First Rug on the Last Page: Three Birches/Karen Merker

My daughter Karen was antagonistic to all kinds of needlework—no sewing, no knitting, no crocheting—you get the point. When a hem came down, she stapled it.

The proverbial worm does turn, however, and a severe knee injury forced Karen to sit most of the time. After having done just so much thumb twiddling, she watched me do a bit of rug hooking and became curious. Since she had enjoyed and been successful at drawing in the past, she asked if she could try rug hooking.

I encouraged Karen to give it a try. I found some monk’s cloth and wool and off she went, drawing her own birch trees and delving into my stash of materials. The trees grew, and the forest and sky came of her own imagination, and the result speaks for itself.