
I promised to try rug hooking this month and I did! The February 1967 issue featured an article on rug hooking purses, and the sample was cute! I’ve wanted to try rug hooking for several months and already had a frame, and then recently got some tools in an ebay lot. The lot contained a standard rug hook, and also a rug hooking gadget.
If you didn’t know what it was in the tool post, this is the gadget. You thread yarn or wool into the tool, and then by “walking” the tool across the fabric it does the stitches for you. It has a needle tip to push the yarn/wool in, and then a blunt tip to hold that stitch while you make the next one. It just click-click-click-click up and down and does the work. So I played with it and with the standard tool. First I started with plain burlap, which is what many books and patterns call for, but it was awful. It was much worse with the gadget than with the standard tool, but the pressure of creating loops caused the burlap to simply shred apart where it touched the frame.
The gadget is MUCH faster on basic filler stitches. After buying burlap, trimming burlap, fighting burlap, hooking on burlap, being annoyed by burlap, I remembered I has purchased some “linen burlap” several months ago. I easily cut of a silky chunk, hooked it to my frame, no problem, and got to work again. To the right you can see a better example of tool versus gadget. These squares took me the same amount of time. The much larger square utilized the gadget, but I had some struggles filling the center, and there are a few tension issue. The smaller square has better tension, but was slower going. The linen burlap made all the difference in the world! It was SO much better to work with, didn’t tear on the frame. I could flip it over to switch from gadget to tool with it fraying or fuzzing. Only downside is $$$. I got one yard of linen burlap, 30″ wide, for the same price as 3 yards of cheap standard burlap at 48″ wide.
After doing my basic tool versus gadget test I decided to fill in my frame with a geometric design. Utilizing the gadget for l
I’m pretty proud of my pillow top, just have to actually make it into a pillow one day. If you haven’t tried rug hooking I really suggest giving it a chance! The gadget can be purchased for around $6 by itself on ebay, and I can’t recommend it enough! Add in the cost of a rug hook, some linen burlap, and you could make a rug for around $20-25. If you don’t have a frame I feel certain you can make small designs in an embroidery hoop. I utilized balls of scrap yarn, but you can also use wool strips, other fabric, etc. My son (age 10) may attempt his own rug using the gadget. And I do have to say, the click-click-click-click-click was very relaxing. I have mad respect for anyone who has made a rug without it and just used a standard rug hook. AND I’m already on the next project! Stay tuned for that. If you’ve tried rug hooking before, or have any questions, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
I made a hooked rug many years ago using a rug hook, precut yarn, and rug canvas. I made it about 5 feet round to fit in my foyer. I have no idea whatever happened to that rug. It did take a long time to complete, but i was very happy with the results.
Was it rug hooked or latch hooked? I’ve tried Latch hook but it bored me to tears! I’ve never completed one. Five feet of any style is impressive! Way to go!