Rug Hooking

No textile craft is more closely associated with the East Coast than rug hooking. As someone who is very craft-curious — but not particularly craft-accomplished — I jumped at the chance to take an introductory workshop earlier this summer at Union House Arts. Entitled “Rug hook a road sign”, our directions were to choose a simple road sign that we would like to recreate, and the instructor would give us the materials and knowledge to create it. It was a great approach to teaching beginners – no worries about making a beautiful image. Here is my road sign – the ubiquitous “passing lane” sign on the TCH that indicates that you are about to have an opportunity to pass a slow poke, or lose the guy who’s tailing you.

This would be classified as a contemporary hooked wall-hanging, using loops of wool yarn pulled through a burlap foundation to create a non-traditional image. There are a number of different rug hooking traditions in Newfoundland, with perhaps the best known being the Grenfell mats made in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador in the first half of the 20th century. Traditionally, rugs were made with recycled fabrics instead of yarn. But today, hooking takes many forms and serves many purposes. To see a range of what is produced today, check out this CBC webpage.

Rug hooking is surprisingly easy. I was able to teach my friend Michele the basics when she came for a visit, and so we spent some time working together on our own projects. The hooking pictured below depicts a Greater Yellowlegs on a rock outside our house. Although I have depicted one bird, there were usually many gathered on a single rock, all just standing there. And if you came anywhere within their sightlines, they made a distinctive alarm call and flew in a huff to another, more distant rock.

Truth be told, I am finding rug hooking a bit tedious, although it was fun to create and realize my own design. So when I saw a promotion for a workshop that would teach beginners a broader range of techniques and the use of different materials, I signed up, thinking I might enjoy rug hooking more with increased variety in the process. My neighbour Kay also signed up, and so yesterday, she and I drove to Gander for a day of hooking at the Albatross Hotel with Winnie Glavine, a well-respected Newfoundland hooker. Winnie introduced us to a range of materials, including panty hose, wool fabric, old t-shirts, craft yarns, and other recycled fabrics. There were about 12 participants.

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We all worked on a similar design of a fishing stage and wharf with a hill in the background and rocks in the foreground. Here’s mine, in progress.

As with most craft workshops, we didn’t come anywhere close to finishing during the workshop, but were sent home with all the materials and instructions necessary to finish it. Wish me luck!