In 1892 John Garrett began manufacturing rug patterns on Burlap. He started a business that over it's first season sold only 150 patterns, that evolved into a business that had a mailing list of 20,000 people and was importing 150,000 yards of burlap from Scotland each year. His business also had a small successful branch in Boston. Garrett distributed his patterns through Eatons, Simpsons, Hudson's Bay and Woolworth's. And sold his patterns all over Canada, America, and as far as England, New Zealand and Australia. Garrett also invented the "Bluenose Hooker" which was 5x faster than the ordinary hook. And was famous for his Bluenose patterns. He also promoted hooking rugs with yarn instead of rags, which lead to the commercial production of hooked mats. The company closed down during World War II because it was difficult to get burlap imported as well as most manufacturing was going towards war materials. Post-war, the company overbought a poor quality of burlap as well as suffered from a fire and water damage that forced the company to close. In 1998, Linda Macdonald bought what was left of Garrett's business.

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