Resources on the Craft of Area Rugs

Tips and Tricks
Snippets is the name of this Web site section. It includes tips and tricks for rug hookers as well as patterns. There are helpful rug-hooking how-to tips and more here, and it comes out regularly. In one issue, she focuses on tessellations, which are interlocking, geometric shapes that repeat without overlapping or leaving spaces, forming a continuous pattern. Squares, hexagons, and triangles are examples of common tessellating motifs and each can be modified to form an infinite variety of shapes that tessellate.

Rag Rug Information
Site includes articles about rug history and advice, a catalog and a rug tour of tambour, shirred, standing wool, knitted, flat wrap, Amish knot, chain braids, broomsticks, string crocheted, fabric tapestry, anchored loop, needle worked, toothbrush rugs, loom woven, patched penny rugs, frame mad rugs, and wagon wheeled rugs. Articles include ways to join fabric strips when making rag rugs, crocheted rag rug patterns, rag rugs square footage calendar, making money with rug making, and novelty and fad rugs. Website includes free patterns and instructions including creating floor cloth, making a Christmas tree skirt, fun braiding projects with cotton strips and 6-stand ladder braiding.

Rug Hooking
A rug hooking gallery gives ideas for rug hooking patterns, as well as rug making tools. Much of the site is not written in English, but a selection of rug hooking books and news is included. Links to rug hooking websites are also provided.

Making a Toothbrush Rug
A toothbrush rug? There is such a thing, and this brief Web site touches on what a toothbrush rug is. The toothbrush rug is made with a stitch similar to a buttonhole stitch around a fabric core. Though it resembles a braided rug, it requires only half the fabric it takes to make a braided rug. A crocheted rug takes the same amount of fabric, but the toothbrush rug is softer than a crocheted rug. The rug maker advises to use up fabrics from other craft projects and tying them into toothbrush rugs. The rug-maker also says they can match quilts if you use quilt remnants in them. A creative idea for a stunning match-up in any room of your choice.

Rug Hooking Resources
Traditional hooking uses a hand hook, similar in shape to a crochet hook, to form a looped pile from fabric strips or yarn on an even-weave base (such as burlap, monks-cloth, divider cloth, or linen). This technique isn't only used to create rugs, of course; you can also make chair seats, wall hangings, trivets, Christmas tree ornaments, carpetbags, clothing, and jewelry, among many other things. I've designated it as "traditional" to keep confusion at bay, since the use of latch-hooks, punch-needles, or speed hooks is also commonly called "rug hooking". Punch-needle hooking and speed hooking also form rug piles from the running loop stitch, and are sometimes mentioned in the same reference books and supplied by the same companies as traditional hand hooking - so, if you are interested in these newer techniques, you may also find a starting point in this document. Rug hooking resources website contains tips on rug cleaning, care and restoration, as well as rug hooking descriptions. Design tools, bulletin boards, newsgroups and other rug hooking websites are provided.