CHAPTER XXIX
HOW TO WEAVE WITHOUT A LOOM
Method Invented by the Author
RUGS, portières, table covers, bedspreads, hammocks, in fact, almost anything that can be woven of rags, can be woven without a loom. Any one can do it, for the process is extremely simple and all that is required is a board, a paper of tacks and some rags cut in strips. These may be old rags or new, silk, cotton or wool, and the piece may be woven heavy or light, in a close weave or a loose one, to suit its intended purpose. Many colors or few can be used, and the patterns can be as varied as the colors, for any design in straight lines can be followed in the weaving. A snip of the scissors will cut off one color, a stitch or two insert another, and so the pattern grows. It is quick work and you will find it very absorbing as you sit amid your vari-colored rags and see them grow beneath your fingers into harmoniously colored hangings or soft, warm rugs.
A Board
forty inches long will answer for weaving anything one yard or less in width and is of a convenient size to handle. The one-yard width is what an ordinary loom produces, but if you would have your rug or portière wider there is no reason why the board should not be longer. To prevent the material from catching, your board must be smooth on both sides and on the edge and it should be as wide as possible. A good-sized pastry board is excellent for weaving a piece less than twenty-two inches in width.
Rags are Used
for both warp and woof; if old and soft they should be more tightly packed than when new and firm. The warp is composed of the strips which run up and down in the work, the woof of those that are woven in and out across the warp, and the process is like that of weaving a splint basket. The following directions are for making