A hooked rug resource.

Creating a hooked rug by hand is a laborious process, but the finished product is exceptionally durable and, if well designed, exceedingly pleasing. There is an ongoing debate about whether these rugs originated in England or in the United States and Canada, with the majority opinion tilting toward North America. Wherever this craft tradition began, in the United States it was first practiced by New Englanders, and by 1860 had spread to the far corners of the country. In the middle of the nineteenth century hooked rugs were made by women as inexpensive floor coverings that could be used throughout the house. They were made from second-hand jute burlap (or gunnysacks) and scraps of fabric pulled from ragbags and storage bins. Rural women discovered that during the winter when farms were inoperative, they could turn their skill at hooking rugs into a profitable enterprise, and in the early twentieth century, cottage industries soon sprouted around the United States and in Canada.

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Women sold their rugs in a number of ways--from roadside stands adjacent to their houses, at local craft fairs, or at sophisticated retail outlets they supplied through middlemen. Eventually factories turned out all of the necessary materials to hook a rug, but because the patterns and fabrics were uniform ...