THE ANTIQUE HOOKED RUG
There is something so impossibly romantic about the history of the hooked rug. Firstly, it is one of the only North American crafts you can name—making it special on that count alone. And it falls squarely into the category of a ‘thrift craft’ meaning this form of rag rug is made up of scraps that are no good for anything else. All those wooly sweaters the moths have had their way with, the shirts with threadbare elbows, the tragically stained party dress, the old Autumn coat that will probably never fit again, the sweaterdress that shrank when you accidentally turned the wash on ‘high’—they can all be useful once again when they are cut up and hooked into a beautiful, serviceable bedside mat to keep your feet warm on a winter night, or hung on the wall as a treasured piece of heirloom art.
The very image of the little woman of olden-days bent over her frame or hoop in the glow of firelight, pulling loops up on a shining lighthouse beacon or damson rose—it makes a pretty picture in anyone’s mind.
This craft was first executed in the 1860s when women used burlap feed sacks that were emptied of grain, flour, or feed as their backing. A hook was fashioned by bending a nail over the heat of a forge fire (the work of the village blacksmith) or maybe over your own hearth fire (the work of a handy husband) and mounted into a wooden handle. It was a clumsy tool that took a while to feel comfortable, tactile, and worn inside your hand. Women kept ‘rag bags’ in those days filled with ribbons, scraps of leftover material, and found bits and pieces that were pretty enough to save. Everything was worth saving in those days. ‘Thrift’ was always the backbone of the craft. The tools have evolved over the years, but the simple technique remains exactly the same, and as simple as ever. You should give it a try!
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