A kind of mat used aboard ship is called a sword mat. It is woven, but a loom is not used. Two small cords, or, better still, two small rods, are secured horizontally and the nettle stuff wound round them, the coils being laid close together. A piece of wood called a “fiddle,” as long as the width of the mat and about 2 in. wide and ⅜ in. thick, has half as many holes bored near the lower edge as these nettles in the mat. Every alternate nettle is secured to this by some twine laced through the holes. Another fiddle is fastened in like manner to the remaining nettles. The work can now be begun. The first fiddle is raised, and the first set of nettles consequently raised with it. What weavers call a “shed” is thus formed—that is, an opening between the two sets of nettles—and along it the weft or filling is passed by means of a netting needle (see p. 125). The filling is driven well home with a flat piece of wood, tapered towards the edge, called a “sword.” The first set of nettles is now allowed to drop, and the second set drawn up with the other fiddle. The filling is passed again and driven home as before. The work is thus continued until there is no longer room to use the sword, when the filling must be worked home with a pricker. When the mat is long enough, the filling is fastened off, and the mat is complete. These mats may be thrummed in the same manner as the wrought mats.
Fig. 159.—Mat Making.
A softer kind of mat is made on a foundation of canvas or duck, which is very suitable for the stern-sheets of a boat or any other similar purpose. The material is cut to the right size and folded a short distance from the edge. A hole is made near the selvage with a pricker and a thrum inserted; another hole is then made a short distance from the first and another thrum put in, and so on until the row is completed. Row after row is thus worked until the mat is finished. Of course the holes, and consequently the thrums, go through both parts of the material. When the canvas is pulled straight after each row is finished, the thrums are held securely without any other fastening.
When a pattern is to be worked on the mat, the design must first be drawn on the material in pencil and the canvas folded accordingly; every fold produces two rows of thrums. White duck thrummed with pieces of cotton rope makes very nice, clean-looking mats for boat use, and as they wash well they can always be kept in good order. These mats, with a stout canvas or sacking foundation, thrummed with pieces of untarred hemp rope, serve very well for door-mats, though, of course, they will not last as long as wrought mats.
Very ornamental mats are made somewhat after the same manner as those just described. Any suitable material, of any colour, can be used for the foundation, on which the pattern must be drawn. The mat is folded along the line intended to be worked, and a common pencil laid along the ridge of the fold. The worsted or other material used is threaded in a large needle, and worked over and over the pencil, thus forming, when the pencil is withdrawn, a series of loops on the foundation. Any pattern can thus be worked, provided always that it consists of straight lines. It might be possible to form curved lines by working the loops over the first finger of the left hand, moving the finger after each loop.
CHAPTER IX.
HAMMOCK MAKING.
This chapter will describe the netting and slinging of hammocks.
