The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-02-07
RUGS.

Handsome and ornamental rugs may
be made at home. One Of the expensive
is tho Chenille rug. Collect all your
wooden scraps-no matter how small or
how much soiled-old fannels can be
dyed with bright dyes and add very
much to the beauty of the rug. Cut all
the pieces into crosswise stripes about
half an inch wide; the length is of no
consequence. Thread a needle with
very strong thread doubled. Gather the
pieces through the center with not too
fine stitches. As fast as a piece is
gathered push it down close to the
knot. Push each piece as tight as pos
sible to the next one. Continue in this
way until the thread is full, then tie on
another thread and proceed as before.
Make in skeins about six yards long.
1t requires about one hundred and fifty
yards for a rug. Take it to a carpet
weaver and have it woven t%hree-quar-
tiers of a yard wide. If you have
enough reds of different shades to make
tifty-eight yards for a border at either
end, and have the center chit OF miss
it makes a beautiful rug. These rugs
are very handsome, and being alike on
both sides, wear beautifully. The only
expense is in weaving, generally fifty
cents or one dollar. This work utilizes
pieces that would otherwise find their
way into the rag bag. Very pretty rugs
can be made of small silk scraps, no
matter how much defaced, they will all
work in. Cut in strips about half an
inch wide and two inches long. Take
a piece of ticking, having the stripes
about one-third of an inch wide, cut it
the size of the rug wanted. Thread a
sewing machine with coarse thread
(number thirty and needle. Place one
Of the ticking stripes under the needle,
then lay On the silk pieces close togeth-
er, with the middle of each piece on the
ticking stripe, and stitch down to the
end of the stripe, then stitch back again
! close to the last row of stitching; this
will make it strong. Put the ticking in
| place with the next stripe under needle.
Fold back the fringe, make the preced-
ing row, back out of the way and pro-
coed as before. A black border and
mixed center are very rich looking. Al
ter the rug is finished line with some
heavy material to keep flat.
Home made Smyrna rugs are very
elegant, and when carefully knit are
equal to the imported mes in beauty.
For these there comes a thick heavy
worsted, called Smyrna wool. 1t comes
in all the rich Oriental colors and can
be bought for one dollar and twenty
five cents a pound. 1t requires four
pounds of the wool to make a rug one
yard long by three quarters wide. This
is a pretty size. You also need two
coarse steel knitting needles, and Dex-
ter cotton, number six. There is a fine
soft cotton called Smyrna cotton that
comes for knitting these rugs, but it is
more difficult to find it. Cut the wool
IN bits of equal length. about two
inches. With the cotton cast on forty
two stitches, knit once cross plain.
Second row-knit one stitch cotton,
lay in a piece of wool, so that half is in
front and half at the back of the work,
knit in; then bring the half from the
back to the front Of the work and knit
it; then lay in another piece of the wool
and continue until twenty pieces have
been worked in.
ton; then another with wool, and so on
alternately. This makes a strip nine
inches wide. 1t is knit width wise, and
in many strips as the rug is to be long.
After making the strip the desired
length, bind off. AS each strip is fin.
ished, with a sharp pair of scissors clip
off the uneven ends, before sewing
pieces together. Knit as tight as posi-:
BILE to make firm. Patterns come in
colors for knitting these rugs, but any
pretty cross stitch pattern will do, put
ting a piece of wool for every stitch ir
the pattern and knitting a plain stitch
between. Rag rugs are knit from thes'
same directions.-Mrs. C. S. For. ii
Good HoUScEeeDin0,