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HOW TO MAKE RUGS

    [Illustration: LOOM WARPED FOR WEAVING]

How to Make Rugs

_By_

CANDACE WHEELER

Author of "Principles of Home Decoration," etc.


ILLUSTRATED


    [Illustration]


NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1908


Copyright, 1900
By CANDACE WHEELER

Copyright, 1902
By DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO.

Published October, 1902




CONTENTS


FOREWORD: HOME INDUSTRIES AND DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES.

CHAPTER

   I.   RUG WEAVING.                       19

  II.   THE PATTERN.                       33

 III.   DYEING.                            45

  IV.   INGRAIN CARPET RUGS.               57

   V.   WOVEN RAG PORTIERES.               67

  VI.   WOOLEN RUGS.                       79

 VII.   COTTON RUGS.                       99

VIII.   LINSEY WOOLSEY.                   113

NEIGHBOURHOOD INDUSTRIES: AFTER WORD.     125




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


Loom Warped for Weaving             _Frontispiece_

                                       FACING PAGE

Weaving                                         20

The Onteora Rug                                 36

The Lois Rug                                    52

Sewed Fringe for Woven Portiere                 72

Knotted Warp Fringe for Woven Table-cover       72

Isle La Motte Rug                               90

Greek Border in Red and Black                  108

Braided and Knotted Fringe                     108

Diamond Border in Red and Black                108

The Lucy Rug                                   128




FOREWORD.

HOME INDUSTRIES AND DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES.


The subject of Home Industries is beginning to attract the attention
of those who are interested in political economy and the general
welfare of the country, and thoughtful people are asking themselves
why, in all the length and breadth of America, there are no
well-established and prosperous domestic manufactures.

We have no articles of use or luxury made in _homes_ which are objects
of commercial interchange or sources of family profit. To this general
statement there are but few exceptions, and curiously enough these
are, for the most part, in the work of our native Indians.

A stranger in America, wishing--after the manner of travelers--to
carry back something characteristic of the country, generally buys
what we call "Indian curiosities"--moccasins, baskets, feather-work,
and the one admirable and well-established product of Indian
manufacture, the Navajo blanket. But these hardly represent the mass
of our people.

We may add to the list of Indian industries, lace making, which is
being successfully taught at some of the reservations, but as it is
not as yet even a self-supporting industry, the above-named
"curiosities" and the Navajo blanket stand alone as characteristic
hand-work produced by native races; while from our own, or that of the
co-existent Afro-American, we have nothing to show in the way of true
domestic manufactures.

When we contrast this want of production with the immense home product
of Europe, Asia, parts of Africa, and South America--and even certain
islands of the Southern Seas--we cannot help feeling a sort of dismay
at the contrast; and it is only by a careful study of the conditions
which have made the difference that we become reassured. It is, in
fact, our very prosperity, the exceptionally favourable circumstances
which are a part of farming life in this country, which has hitherto
diverted efforts into other channels.

These conditions did not exist during the early days of America, and
we know that while there was little commercial exchange of home
commodities, many of the arts which are used to such profitable
purpose abroad existed in this country and served greatly to modify
home expenses and increase home comforts. To account for the cessation
of these household industries