The Knitted Rug Page 4

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For this reason, those unfamiliar with applied design need not feel necessarily ignorant if they cannot trace a motif to its source. It takes a practiced designer to trace decorative subjects back to their prototypes in nature and one might not be reminded of the markings on a gourd when looking at the design of our knitted rug, yet when attention is called to it we realize that the two have points in common for each have lines which radiate from a center. These lines are respectively the knitted rows of the rug and the structure ribs of the gourd. The rug is a flat object and the gourd has a plastic body but the action of these two sets of lines is the same. It is because they have a certain correspondence of structural points that the surface ornament of the rug is developed from the ornament of the gourd.

The rug is knitted in twelve wedge-shaped sections, and by emphasizing certain parts of these sections its ornamental features correspond to those of the gourd. In knitting the rug, broad bands of dark color are used at intervals in the sections, while the rest of the section is knitted of a shaded thread. This renders the surface markings of the gourd decoration, and the effect can be heightened by using color which is similar to the greenish tones of the gourd. Thus in selecting motif for decoration, it is wise to take suggestions from natural objects which have some structural correspondence to the problem of handicraft in view, and to emphasize further these structural features by correspondence in ornamental features.

TOOLS, MATERIALS, DYESTUFFS, CHEMICALS AND UTENSILS
Tools: The tools for making the knitted rug are a pair of large knitting needles fifteen inches long and one quarter of an inch thick and a large crochet needle of the same size. These can be either of bone or wood. A pair of rubber gloves.

Materials: Materials needed are sixteen yards of the cheapest grade of unbleached muslin; one bunch of raffia.

Utensils for Dyeing with Indigo: An oaken hogshead or a cider barrel if sweetened by burning sulfur in it, will answer the purpose as a receptacle for the dye. One wooden skimmer, one long stick with a cross-piece nailed on it, for stirring the indigo vat, one small pulley, six yards of hemp cord and an ordinary cloth wringer complete the requisites.

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The Craft Of Handmade Rugs - View The Rest Of The Book

Introduction - Some Old Time Rugs - A Word About Dyes - The Braided Rug - The Scalloped Doormat Or Tongue Rug - The Crocheted Rug - The Hooked Rug In Cotton And Wool - The Needle-Woven Rug
The Colonial Rag Rug - Some Applications - Newer Methods Of Stencil Making - The Tufted Counterpane
Old Time Lights - The Batik Or Wax Resist Process