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HAND-LOOM WEAVING

A Manual

[Illustration: WEAVING ON A HAND LOOM

_Showing the necessary positions. The rug the little girl is weaving is
made of heavy carpet wool. The body of the rug is golden brown, with
stripes of deep blue and green, separated by narrow stripes of white_]


HAND-LOOM WEAVING

A Manual for School and Home

by

MATTIE PHIPPS TODD

Of the Motley School, Minneapolis, Minn.

With an Introduction by Alice W. Cooley

Formerly Supervisor of Primary Schools, Minneapolis, Minn.

With Fifty-seven Illustrations







[Illustration]

Rand, McNally & Company
Educational Publishers
Chicago         New York          London

Copyright, 1902,
By Mattie Phipps Todd





THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                                                     PAGE

An Introduction.      By _Alice W. Cooley_                              7

_Chapter One._        The Primitive Loom                               13

_Chapter Two._        A Chat on Weaving                                22

_Chapter Three._      First Steps in Weaving                           30

_Chapter Four._       Methods of Stringing Warp                        42

_Chapter Five._       Materials                                        51

_Chapter Six._        Directions for Dyeing                            58

_Chapter Seven._      Methods of Splicing Materials for Weaving        83

_Chapter Eight._      Wool and Silkoline Rugs or Mats                  86

_Chapter Nine._       Hammocks                                         93

_Chapter Ten._        Face and Dish Cloths and Bath Rugs               99

_Chapter Eleven._     Raffia Mats                                     101

_Chapter Twelve._     Oriental Rugs                                   122

_Chapter Thirteen._   Navajo Blankets                                 135

_Chapter Fourteen._   Songs, Games, and Stories                       143

_Chapter Fifteen._    A List of Helpful Books and Magazine Articles   153

The Index                                                             159


    The highest
    aim of art is
    to make some
    useful thing
    beautiful.

    Kenyon Cox.




AN INTRODUCTION


For many years we, the teachers of the United States assembled in
village, city, State, and national conventions, have recited our creed
and chanted it in all keys.

[Sidenote: _Our creed_]

We believe that man is a trinity, three in one--head, heart, and hand,
one soul made manifest; we believe that this union is vital and
indissoluble, since "what God hath joined together" may not be rent
asunder; we believe that this three-fold man, being "put to school" on
earth to grow, may devise and bring to successful issue no scheme of
education that is out of harmony with the plan of the Creator.

Congratulating ourselves upon our ready and distinct utterance of this
lofty thought, we have calmly returned to our man-devised book-schools
for the acquisition of knowledge, in order to forward some plan for the
accumulation of more knowledge.

[Sidenote: _Deeds, not words, are now necessary_]

But "wisdom lingered"! Here and there voices were raised that would not
be silenced: "You sang your beautiful song; what are you going to _do_
about it?" In the words of John Stuart Mill, "It is now time to assert
in deeds, since the power of words is well-nigh exhausted."

Investigators, studying this union of head and hand from the
physiological side, hurled truths at us that startled us from our
lethargy.

[Sidenote: _Physiological truths_]

Every stimulus poured into nerve cells through the avenues of the senses
tends to pass out in motor action, which causes muscular movement. In
every idea are vitally united the impression and the tendency to
expression in action. The nervous system consists of the fibres which
carry currents inward, the organs of central redirection, and the fibres
which carry them outward--sensation, direction, action. Since control
means mental direction of this involuntary discharge of energy (directed
muscular movement), control of the muscles means development of will as
well as of skill. To prevent or cut off the natural outflow of nervous
energy results in fatigue and diseased nerves. Unrestrained and
uncontrolled expenditure of nervous energy results in lawlessness and
weakened will.

Men of science said: "These are facts about man. What account have you
made of them in your elaborate system for educating him?"

Students of sociological and economic problems called out to us as the
teachers of men:

[Sidenote: _Labor must be respected_]

These great problems concerning the relation of labor and capital (the
brotherhood of man) will never be solved until there is greater respect
for labor; greater appreciation of the value of the products of labor;
until there is more joy to the worker in his labor, which should be the
expression through his hand, of the thought of his head, and the feeling
of his heart; until labor is seen in its true light, as service; until
the man with money as well as the man without learns through experience
to respect and appreciate labor and its products. "We _absorb_ only so
much as we can interpret in terms of our own active experience."

What contributions are our schools making to the bettering of social and
industrial conditions?

Philosopher and poet--thinker and seer--send their message:

    "That life is wisest spent
    Where the strong, working hand
    Makes strong the working brain."

To create, to make something, is the instinct of divinity in humanity,
the power that crowns man as divine.

    "It is his impulse to create
    Should gladden thee."

[Sidenote: _The will to do_]

The practical business man thunders his protest at us against the
inefficiency of the man with only the knowledge-stored brain. He says:
We must have men that can _will to do_, and then _do_ something, not
merely men that can think of things "'twere good to do." Our public
schools must train men and women to go out and take their place with the
workers of the world, to do something well and effectively.

[Sidenote: _Systematic hand-training the work of to-day_]

At last we are awake, and throughout the country we are trying to heed
these calls, and to revive our own weakened thought by action, singing
our creed in deeds. Upon the foundations laid by Friedrich Froebel and
his students in the kindergarten, we are trying to build up a course in
systematic hand-training, through the primary, to intermediate and
grammar grades, and thence to manual training in the high schools.
_What_ to do and _how_ to do it has now become the practical problem of
the day. Everywhere the wide-awake primary teacher is sharing her
thought and experience with her co-workers.

For little children, the _what_ must utilize material suitable for
little fingers, and tools must be large. The finished product should
belong to the maker, or be made by him as a service rendered to others;
the result should also be worthy of keeping or giving, from the
view-points of both beauty and utility.

Another important factor is the adaptation to present public-schoolroom
conditions, and to present public-school treasury conditions.

[Sidenote: _Weaving the best hand work for primary schools_]

More thoughtful study has led to the abandonment of the old-time sewing
and fine handwork in kindergarten and primary school. In its place we
find the weaving of useful and beautiful articles, out of various
available materials, and with simple, primitive tools--allowing always
for much and varied use of the great tools, the fingers.

It is interesting to note that teachers in all parts of the country,
working independently of each other, have come to practically the same
conclusions, viz., that under present conditions, _weaving_ seems the
best basis for a systematic course in industrial work that shall train
head and heart as well as hand. It is also of great interest to remember
that the signboards along the pathway of race development, by means of
work, exchange of labor and its products, all point to this idea as the
entering gateway. Weaving is the first industry of all primitive
peoples.

[Sidenote: _This manual the result of study and experience_]

Being practically agreed as to _what_ shall be the first industrial work
in the primary school, the next great question is the _how_. With large
numbers of little children in her own schoolroom, the author of this
manual has long sought a satisfactory answer. Believing that the results
of her study and experience will be helpful to others in suggesting
possibilities, and in stimulating thought, as well as in practical
teaching and time-saving, she sends forth this little book with the
earnest hope that it may in these ways be of real service.

                                 ALICE W. COOLEY,

                  _Critic Teacher and Instructor,
                     University of North Dakota._

    _August 1st, 1902._




HAND-LOOM WEAVING




Chapter One

THE PRIMITIVE LOOM


[Sidenote: _History of weaving_]

Weaving, the oldest of the industrial arts, dates back so far that no
one can say when or where it had its beginning. We read in Genesis iii,
21, that when Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden he wore a coat of
skin; but, not long after, according to Professor Hurwitz, the
descendants of Adam wore an upper garment called the simla, which
consisted of a piece of cloth about six yards long and two or three
wide, greatly resembling a blanket (_Ashenhurst_). This might have been
woven from vegetable fibres, perhaps from wool, but in what manner we do
not know. The warp and woof of linen