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Rug Hooking

An Introduction to Rug Hooking, by Prairie Alphabet Artist Shelly Nicolle-Phillips

27 September 2023
image description: a white woman sits at a table, she is smiling directly at the camera; on the table, there is a rug hooking project, and there is a shelf unit behind her, which holds yarn and fabric.
By Shelly Nicolle-Phillips
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Meet Shelly Nicolle-Phillips and see her fabulous Prairie Alphabet project here.

Finding a way to simultaneously express your creativity and bring some peace and calm into your life sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it? Well,  I’m thrilled to introduce you to the wonderful world of rug hooking!

Rug hooking is a rug-making technique that involves pulling loops of yarn or fabric through a woven base such as burlap or linen. Hooking fabric in this way is a very ancient practice but I won’t get into the history of it here—I just want to get you hooked on hooking! It’s different from rug tufting and much slower; it’s often confused with latch hooking, but it’s not that either. In rug hooking, there is no tying or knotting, and there is just one stitch that you need to learn.

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All images by Shelly Nicole Phillips.

Copyright © Shelly Nicolle-Phillips except as indicated.
image description: a white woman sits at a table, she is smiling directly at the camera; on the table, there is a rug hooking project, and there is a shelf unit behind her, which holds yarn and fabric.

About Shelly Nicolle-Phillips

ARTIST BIO Shelly is a transplanted Maritimer who has been living in and learning about her Prairie home since she arrived in Regina in 2002. She first picked up a hook in 2015 while visiting her home province of PEI. While she is self taught, genetics may also be an influence as her paternal grandmother was also a rug hooker and hooked beautiful traditional rugs to keep their Island farmhouse floors warm. Drawing on the traditional rug hooking technique from her Island heritage in a unique way, Shelly uses the texture and colours of natural fibres to explore this prairie landscape which has been so foreign to her. While the prairie landscape is a strong influence at this point in her art journey, any landscapes she finds herself in serve as creative inspiration and often souvenirs of time spent elsewhere.

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