A friend brought some crochet hooks and needles and so on today to give away and this tool was in with the things...I am curious if anyone knows what it is and how you use it/

I think it's what you use for bunka embroidery or Russian needlepunch. Go to Youtube and do a search and you'll see how it's used.

It is used for punching thru fabric to either make a rug or to make a tapestry pic, rug hooking might sound better. You thread yarn thru the hole, punch the needle through your fabric and pull it back out. One of those lost arts going by the wayside

taking a wild guess...maybe a latch type hook?

It makes tufted rugs. You run thick rug yarn thru the wire thingy at the top, then thru the eye. You then punch the needle thru a backing fabric, like burlap, working from the back of the fabric. Then you withdraw the needle leaving a loop of yarn on the right side of the burlap. The red circle controls the length of the tufted loop you create. When you are done, you coat the back of the item with rubber cement to keep the tufts from pulling out.

Oh thanks so much...I had a feeling it was sort of a punch needle item..I do punch needle embroidery but never had done rugs..thanks!