Carpet weaving

“ Carpet weaving is one of the large branches of the woolen industry, and for this purpose the coarsest and longest fibred wools (common, braid, and carpet wools) are usually employed. These wools readily lend themselves to the manufacture of a coarse thick yarn, which in turn produces a thick, durable material. The thickness of a carpet is known as the pile. ”

“ With or without modification it has been taken up by all the modern furniture manufacturers, and is in almost universal use. But the Morris pattern of the later type (there were two) still excels all others in simplicity and elegance of proportion.
The beginnings of the important industry of carpet-weaving have already been recounted. Looms had already been built at Hammersmith for weaving carpets of considerable size, as much as twelve feet across. The great loom at the Merton works is built for making a carpet of no less than twenty-five feet in breadth. ”

“ The patterns of the fabrics made by country weavers are usually taken by them from old rugs. But in towns where weaving is conducted under more organized conditions new patterns are often devised, and are traced sometimes upon great cardboards, on which the stitches, or knots, are indicated by squares each painted in its proper colour. In some of the Persian carpets and rugs made at Sehna, Kirman and Tabriz, the warp is of silk, a material that contributes to fine compact pile textures. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The surface of the carpet then is inspected by the pickers, who mend any faults left from the weaving. Their work is supervised and checked by the passers. At this stage, some manufacturers pass their Brussels carpets, particularly the cheaper qualities, through a pressing machine, in which heavy pressure on the looped pile is exerted by rollers, the object being to obtain better cover, and to prevent grinning. It is questionable, however, whether the process is of any real benefit to the carpet, as it tends to impair the handle of the fabric and the resiliency of the pile. ”

“ In Persian carpets the tuft is knotted in such a way that one end of the tuft obtrudes between each warp thread. This method of weaving renders possible a closer texture than the Turkish knot; while carpets of suitable design and finer pitch are often woven with a running thread looped round the finger of the weaver, and then cut, instead of by individual tufts. This latter system gives more waste but quicker weaving. With both Turkish and Persian knots the tuft ends do not stand up at right angles to the plane of the fabric, but lie over obliquely towards the starting end of the carpet. ”

“ In the East the rude wooden frames in which the warp-threads are stretched either stand upright upon, or are level with, the ground. They are easily transported and put together, and the weaving in them is done chiefly by wandering groups of weavers. The local surroundings, often those of rocky arid districts, in which Kurdish and other families weave carpets are well illustrated in Oriental Rugs by J. H. Mumford. For making pile carpets and rugs two traditional knots are in use ”

“ Fig. 185 is the plan of drawing-in and weaving a carpet similar to that shown in section in Fig. 184. The draft is given at A, and the [278] treading and cording for a hand loom at B. A 10-row jacquard should be used for a 5-frame carpet, as twice over the 5 threads makes one row of the cumber board. Five threads are drawn into the harness, one from each frame, then two ground warp threads are brought through and drawn on two leaves of heddles. In weaving, one ground thread is raised and a shot thrown in; then all the pile warp and the same ground thread are raised for the next shot ”

“ 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 [58] seem. Where there is an out-of-doors to work in, the breadths can easily be torn apart without inconvenience from dust. ”

“ Such materials as carpet and oriental wools, fine worsteds, carpet ravelings, darning and knitting cotton should, in splicing, be run past each other. In weaving, run the wool through the warp to the very end. Start the new piece a few warp threads back, being careful to go over and under exactly the same warp threads as you did when finishing the end. As you pass these threads you will find that you are taking up the right warp threads, and that no mistake has been made. It is best to run the threads past each other in the middle of the mat rather than on the sides. ”

“ The ends should be left plain, the warp strings being concealed as directed. These rugs are very beautiful, and can be made in an infinite variety through the use of different colors, and by reversing the center and border. They can be made of carpet or Germantown wool, in two colors or in two tones of one color. In weaving rugs with centers and borders, weave a little farther than the exact measure, because the next woof threads will push down the woof already made, and you may find that you have not woven the correct measure. ”

“ In making carpet by hand, as in ordinary weaving, a stretched warp is necessary; but the warp-threads play no visible part in the face of the carpet. They are covered with weft-threads. Instead of a shuttle with a weft, as in weaving, various sets of thread are used, which are looped, knotted, and intertwined upon the warp-threads. In making carpets with a pile, the ends of the threads which have been knotted upon the warp are cut. From above these knotted threads, and across and in between the warp-threads, a stout thread is thrown. ”

“ Large wild-floral patterns are frequently to be seen on carpets, but they are rarely, if ever, satisfactory. Persian, Indian, and other geometric or conventional forms that lend themselves readily to a harmonious admixture of colours so that the carpet will, when on the floor, present a rich glow of colour instead of obtrusive masses of floral misrepresentations, are much to be preferred. Dull colouring is not essential to good taste—rather the reverse ”

“ It is not the dirt that may be swept away, but fine dust in the atmosphere that settles permanently in carpet, adding gray to the tone of the carpet, whatever its original color may have been. Therefore it is advisable when purchasing carpet to choose a shade a trifle stronger than the final floor color desired. In matching wall coloring, draperies, or upholstery fabrics, at the time of purchase, it is a wise expedient deliberately to soil a small cutting of the carpet so as to judge what its appearance will be for most of its life. ”

“ Should there be grease spots, apply a mixture of beef-gall, fuller's-earth, and water enough to form a paste; put this on before tacking the carpet down. Use tacks inserted in small leather caps. Carpets in bedrooms and stair-carpets may be kept clean by being brushed with a soft hairbrush frequently, and, as occasion requires, being taken up and shaken. Larger carpets should be swept carefully with a whisk-brush or hand-brush of hair, which is far better, especially in the case of fine-piled carpets. Thick carpets, as Axminster and Turkey, should always be brushed one way. ”

“ Before starting to weave, the weaver will have a supply of cops of all the colours required in the carpet. The paper design will show full size, the whole of the pattern, filling and border, that repeats, in the colours that are to be used. The design is cut up horizontally into strips two squares wide; and the weaver works by this paper strip, which is attached to the fabric in its length, inserting and changing the shuttles carrying yarn of various colours. The warp of the loom consists of sets of ends of fine cotton at intervals of about 1⁄2 in. ”

“ Heavy carpets, Brussels, velvets, Wiltons, Axminsters, and Moquettes, need not be lifted oftener than every two or three years, unless the presence of moths about bindings, corners, or seams is detected, when they must come up at once. The ravage of moths can be prevented by drawing the tacks occasionally, turning back the edge of the carpet half a yard or so, laying a cloth wrung out of hot water on the wrong side, and pressing with a very hot iron, holding the iron on until the cloth is dry and then moving on until all the edges are thoroughly steamed and dried. ”

“ After all is done, open the window to allow the carpet to dry. A carpet treated in this manner, will be greatly refreshed in color, particularly the greens. Kidderminster [11] carpets will scarcely bear the above treatment without becoming so soft as speedily to become dirty again. This may, in some measure, be prevented by brushing them over with a hot, weak solution of size in water, to which a little alum has been added. Curd soap dissolved in hot water, may be used instead of ox-gall, but it is more likely to injure the colors, if produced by false dyes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ An aged weaver who had woven many thousand yards of carpeting assured me the prettiest carpets were always those in which every alternate strip was white or very light in color. Another thrifty way of using old material is the cutting into inch-wide strips of woven ingrain or three-ply carpet. ”

“ Do not have carpets swept any oftener than is absolutely necessary. After dinner, sweep the crumbs into a dusting-pan with your hearth-brush; and if you have been sewing, pick up the shreds by hand. A carpet can be kept very neat in this way ”

“ The fibres or points of the thread of weft project through the warp, and a pile fabric is produced which should entirely conceal the warp on both sides of the cloth. For carpets the pile is, as a rule, only allowed to project on one side, though some rugs are made with a twisted chenille weft, and the colours on it are shown partly through the backing as the fibres of the thread get mixed up with the ground or backing in weaving, but usually all the pile projects through to the face. ”

“ If the carpets are to be taken up, they should be removed at once, and if they are not, brush the ceiling, walls, woodwork, windows, blinds, and ledges, and then sweep the carpet. When the dust settles sweep a second time ”

“ It merely washes out the surplus color and sets the rest. The belief that only aniline dyes will rub off when wet and that vegetable ones will not do so is erroneous. If a rug is new and never has been washed the case is quite the opposite. For the reader's own satisfaction, let him moisten and rub a piece of domestic carpet. He will find that the aniline of the latter fabric is comparatively fast, whereas, in a newly made vegetable dyed Oriental, certain colors, especially the blues, reds and greens, will wipe off to a certain extent. ”

“ It largely grows from very fanciful dispositions of free-growing natural forms, as well as curiously curved and tenuous forms, many of which are bone-like and fibre-like in character, flat in treatment and rather thin and washy in colour, and its influence has slightly percolated into designs for pile carpets. This style, sometimes intermixed with the more robust, less fantastic and rather fuller-coloured English style, has found followers in England, America and Germany, but the bulk of the designs now used in power carpet looms seems to be mainly of Oriental descent. ”

“ Yarn spun from cow-hair is utilised sometimes for the surface of carpets of the Brussels or Dutch type, but perhaps more often for filling warps; while cotton has been tried for the former purpose also, but without very satisfactory results, owing to the lack of resilience in its fibre.
If to the cobbler there is nothing like leather, so to the carpet manufacturer there is nothing like wool. Yarn made of wool seems to be the ideal material for the surface of a carpet. Wool is capable of being spun easily into yarn of any required count or thickness ”

“ Many a carpet is prematurely worn out by injudicious sweeping. In sweeping thick-piled carpets, such as Axminster and Turkey carpets, always brush the way of the pile: by so doing they may be kept clean for years ”

“ It is easier, and also better for the durability of carpets, to take them up occasionally to be beaten, and have the dusty floor beneath them cleaned, than to have everything smothered weekly in the dust raised by the carpet-broom. A pair of steps is necessary in a house where cleanliness is attended to, to unhang curtains and pictures and replace them after dusting. The walls need to be whisked over weekly with the feather-brush. ”