay tuned for that in a couple of weeks time). However, hopefully the photos below give you a taste of the show. It was particularly good fun meeting rug hooking friends who I knew through social media. They had all gathered at the show and it was hilarious bumping into more and more people I knew. In particular I had a great catch up with Yvonne Iten-Scott from Canada, who was teaching a class on “Bugs in Rugs” and Rebecca from Storyteller Wool, who was also teaching and featured one of our Ragged Life rag rugs in her latest book. Small world eh!
Big shout out to Wave and Perri who drove the five hour journey to Rug Hooking Week and then back again the next day. We had a laugh about how British people think 200 miles is far and Americans think that 200 years is old.
Back to the Woolery for Workshops
Needless to say, Rug Hooking Week was an absolute revelation and The Woolery team and I headed back to Frankfort, Kentucky with a million ideas whizzing through our brains. Up until this point, the trip had felt much more like a holiday than a working trip so it was definitely time to get to work! The next couple of days were spent in The Woolery, running workshops, signing books and generally creating with Amy and The Woolery team. The classes were so much fun as once again the people I met made me feel right at home and we had a blast. I couldn’t believe how far some of the students had travelled to join in the class – it was honestly touching the effort that everyone had made. Classic British rag rug techniques was the last workshop I ran at The Woolery before the pure holiday part of the trip. It was sad saying goodbye to the amazing Woolery team, but onto new the next part of the journey… My husband joined me for second half of my trip, where we roadtripped up to Chicago via Louisville.
Tourists in Louisville and Chicago
Having only been to the USA once before, I was understandably keen to explore more of the USA while I was across the pond. I’d always heard good things about Chicago, which wasn’t too far away by American standards, so we drove up there, breaking up the journey with a couple of nights in Louisville on the way. Highlights from our trip included exploring Victorian mansions in Louisville, playing virtual sports for the first time, visiting the Kentucky state fair, the iconic and beautiful Art Institute of Chicago, baseball at historic Wrigley Field and much more. We happened to be in Chicago while the Democratic National Convention was going on there, so were a little apprehensive that we’d get caught up in mass rioting, but in fact, the city was extremely tranquil and we even coincidentally saw Kamala Harris on her way to the DNC itself – quite the historic moment!
For anyone who hasn’t been to Chicago before, I’d highly recommend it. I didn’t realise quite how lovely the city’s location would be on Lake Michigan. It felt like we were on the coast and we were truly blessed with the weather.
Anyhow, that’s a little look into the glamorous life of a full time rag rug maker (I promise you, it’s not always like this!). Thanks so much for reading my little travel log and stay tuned for an in depth look into Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village. I took about a million photos there so it’ll be very visual.
Happy rag rugging,
Elspeth