Traditional rug hooking

Traditional rug hooking is a craft where rugs are made by pulling loops of yarn or fabric through a stiff woven base such as burlap, linen, or rug warp. The loops are pulled through the backing material by using a crochet-type hook mounted in a handle (usually wood) for leverage. In contrast latch-hooking uses a hinged hook to form a knotted pile from short, pre-cut pieces of yarn.

Wool strips ranging in size from 3/32 to 10/32 of an inch (2 to 8 mm) in width are often used to create hooked rugs or wall hangings. These precision strips are usually cut using a mechanical cloth slitter; however, the strips can also be hand-cut or torn. When using the hand-torn technique the rugs are usually done in a primitive motif.

Designs for the rugs are often commercially produced and can be as complex as flowers or animals to as simple as geometrics. Rug-hooking has been popular in North America for at least the past 200 years.

History of rug hooking

The author William Winthrop Kent believed that the earliest forebears of hooked rugs were the floor mats made in Yorkshire, England during the early part of the19th century. Workers in weaving mills were allowed to collectthrums, pieces of yarn that ran 9 inches (23 cm) long. These by-products wereuseless to the mill, and the weavers took them home and pulled thethrums through a backing. The origins of the word thrum are ancient, as Mr. Kent pointed out a reference in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.

Rug hooking as we know it today developed in North America, specificallyalong the Eastern Seaboard in New England in the United Statesand the Canadian Maritimes. In its earliest years, rug hookingwas a craft of poverty. The vogue for floor coverings in the United States cameabout after 1830 when factories produced machine-made carpets for therich. Poor women began looking through their scrap bags for materialsto employ in creating their own home-made floor coverings. Womenemployed whatever materials they had available. Girls from wealthy families were sent to school to learn embroidery and quilting; fashioning floor rugs and mats was never part of thecurriculum. Another sign that hooking was the pastime of the poor is thefact that popular ladies magazines in the 19th century never wroteabout rug hooking. It was considered a "country" craft in the dayswhen the word country, used in this context, was derogatory.

Since hooking was a craft of poverty, rugmakers put to use whatever materials were available. Antique hooked rugs were created on burlap after 1850because burlap was free as long as one used old grain and feed bags.Every and any scrap of fiber that was no longer usable as clothingwas put into rugs. In the United States, yarnwas not a fiber of choice if one did not have access to thrums. Yarnwas too precious, and had to be saved for knitting and weaving.Instead the tradition of using scraps of fabricevolved. Yarns and other creatively used materials havealways been used for hooked rugs in the CanadianMaritimes. The well-known Cheticamp hooked rugs used finely spun yarns and the highly valuable Grenfellmats were meticulously hooked with recycled jerseys. Everything fromcotton t-shirts to nylon stockings were cut and used.

The modern preference for using only cut wool strips in hooked rugs originated with [http://www.mcgownguild.com/ Pearl McGown] in the 1930s, and may have saved the craft from disappearing in the United States. Mrs. McGown popularized strict guidelines for rug hooking and formalized its study.

Rug hooking today

In more recent decades hookers have followed quilters in exploring new materials and new techniques. This experimentation, combined with knowledge and respect for the past, will allow rug hooking to evolve and grow in the 21st century. While there are many well-known designers of rugs like Bev Conway, Karen Kahle, Anne-Marie Littenberg, Rachelle LeBlanc and Davey DeGraff, many hookers prefer to create their own patterns.

Sources

*William Winthrop Kent (1971). "The Hooked Rug." Tower Books. ISBN B0006D0DSK.
*Joel Kopp and Kate Kopp (1995). "American Hooked and Sewn Rugs: Folk Art Underfoot." University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1616-6.
*Jessie A. Turbayne (1997). "Hooked Rugs: History and the Continuing Tradition." Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 0-88740-370-0.

External links

* [http://www.ohcg.org Ontario Hooking Craft Guild website]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/AliceMoores Archived audio interview with a traditional rug hooker from Labrador, Canada]