Trout (Cutthroat)

I typically use wool fabric in all my rugs and decided I wanted this enormous trout to look like those my husband catches while fly fishing, I chose to dip dye five sections of wool equal in length and width to the fish. This gave me the ability to hook with smoother color gradation and put most of the work in the dyeing rather than the hooking. In doing this, I used a dip-dyeing method my mother (also a rug hooker) used years ago. Rather than dipping the wool vertically, I dipped it horizontally. (Now, I’m thinking I’d like to explore some other ways of dip dyeing as well.)

Since I put most of my effort into planning and hooking the fish, I would say I’m most proud of how the fish turned out, looking like my husband’s photos of the cutthroat fish he has caught over the years. I most enjoy looking at the head. Before starting to hook, I made some adjustments to the head’s design to make it look closer to what I felt it should be.

I find that planning for color and dyeing are often the most challenging aspects of creating any rug. Good visual aids helped me envision what I was trying to achieve with this piece. And, as my piece progressed, getting input from my fellow hooker friends for the challenging areas was also of great help.

I incorporated a large “fly” in the center of the top border rather than hooking the fly and line from the original pattern to add a personal touch for my husband. I usually finish a rug based on where and how I will display the piece. Because of the addition of the fly, I chose to hang this rug along with my husband’s fish mounts in our recreation room. To frame a rug of this size was more than I was willing to pay for, so I chose to whip the border with wool strips and then used carpeting tack strips to mount it on the wall.

Trout (Cutthroat), 54″ x 20″, #5- to 7-cut hand-dyed new and recycled wool on monk’s cloth. Designed by Keith Kemmer and hooked by Patty Piek-Groth, Janesville, Wisconsin, 2024.

Patty Piek-Groth
JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN

While enjoying music in a city park during the summer of 1981, Patty and a friend saw a small gathering of women who appeared to be quilting. During a break in the music, they ventured over for a closer look at the quilts—but it wasn’t quilting or any other needlework they had ever experienced. Patty was enthralled and spent an hour watching and talking to the group of hookers. Before leaving, she signed up to learn rug hooking, and with her first project, Patty was hooked. Patty is an accomplished all-around hooker and dyer, making use of the incredible teachers she has encountered at rug camps and achieving her McGown Teacher Accreditation after retiring from her career in education.