A very usual finish to an edge is a fringe. This can be made either by fraying out the material or by adding a detached fringe, either knotting it in or attaching it in some other way. If the fringe is to be a frayed-out one, the best way to do it is to first draw out a few warp threads where the head of the fringe is to come, then hem stitch the upper edge of this, see the right-hand end of [fig. 155]; this makes the heading of the fringe secure, after which the remainder of the warp threads can be withdrawn. When fringing a square in this fashion, it is well to save some of the frayings out to knot in at the four corners where otherwise there would be gaps.
To knot an added fringe into the border is a very simple matter. Begin by cutting the threads that are to compose it all to one length, about double that of the required fringe. Take a few together to form a bunch and double it in half. With a stiletto make a hole near the edge of the material; then bring from the back a crochet hook through this hole, and draw the loop formed by the doubling of the bunch a little way through, then take the ends of the bunch through the loop and draw them tight in order to make the knotting firm.
There are many ways of patterning a plain fringe, sometimes a change of colour in the knotted-in threads is sufficient, as shown in [fig. 156]. Another very usual way is to divide the bunches and refasten them together in some way to form a pattern. [Fig. 157] is an example of this; they may be either knotted together, as in the first half of the diagram, or bound with thread as in the second half, the needle reaching the required places by running in zigzag fashion up the thread and down again.
