74/131/11

A. Shrimpton (Manufacturer)

A coarse gauge needle hook, used in making rag rugs. It is factory-made, with a hook at one end and an eye at the other. It is stamped 'A. Shrimpton Pat. 2 3914/24 10' on the shaft. This type of needle hook could be used for locker stitch. The hook is part of the Hemeon Collection of rug-making tools and thrift rugs.

1 hook : metal

MERL Catalogue Form (temporary) – ‘Object name: HOOK, needle // … // Notes: A factory made – coarse gauge needle-hook – with hook at one end, and a threading hole at opposite end. It has the inscription – A. SHRIMPTON PAT. 2 3914/24 10 (size) stamped on the shaft of the needle. This hook is used for ‘locker stitch’. Method as follows:– // “Put a thread of yarn through the eyelet of the hook and without breaking the yarn from the ball, push the needle up through one of the small holes of the canvas drawing with it a considerable length of yarn. Now insert the hook through the large hole next the one where the yarn is brought up, and with the left hand behind the canvas, holding the thread steady over the forefinger, pass the wool round the point of the hook and pull up a short loop to the right side of the canvas. Keep this loop on the hook and dip through the next mesh and bring up another, and so on until there are about sixteen to twenty loops on the hooks, then draw the hook forward through the whole row of loops so that the ‘locking’ thread both secures them into place and at the same time acts as a padding to them.” // From “The Country Woman’s Rug Book” by Ann Macbeth’, MERL Miscellaneous Note, Greta Bertram, 10 December 2013 – The Hemeon Collection of rug-making tools and thrift rugs (74/131/1–74) was put together by Maidie F. Hemeon. Mrs Hemeon was interested in the tradition of ‘thrift’ rugs – rugs made using old fabrics and home-made or home-adapted tools. This type of rug has many names, including ‘rag’, ‘proddie’, ‘peggie’, ‘hooky’, ‘proggy’, ‘clippy’ and ‘bodgy’ rug. These rugs became widespread during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, but by the 1920s the craft was dying out except in areas of poverty or where tradition had a stronger hold. The necessity for thrift during World War II brought a brief revival, but it did not last long. Mrs Hemeon published a letter in the June 1970 edition of the Women’s Institute ‘Home & Country’ magazine in which she expressed her ambition to trace and preserve all the tools used in the craft before it was industrialised. She hoped to build up a display of samples, materials, tools and coloured photos of finished work in use, for demonstration, exhibition and educational purposes, and to simulate interest in making rag rugs as a living craft rather than as the remains of a dead one. She received many donations in response to the article, and in due course the collection came to MERL. It is likely that some of the samples in the collection were made by Mrs Hemeon. Further information can be found in the MERL Archives, D79/31.