Enterprise (Dec 01/03) - Vicki Kimble has a flair for crocheting. When she crochets -- also known as hooking -- she creates fascinating things.

Vicki Kimble of Enterprise displays one of the many dolls she has crocheted over the years. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

For instance, there are the crocheted works of art -- a hamburger and fries, and a frying pan with bacon and eggs -- she created when working at Winnie's Restaurant.

Kimble has also made clothes for numerous dolls, including ones she gave to her daughter and grandchildren. For her sons, she crocheted flatbed trucks loaded with logs.

"I named myself the happy hooker of Enterprise," she says with a laugh, noting she actually has a T-shirt which reads 'Happy Hooker'.

The moniker seems to be part of Kimble's healthy sense of humour. "I love to joke. I can hand it out as good as I can take it."

Kimble says she learned how to crochet on her own when she was a child. She became more interested in crocheting when she and her late husband came north in 1956.

Her husband, Ken, was a diamond driller in Yellowknife. They also lived in Fort Rae, where her husband ran a power plant and she was a substitute teacher.

In the mid-1970s, they moved to the bush to operate a sawmill on the highway leading to Fort Simpson, not far from the junction at Fort Providence.

Kimble says it was while living in the bush that she really got into crocheting, as a way to pass the time without television.

In 1987, she and her husband moved to Enterprise, says Kimble, who is originally from Hilliard, just outside of Edmonton.

Keeping busy

Along with the more unusual items, she has crocheted numerous doilies and table runners, only lately adding patterns.

The 70-year-old still crochets with wool as a hobby, even though she now has a television.

"There's no way I could sit there and just watch television. It would just drive me crazy," she says. "I have to have my hands busy crocheting."

As for what makes her decide what she will crochet, she explains, "Whatever grabs me."

One of her creations was made after a hair-dying mishap.

While she was working at Ed's Place -- now the Twin Falls Inn -- her daughter coloured Kimble's hair before she went to work. Her hair turned purple, leading to good-natured ribbing from customers, including a truck driver.

"So for him, I made a doll with purple hair."

She knows of at least two of her dolls that have been sent as far away as England and Sweden.

Kimble has given away many of her creations, but sometimes sells them at yard sales.

"I never charged an arm and a leg. It was just to pay for the yarn."

Kimble estimates she has spent a fortune on yarn over the years, adding she also has a mountain of pattern books.

She explains crocheting is a relaxing pastime. "I love crocheting."