Hooking

When I was a little girl my mom started hooking.

I remember sitting around the kitchen table after dinner, my dad working on a tall ship model kit, my mom hooking a rug depicting a tall ship under sail, and me drawing terrible pictures of ships to join in the family activity.

That rug is tucked safely away at the back of my linen closet–it’s very fragile. I have no idea what happened to the model ship.

Rug hooking is a very old craft, in which thin strips of, usually, wool fabric are pulled up in loops through a coarse fabric backing–often burlap. Classic hooked rug designs are often rustic–farm scenes, animals, ponds or the sea with boats. It is possible to purchase kits that include the pattern printed onto the backing fabric and a supply of the required wool. Or you can buy the printed backing and the wool separately. Many practitioners dye plain wool themselves. Most practitioners have a wool cutter to turn the fabric into strips.

My mom continued hooking for quite a few years, but I only remember two of her rugs–the ship, and a large floral with a brown background. I don’t know what happened to that one. I do remember her stirring a huge, steaming pot as she dyed one of my brother’s wool Marine uniforms black for the ship’s rigging (he’d been discharged, and he left it at her house, it was fair game). And I remember her going to “hooking class” with her two best friends, each of them hauling rugs, bags of wool, and hooking frames, to wherever the class was held.

A few years ago I re-entered the world of rug hooking with a kit. Then I undertook an original design. Five years later that rug is (almost) done. It was a mental and creative support during the pandemic, and the act of hooking–concentrating on placing the next loop of wool, and the one after that, is meditative for me. You might think “but it’s a rug, you’re going to walk on it!” And that’s true. But it’s also to point–the feel of warm, soft wool under bare feet that conjures reminds of me my creativity and patience.

Read more about my hooking projects here.