Rug Hooking Instructions

Once you have some basic rug hooking instructions in front of you, you will see that this craft is not as difficult to do as you may have first imagined that it was. Here are the basic instructions that you will need to follow. Before you start to follow these instructions, make sure that you cut the yarn or fabric strips that you are planning to use into approximately 2 feet pieces. Once you have this material, here is what you will need to do:

1. Take out your hoop or frame. You will want to stretch the canvas so that your material will fit herein with your design facing upwards. This hoop can then be rested upon a table or on your lap. Make sure that the hoop's thumbscrew is opposite of you.
2. If you are a right handed person, you will need to take your left hand and hold the end of the yarn or the fabric strip between your thumb and your forefinger.
3. Use your right hand to hold the hook as though you were holding a pencil. Your fingertips should be on the metal collar.
4. With your left hand, you are going to want to hold the wool beneath the canvas. You can then use your right hand to push the hook down through the mesh. The shaft of your hook should touch your left forefinger before it slides behind the woolen strip. You will then want to push the wool onto the hook with your left thumb.
5. Use the hook to pull the end of the strip through to the front of the backing. It should come to a height of about 1/2".
6. Next you will want to push the hook down through the canvas just a little to the left of the strip's end. Herein you will want to make sure that you catch the strip underneath before pulling up a 1/8" loop. In order to prevent the previous loop from being pulled out, you will want to lean the hook back toward the previous loop as you pull up the other loop.
7. Now you will want to work from left to right making even loops that gently touch one another. Make sure that you do not ever put more than one loop in each hole.
8. Once you reach the end of the woolen strip or yarn that you are using, you will want to pull the end up through the top of the canvas. All of the ends should be pulled through to the front as you do your hooking.
9. Make sure that you start the next strip in the same hole where the last strip ended.
10. After you make several loops with the new strips you can then trim the ends even.

You will then simply continue this process until your pattern is finished. Make sure that the back of your rug is not lumpy, you will want to make sure that you do not cross a row of hooking with another strip.