Nichols Hosts International Hookrafters

Caitlin Powderly is all thumbs	Richard Torres

How hard is it to hook a rug, pillow, or handbag?

"It's plenty tough!" says Caitlin Powderly of Billerica, Mass., who tried her hand with lots of coaching from McGown hookrafter instructor Ellen Gould from Mendon, Mass. Powderly, at Nichols College to coach one of the oldest sports camps for women in the country -- Merlstead, said that she was amazed by the quality and variety of hook craft exhibited in the Auditorium. Richard Torres from Cranston, Rhode Island, also tried a few stitches between his SLTP youth leadership training classes, also being held on Nichols' campus.

West Boylston Roots
78 members of the Northern Guild of Pearl K. McGown Hookrafters worked to enhance their skills at their summer meeting held July 29th-August 3rd. The McGown guilds are named after the West Boylston, Mass., teacher who saved the lost art by certifying rug hooking teachers around the world.

McGown's home, named Rose Cottage, included a studio (also known as the BeeHive), two offices, a classroom, large workshop, and barn used as a printing shop. The gracious 1850 Gothic Revival, now used as a bed-and-breakfast, still stands on four acres between Routes 12 and 140 overlooking the Wachusetts Reservoir.

The craft of rug hooking goes back as early as the 1800's when rural housewives began pulling wool strips through a backing forming a looped pile in simple designs. The rugs were used on beds and floors for warmth and the craft began to flourish.

McGown, born in 1891, helped her mother hook rugs as a child. In the 1920's, she began designing and selling rug patterns for the students of Caroline Saunders, a rug hooking teacher from Clinton, Mass. In 1940, McGown invited teachers to the first group meeting and encouraged them to bring finished rugs to display, a tradition continued at the Northern Guild meeting on Nichols campus.

During the war, when burlap was very scarce, women would send McGown their old potato sacks so that she could apply the inked lines for the designs. McGown also volunteered her service in teaching the craft under the Red Cross Arts Skills Program in military hospitals, thus easing the long and lonely hours of recovering service men. 

In 1951, McGown started the McGown Teachers Workshop to enable teachers to share their ideas and talents with each other in order to perpetuate the craft. Even after McGown sold her business in 1970 to Old Sturbridge Village, the teacher workshops continue as her legacy, attracting many new members interested in preserving her beloved craft.