Teaching Rug Hooking

Rug hooking is a very simple craft. Unlike sewing, knitting, crochet or embroidery, there is only one simple stitch to learn to enable the beginner  to create a hooked rug. all you have to know in order to teach someone to hook rugs is how to pull the strip of cloth, loop by loop. An ideal teacher is someone who has hooked at least one rug themselves, and completely finished it. Once you have done this you are completely qualified to teach rug hooking to beginners.  Rug hooking has always been a grass roots activity, and for over a century people learned from their mother, sister or neighbor. A good teacher does not need to know everything about hooking rugs. Once you know the basics and are ready to pass them on you are ready to teach. Often people want to teach others so that they can develop a community of rug hooking enthusiasts in their area, sometimes it is a way of turning a hobby into a bit of extra pocket money, other times it stems from a desire to pass on the passion that you feel for rug hooking. All are great reasons to teach. Below are some suggestions and tips for teaching. Please remember that all of these are ideas are just the way I see things. There are many "right" ways teaching.

Don't Be Afraid To Teach; Starting a Beginner Class with Adults

• Plan well in advance of the date you want to teach and let as many people  as you can know about your plans. In many communities you can teach through the local continuing Education programs at the schools, museums, YMCA, or other community group. You might want to check this out as they provide the advertising and a teaching location.
• Decide if you want you want to charge for the classes. Add up the cost of materials, and your teaching fee so that you can decide a reasonable fee that both pays you and offers your students a good deal.
• Decide on the project you would like to teach. Do you want to kit up a project, or have students bring their own wool? Should everyone do the same project, or do you want a variety of projects in one class?
• Are you going to do it in one day or over a series of weeks learning something new each week?
• Will there be tea, coffee, or lunches? If you say yes to lunch will students bring a brown bag lunch or will you provide it?

A Beginner Workshop in  a Day

•  With preparation this class can easily accommodate 10 to 15 students in one day giving them the basics of how to hook rugs.
• Choose a location, if possible in your own home or a small community hall. Make sure you have good lighting.
• Choose times such as 9am to 3pm on a Saturday, or through the week.
• Ask students to bring a brown bag lunch, provide tea, coffee, and if you wish a pan of squares. The lemon squares on my recipe page are a great suggestion.
• Create a 13" round pattern (we sell them for $9, we'll give you a deal on ten!))  that will fit into a 14" round hoop($6.50each) that way students can complete the project with out having to move heir hoop. Each student in a beginners class can do the same project, there will be lots of room and time to encourage diversity and individuality as they continue to hook. The goal of this workshop is to get them hooked!
• Provide students with wool cloth, and the use of  two cutters so they can cut it up. You can also ask that each person bring a few pieces of wool cloth.
• Start by teaching them the basic hooking techniques .Demonstrate it to the whole class, and go around giving each student the individual attention they need to get them going.
• As they hook, talk a little about the history of Rug Hooking. Feel free to do your research in the first chapter of my book Hook Me a Story. (17.95)Please don't photocopy it.
• Explain the basic finishing techniques of binding and pressing the rug.

If you need hooks, hoops, patterns, wool, kits or any supplies for this workshop please call us at 1-800-328-7756 to order.

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Working with Children and School Groups

In my experience the best age for teaching kids is from the age of  nine or ten because by this age they can handle the hook well and have quick success in pulling up the loops. Younger children can definitely hook rugs but one on one lessons might be more successful.

When I go in I find it best if we are able to start each person on a small project. A simple design of a star, a heart, or a hand shape  traced onto burlap works well. You can provide the children with the patterns drawn on already or you can have them apply a pattern themselves either by drawing freehand, or by providing simple templates  for the children to trace. If you decide to let them create their own patterns be sure to allow time for this as it takes a considerable amount of time. The benefit of it is that the children are really more involved in he whole process. Decide this based on the amount of time you have and the age of the children.

You can kit up a project for each child or you can bring in bags of cut or uncut wool for them to choose from. you could also get the children hooking with t-shirts, asking each child to bring a colourful t shirt from home that is too small for them. If you have plenty of time this option would be wonderful because you can use the experience of cutting up their old clothes to teach them about the history of rug hooking. Hooking with t-shirts, and using what you had is a tradition of rug hooking. It is not essential that we use wool cloth when teaching children. Cotton jersey is pliable, easy to use, and readily accessible in most of their homes. It is also easy to cut into strips with scissors. You can introduce the children to the idea of rug hooking in an afternoon but the very best thing would be to go in two or three times over as many weeks so that there questions can be answered as they progress on their project.

The cost of teaching children to rug hook is very reasonable because the hooks and hoops can be reused again and again year after year. I am happy to offer a discount on hooks and hoops to teachers so that more and more children will remember rug hooking as part of their childhood, and what was once nearly lost to us will once again be common place in our culture.If you would like to order teaching supplies and discuss plans for your group you can call me at 1 800 328 7756.

Tools needed:

1 hook($4.50) per child, remember they can be recollected and used from class to class, year to year

1hoop ($2.50)per child. I suggest a ten inch hoop, and making the pattern provided fit with in this space so that children do not have to move the pattern around.

1/4 yard primitive burlap($1.00) so that children have lots of edge room around their pattern to fit into.

old t-shirts or wool cloth scraps