Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1870-11-23
Rag Carpets.

IN the country. The sugges-
tions of the experienced may
lessen the labor of making
them to the inexperienced, be.
sides making a better looking
carpet.
First, the rags or old gar
ments ought to be washed
clean; then rip them to pieces,
rejecting the parts too worn to
be used; if not ready to color
them, tie in bundles all that
are to be colored each color,
and that do not need coloring
may be cut and sewed, or tied
up by themselves, if not ready
to commence the work. All
wooden ones ought to be kept
in linen sacks, to exclude the
moths from them.
Any light, mixed, or plaided
woolens may he improved in
color by dipping in a good red
dye. Clean white rags can be
colored yellow, orange, blue or
green. Dingy white rags will
look well, colored hemlock col.
or and set with lime. This is
a cheap, pretty and durable
color for some of the rags and
warp. Bits of bark may be
gathered around saw mills,
when one cannot get it else
where; boil enough bark to
make a strong dye, and add to
it a little clear lime water, after
removing all bits of bark or
straining the dye. IF dregs re-
main in any dye, it will spot
the cloth or yarn.
If a smooth parlor carpet is
wanted, the rags must be cot.
ton, and other rags that are
made of fine yarn. Coarse
threaded woolen rags make a
carpet look rough, and though
it may do we'll enough for a
kitchen, it is not so nice for a
parlor.
Unless the rags are light, it
will take pound and a half,
and sometimes more, for each
yard of carpet. To know when
sufficient rags are prepared for
the number of yards wanted,
the prepared rags must be
weighed. If the rags are light,
it will not take quite a
pound and a half; but if they
are coarse threaded or wooden
rags, it will take some more
than a pound and a half, if the
carpet is well beaten up.
If a striped carpet is wanted,
tear each color separately, and
mix together the different
shades of the same color when
sewing; this will make the
carpet more uniform in color
and prettier than if some stripes
contained all the brightes col
ors, and others paler ones,
which they will, if the shades
of the same color are not mixed
sewing. A carpet always
looks much better if all the
breadths are uniform in color,
and by mixing the shades of
the same color in sewing them
it will be so.
For a hap,hazard carpet, all
different colors may be mixed
in sewing. This will use up
all the short rags, of any color
or shade, and often makes a
very pretty carpet, which may
be woven easier and cheaper
than any striped carpet. Short
pieces, or those not more than
three or four yards long, alter
nately with shorter ones, look
the best in this kind of carpet.
For warp, good strong pre-
pared yarn is the best, and
saves much labor. 1t may be
reeled into skeins of five knots
before coloring, allowing one
skein to the yard and about
three knots over, to be woven
in at the end of each breadth,
Tor binding.
Measure the inside of the
room, and let the weaver know
how long to make each breadth.
Carpets will shrink a little in
length from the weaver's meas.
ure after they come out of the
loom, but will often stretch a
little in width. The stripes
will match the best, if the edges