INGRAIN CARPET RUGS.
Undoubtedly the most useful--and from a utilitarian point of view the
most perfect--rag rug is made from worn ingrain carpet, especially if
it is of the honest all-wool kind, and not the modern mixture of
cotton and wool. There are places in the textile world where a mixture
of cotton and wool is highly advantageous, but in ingrain carpeting,
where the sympathetic fibre of the wool holds fast to its adopted
colour, and the less tenacious cotton allows it to drift easily away,
the result is a rusty grayness of colour which shames the whole
fabric. This grayness of aspect cannot be overcome in the carpet
except by re-dyeing, and even then the improvement may be transitory,
so an experienced maker of rugs lets the half-cotton ingrain drift to
its end without hope of resurrection.
The cutting of old ingrain into strips for weaving is not so serious a
task as it would seem. Where there is an out-of-doors to work in, the
breadths can easily be torn apart without inconvenience from dust.
After this they should be placed, one at a time, in an old-fashioned
"pounding-barrel" and invited to part with every particle of dust
which they have accumulated from the foot of man.
For those who do not know the virtues and functions of the
"pounding-barrel," I must explain that it is an ordinary, tight,
hard-wood barrel; the virtue lying in the pounder, which may be a
broom-handle, or, what is still better, the smooth old oak or ash
handle of a discarded rake or hoe. At the end of it is a firmly fixed
block of wood, which can be brought down with vigour upon rough and
soiled textiles. It is an effective separator of dust and fibre, and
is, in fact, a New England improvement upon the stone-pounding process
which one sees along the shores of streams and lakes in nearly all
countries but England and America.
If the pounding-barrel is lacking, the next best thing is--after a
vigorous shaking--to leave the breadths spread upon the grass, subject
to the visitations of wind and rain. After a few days of such
exposure they will be quite ready to handle without offense. Then
comes the process of cutting. The selvages must be sheared as narrowly
as possible, since every inch of the carpet is valuable. When the
selvages are removed, the breadths are to be cut into long strips of
nearly an inch in width and rolled into balls for the loom. If the
pieces are four or five yards in length, only two or three need to be
sewn together until the weaving is actually begun, as the balls would
otherwise become too heavy to handle. As the work proceeds, however,
the joinings must be well lapped and strongly sewn, the rising of one
of the ends in the woven piece being a very apparent blemish.
Rugs made of carpeting require a much stronger warp than do ordinary
cotton or woolen rugs, and therefore a twine made of flax or hemp, if
it be of fast colour, will be found very serviceable. Some weavers
fringe the rags by pulling out side threads, and this gives an effect
of _nap_ to the woven rug which is very effective, for as the rag is
doubled in weaving the raveled ends of threads stand up on the
surface, making quite a furry appearance. I have a rug treated in
this way made from old green carpeting, woven with a red warp, which
presents so rich an appearance that it might easily be mistaken for a
far more costly one. It has, however, the weak point of having been
woven with the ordinary light-red warp of commerce, and is therefore
sure to lose colour. If the warp had been re-dyed by the weaver, with
"Turkey red," it would probably have held colour as long as it held
together.
This cutting of ingrain rags would seem to be a serious task, but
where weaving is a business instead of an amusement it is quite worth
while to buy a "cutting table" upon which the carpet is stretched and
cut with a knife. This table, with its machinery, can be bought
wherever looms and loom supplies are kept, at a cost of from seven to
eight dollars. If the strips are raveled at all, it should be at least
for a third of an inch, as otherwise the rug would possess simply a
rough and not a napped surface. If the strips are cut an inch in width
and raveled rather more than a third on each side, it still leaves
enough cloth to hold firmly in the weaving, but I have known one
industrious soul who raveled the strips until only a narrow third was
left down the middle of the strip, and this she found it necessary to
stitch with the sewing machine to prevent further raveling. I have
also known of the experiment of cutting the strips on the bias,
stitching along the centre and pulling the two edges until they were
completely ruffled. Although this is a painstaking process, it has
very tangible merits, as, in the first place, absolutely nothing of
the carpet is wasted--no threads are pulled out and thrown away as in
the other method--and in the next the sewings together are overhand
instead of lapped. The raveled waste can often be used as filling for
the ends of rugs if it is wound as it is pulled from the carpet rags.
Indeed, one can hardly afford to waste such good material.
It will be seen that there are great possibilities in the carpet rug.
Even the unravelled ones are desirable floor covering on account of
their weight and firmness. They lie where they are placed, with no
turned-up ends, and this is a great virtue in rugs.
Of course much of the beauty of the ingrain carpet rug depends upon
the original colour of the carpet. Most of those which are without
design will work well into rugs if a strongly contrasting colour is
used in the warp. If, for instance, the carpet colour is plain blue,
the warp should be white; if yellow, either an orange warp, which will
make a very bright rug, or a green warp, which will give a soft
yellowish green, or a blue, which will give a general effect of green
changing to yellow.
If the carpet should be a figured one, a red warp will be found more
effective than any other in bringing all the colours together. If it
should happen to be faded or colourless, the breadths can be dipped in
a tub of strong dye of some colour which will act well upon the
previous tint. If, for instance, it should be a faded blue, it may be
dipped in an indigo dye for renewal of colour, or into yellow, which
will change it into green. A poor yellow will take a brilliant red
dye, and a faded brown or fawn will be changed into a good claret
colour by treating it with red dye. Faded brown or fawn colours will
take a good dark green, as will also a weak blue. Blue can also be
treated with yellow or a fresher blue.
Of course, in speaking of this kind of dyeing, the renewal of old
tints, it is with reference to the common prepared dyes which are for
sale--with directions--by every druggist, and with a little knowledge
of how these colours act upon each other one can produce very good
effects. It is quite a different thing from the dyeing of fibre which
is to be woven into cloth. In the latter case it is far wiser to use
vegetable dyes, but in the freshening of old material the prepared
mineral dyes are more convenient and sufficiently effective.