In appearance, hooked rugs resemble those produced using the earlier technique of yarn sewing, which was accomplished using a needle in a running stitch. Both techniques resulted in raised loops on the surface of the rug that could be left as is or clipped to produce a pile. Hooking, as the name implies, was done with the aid of a hook that was pushed through the top of a coarse foundation, such as burlap, and used to draw the yarn or fabric from the underside to the top. Cut-up rags and fabric strips, as well as yarn, often provided the raw materials from which women fashioned a seemingly endless variety of designs that generally fall into two categories, pictorial and geometric. This early-twentieth-century example has a flat pile reminiscent of the densely hooked rugs made around the same time at the Grenfell Mission in Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. It excellently illustrates the painterly effects and subtlety of color and design that can be achieved in this medium. The rug is unusual because of the monochromatic palette and simplified, abstracted forms that resonate with the Modernist sensibility of the period.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Solitary Tree Hooked Rug," in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 364.