No. 2. Colours blue and white. Border eight inches wide of plain medium blue. Centre, six feet of light blue, clouded with medium. Two side borders eight inches wide; finish of white warp fringe.
No. 3. Colours black, white and red. Border twelve inches of alternate half-inch stripes of black and white. Centre, four feet of light red, clouded with dark. Repeat border, and finish with warp fringe.
No. 4. Colours red and white. Border, twelve inches of dark and light red, in twisted double thread. Centre, light red and white twisted double thread. Repeat border and finish with four-inch fringe.
No. 5. Colours butternut-brown, walnut-yellow, red, and white. Border of six inches of brown and yellow, twisted together. Centre, five feet of light red and white, twisted together. Repeat border, and finish with fringe.
No. 6. Colours brown, blue, and clouded-white. Border, half-inch stripes of medium blue and brown alternated for six inches. Centre, five feet of light blue, clouded with medium. Repeat border and finish with warp fringe.
These six examples may be varied to any extent by the use of clouded, plain or mixed centres. Borders, as a rule, should be woven of unclouded colours.
A natural development of the cotton rug would be the weaving of coarse cotton yarns into piece lengths which could be cut and sewn like ingrain carpet, or like the fine cotton-warped mattings which have been so popular of late years. They would have the advantage over grass-weavings in durability, ease of handling and liveliness of effect. Indeed, the latter consideration is of great importance, as cotton carpets can be woven to harmonize with the chintzes and cottons which are so much used in summer furnishings. This is especially true of indigo-blue floor covering, since so few things are absolutely perfect as an adjunct to the blue chambrays, striped awning-cloths, denims, and India prints so constantly and effectively used in draperies. Indeed, such excellent art in design has been devoted to blue prints, both foreign and domestic, that one can safely reckon upon their prolonged use, and this being taken for granted, it is well to extend the weaving of mixtures of white and blue indefinitely.
Although the warp-covered method described for woolen and cotton rug weaving can very well be used for carpets, the still simpler one of the alternate thread, or basket-weaving, when warp and filling are of equal weight and size, can be made to answer the purpose quite as well. In fact, there is a certain advantage in the latter method, since it makes the warp a factor in the arrangement of colour.
It is necessary in this style of weaving that the filling should be a hand-twisted thread of the same weight and size as the warp, and of a lighter or darker shade of the same colour. If the warp is dark, the filling may be light, or the reverse. It should be warped at the rate of about twenty-four threads to the inch.
In this kind of weaving the colours must be plain—that is, unclouded—as the variation is obtained by the different shades of warp and filling. Still another variation is made by using a closer warp of thirty threads to the inch and a large soft vari-colour filling which will show between the warp threads with a peculiar watered or vibratory effect. A light red warp, with a very loosely twisted filling of black and white, or a medium blue warp with a black and orange filling, will give extremely good results.