A Love Affair With Wool - by Pam Hansen

Take a creative woman, brilliant dyes in all colors, some soft wooly fabric, and what do you get? Luscious hand-dyed wool fabric, ready for your own creative genius!

The River Rock Wool Company has been supplying custom dyed wool to Bear Patch Quilting Co. and we want you to know more about the story behind the scenes. Paulette Enerson of Osceola, WI, brings us baskets of delightful color from her home workshop.

Over the river and through the woods, we find Paulette busy with her boiling pots of color on her screen porch, sheltered by storm windows during winter and warmed by a wood stove. The lack of running water doesn’t give her pause, after all, she prefers using the rainwater collected from their roofs because it is pure and soft and produces clear, true colors. On a successful dying day, Paulette will harvest 12 yards of dyed wool from the big white enamel pots on her 3 LP-gas powered stoves. When weather permits, the yardage is dried on the clothesline. Then it is ready for rug hooking and wool applique. Rug hooking is what led Paulette to dying, and continues to be her favorite fiber fun.

She does have some quilting and sewing in her life story, but wool rug hooking, dying, and running her business leaves little time for anything else. Her website is www.riverrockwool.com and you can view and order some beautiful products from her.

Family and friends fit in, of course, and she gets help and support from husband and son. Paulette has formed many good friendships through her contacts with others who hook rugs and search for hand dyed wools. She is part of the Dam Hookers (so named

because the group met near the dam in St. Croix Falls) and Bear Patch now serves as their meeting place on the first Sunday of every month. This group is open to all from novice to expert, and offers great learning and companionship opportunities. Paulette also really enjoys attending and vending at local "hook-ins", including the Hopkins Hook in April, the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival on Mother’s Day weekend at the Washington Co. Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, and the Autumn Valley Hook-In Oct. 2, 2010 in Stillwater.

Paulette’s plans for the future are pretty straight forward: introduce more and more people to the joys of wool and rughooking! As part of this she will be teaching a new monthly class on wool applique at Bear Patch in 2010. Look for details and dates within

our class listings. We are happy to have Paulette’s cheery face present at Bear Patch, make sure you get to know her!