After the Punching Comes the Braiding

Guest Instructor: Kris McDermet
Thursday and Friday: June 8-9.
Thursday: 9am-5pm, Friday: 9am-3pm
Optional evening class hours: Thursday 7pm-9pm
Level: Beginning braiders welcome!
Tuition: $225

If class is sold out, Click Here to join the waiting list.

Learn the beautiful art of making a combination rug punching and rug braiding mat. A braided border may compliment your punching by using the same colors or may be a deep contrast by using bold colors. With these techniques, you will be able to add braid to any size round, oval, or square punched piece. You need to bring to class two punched pieces… one 6” circle or oval and one 6” square. Sizes need to be exact. In one day, you will complete the braid and butting on the 6” round mat and one or two corners on the square mat using your own wool. Braiding supplies will be available for purchase in class. A supply list will be sent to you upon registration.

Janie Bernstein with her adorable punched mat with a braided border from Kris McDermet's 2019 class.

Materials Needed (please pay instructor in class).

Kit for class: $10. This includes lacing thread, darning needle, hemostat, padding and lining for the two hooked pieces, safety pins, and a clothespin.
Braid Clamp: $20
Directions: $25. This is a spiral bound book that uses text, diagrams, and colored photos to explain all the steps learned in class.

Your Homework Before Class

Please come to class with 2 hooked pieces. Do NOT finish the edges-they should be raw. If you hook both your 6” circle or oval and 6” square on the same piece of rug backing, leave at least 2 inches of un-hooked rug backing between the two shapes. Please don’t cut the two shapes from the backing. Depending on time, putting the braid on the square punching may be a demo only.
Please also bring your own wool for braiding. You will need ¼ yard of 3 (three) different pieces of wool for each of your hooked pieces so that will be a total of 1 and ½ yards of 6 different colors in ¼ yard pieces. Your wool can compliment your hooking or be contrasting - both styles work well. Please do not strip (cut) your wool. Many wool weights work well for braiding but for a beginner, Dorr weight wool is ideal-just to give you an idea. It can be hand dyed or “as is” wool. Putting a braid on your square piece may be a demo only depending on time.
From your home sewing basket, please bring the following: Small sharp scissors, hand sewing needles, and thread to match your braiding wool.
Please check Kris' website for photos of Combination Pieces and email with your questions. Have fun with your colors & punching!

Passion by Kris McDermet Above: Passion, by Kris McDermet

Kris McDermet has been braiding for 38 years and fell in love with braiding on hooking during her first braiding class when her teacher, Isabel Clough, mentioned that she had seen a few hooked rugs with a row of braid on the outside creating a frame. Kris began hooking and soon her rugs had rows of braid to compliment the hooking. She developed her technique of sewing and lacing the braiding inside and outside of hooking and going back and forth between the two art forms to create pieces for the floor and wall. Rather than only being used as a border, the braids share the rug space equally with the Hooking. She travels to teaches internationally and is a member of The Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild, The Association of Traditional Rug Hooking Artists (ATHA), and The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers (TIGHR). She participates in several rug braiding guilds in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

Kris is a co-author of Combining Rug Hooking and Braiding-Basics, Borders, and Beyond with friends Christine Manges, and Dianne Tobias, is a chapter author in Finishing Hooked Rugs, and author of Welcome to Combining Rug Hooking and Rug Braiding. She has received several Viewer’s Choice ribbons at Vermont's Hooked in the Mountains shows, several Sauder Village Mixed Media ribbons, and had a rug in the 2014 and 2015 issues of Rug Hooking Magazine's Celebration of Hand Hooked Rugs. Kris was a featured artist at the 2018 Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild’s Hooked in the Mountains Rug Show in Essex, Vermont in 2018.

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