Rug hooking display window
Gail Hock, President, Rug Hooking Group of PebbleCreek
My godfather was a very well-known rug hooker in Fulton, Mo., and I became interested in this creative art when he shared it with our family when I was in college. His wife dyed all of his wool, and his rugs were amazing. He participated in art shows across the country sharing his love of this art form.
However, my life after college was working in corporate America and I had very little time for hobbies. Moving to PebbleCreek 13 years ago was the start of rug hooking for me, and I have enjoyed it as well as knowing the club members ever since.
I have found that I love to put colors together to “paint” a rug. I lean towards blue and greens, but if it’s colorful and fun, I’m all in. In the beginning when you’re just learning you can buy kits that include the pattern, the wool strips, and a color guide. When you feel more comfortable with hooking you begin to branch out—buying the pattern and some wool and figuring out the colors you want, and eventually to drawing your own pattern and deciding your own colors and buying (or dying) the wool. I’ve done all of that, and the display shown has samples of each of those. I’ve also recently branched out to try a 3D piece and plan on experimenting more with that. The black “basket” shown in the picture is that experiment.
At home my rugs are on the floor, on table tops as decoration and hanging on the wall. I rotate some for the seasons and give away small ones to friends. I would encourage everyone who might want to try a new hobby to give rug hooking a try. We offer a class taught by experienced “hookers” that includes the pattern, the wool, a frame, and a hook in addition to hands-on teaching and coaching. We are a small group of mostly women but we have been joined by a daring man, so the group is changing in fun ways. Stop by the Creative Arts Center any Monday afternoon between noon and 4 p.m. if you’d like to see what we’re up to.