Ellen Abrams has been a Stockroom Services Specialist in Smith’s Clark Science Center for the past three years. She lives in Ware with her husband and their yellow lab, Scout.  Outside of her work at Smith, Ellen is an avid hiker, gardener and novice beekeeper.

As a child, Ellen was introduced to the art of Rug Hooking by her grandmother. Rug hooking is the art of creating a rug by pulling loops of yarn or fabric through a stiff woven hessian, burlap, linen, or rug warp fabric. The loops are pulled through the backing material by using a crochet-type hook mounted in a (usually wooden) handle.  The designs for the rugs are often outlined on the base fabric and can range from complex flower or animal designs to simple geometric patterns.

Ellen’s grandmother had a special room where she hooked rugs and the colored strips of wool she kept in there always fascinated Ellen as a child. Ellen says that her grandmother was forever chasing her out of the hooking room. But, years later, when she could no longer see well enough to hook, she passed all her hooking equipment down to Ellen.

Ellen’s first rug was one she designed herself, teaching herself first to dye the wool then to hook the rug.  She made that rug for her then infant daughter’s nursery and has hooked over 30 rugs in the 31 years since. Every rug she has hooked has been given as a gift to a family member for weddings, graduations, etc. In the beginning, she often let the recipient choose the pattern for their rug, but she found that she didn’t always enjoy hooking their chosen patterns. So, now, she chooses whatever design suits her fancy at the time.

Ellen’s current project, pictured here, is one she is creating as a gift for her nephew, who is next in line (oldest to youngest) to receive one.