Rugs and Other Things 
The articles about rugs and dyeing 
have been read With interest, as mother 
and I have made and sold many rugs. 
Our favorite rug has not been described, 
yet they are pretty, durable, easily made 
and sell well. This is the rug made in 
single crochet. 
The rags are prepared as for the woven 
rag rug or knit rugs except, perhaps, are 
torn a trifle wider. The hook used for a 
hooked rug 
the handy boy 
spike and file a notch in the pointed end 
for the hook. 
The beginning is, of course, a chain, 
four or five stitches joined in a circle from 
the beginning for the round rug, then one 
single crochet through both sides of the 
stitch and two single crochet in part of 
the chain to make the work lie flat. It 
usually takes four extra stitche^^?b time 
around, but by laying the 
npletin 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
pattern, but three coats of white paint inserted, and the lower end plugged with 
and one of gloss white made them good as a bit of wood. 
new. The toilet set was green and white, 
the commode scarf white embroidered in 
yellow, so I made a set of mats of white 
oilcloth with an edge of green knot-stitch 
crochet. Among my belongings was a 
remnant of green denim, and from this I 
One correspondent writes of making 
men’s pants. I had made boys’ clothing, 
and with duck pants quoted at .$3.35 I 
took my courage in my hands, ripped up 
a pair of men's pants for a pattern and 
cut and made a pair from' duck remnants. 
cut a scarf for bureau and stand, finishing and they fit well and look well at about 
the ends in dark green knot-stitch. All the . 
green except the paint is very dark. Braes 
drawer pulls were added to the bureau, a 
mat of yellow silkateen found a place on 
the stand and a Hallowe’en magazine 
one-third the cost of ready-mades. 
MOTHER BEE. 
is all right for crocheting, or cover furnished a picture of a cornfield, 
room motto, in a tiny brown frame: 
“Don’t be afraid of any thing; 
Throught life just freely roam. 
This world belongs to all of us, 
So make yourself at home.” 
In the corner of the mirror is a card 
saying: 
“Who each morn sees a smile in me 
Happy and fortunate shall be.” 
More About Homemade Dyes 
I saw on page 1656 a request for in¬ 
formation concerning the old-fashioned 
homemade dyes and as my early life was 
spent near an old lady who “dyed” for 
neighbors I often went to her home, near¬ 
ly opposite my parents’ home and watched 
her, as I was ;^|a vprite with her. I 
helped her gather^Rid prepare her barks, 
seeds, roots, etc., and will try to give our 
readers the benefit of my youthful ob¬ 
servations. Commercial lye can be used 
in connection with copperas for dyeing 
purposes, but it has no connection with 
floor one can tell. After compT 
The window has a green shade and the 
_ drapery will be white; the floor is to be the dye itself. It is used in solution for 
one brown and the rugs crocheted in brown, dipping the article after its immersion in 
time around in single crochet, make one 
chain and crochet again around, but turn 
the work and crochet around the opposite 
way from the first row. By turning the 
work each time the rug is reversible. Do 
not widen the rug the same place each 
time or you will have “corners” on what 
should be a circular rug. 
An oval rug is made with a foundation 
of from 12 to 20 chains, then single cro¬ 
chet around the chain. In widening the 
rows of an oval rug widen at the ends, but 
not in exactly the same stitch. 
Perhaps our best selling crochet rug is 
rectangular. The foundation is the chain, quaint and artistic. It is a prettily of vellow desired, according to the 
as for the oval rug. but at the end of the shaped, small brown toadstool with a hole strength of dve and time of remaining in 
rug after one or two rows widen by put- bored in it and a tube of white birch bark hot dve. Both hickorv and sumac will 
ting three single, crochets in one stitch in 
each of the four corners. Measure the 
rug often to see if the two ends are the 
same length and also that the sides are 
equal. If the work seems “full” at the 
corners do not widen for one row. After 
live or six rows fasten the rags at the 
green, black and a bit of yellow. the'copperas bath to “set” the copperas 
A rug just finished was made from a color and “kill” the strength of the cop- 
firm. finely woven burlap grain sack. It peras. so it will not “eat” the dyed goods, 
was cut the desired size, the sides finished Copperas dye is simply copperas dissolved 
with a narrow hem and the ends hem- in clear water, the dyeing process being to 
stitched, then it was colored dark brown, dip the goods, after being washed and 
and when dry a clover leaf design was.. 
cross-stitched with green carpet warp. I 
used the “thrums.” the short pieces left at 
the end of the web. which can be obtained 
from a weaver. 
The match-holder must be described, as 
rinsed, and while still moist, alternately, 
first into the copperas bath, then into the 
lye bath, until the desired shade is ob¬ 
tained. 
White oak bark is stripped from roots 
or twigs steeped in water until the 
it is one of those priceless Christmas gifts strength is extracted, alum added to set 
from a little girl pupil years ago, but the color, and will result in any shade 
uamt and artistic. It is a prettily of yellow desired, accordine’ to Hif> 
695 
color slate or drab, but the bark of hick¬ 
ory, if strong enough, will produce a 
brownish color. It is not the bark of 
sumac that is used to dye with, but the 
“bobs” or red fruits. All barks, roots, 
etc., must be steeped slowly in soft water 
to extract the strength, then alum or cop¬ 
peras to set colors. 
Butternut bark will produce a beauti¬ 
ful and lasting color on wool goods, and 
will vary from a light tan color through 
all the shades of brown to almost black, 
according to the month in which the bark 
is obtained, as each month produces a dif¬ 
ferent shade of brown. Copperas is added 
to this dye to “set” the color. Soft maple 
bark solution “set” 'with alum produces 
a beautiful lavender or purple. Hemlock 
bark solution with copperas added pro¬ 
duces a purplish color on cotton. This 
was also “set with copperas. Care must 
be used not to add too much copperas on 
account of its “eating” qualities, about an 
ounce to a gallon of liquid. Everyone 
must be familiar with the formula for the 
old-fashioned blue dye on wool. Also, 
with the use of scoke or poke and elder¬ 
berries in producing shades of red or 
maroon. 
Also on page 1656 I saw the account of 
the girl who came in contact with the gas 
jet. and wondered how she came to be so 
near an open flame. I have heard re¬ 
peatedly of the inflammability of celluloid 
combs and other hair ornaments. A sure 
way to render cotton nap goods practi¬ 
cally non-inflamable is to dip in strong 
alum solution and dry well. Children’s 
clothing treated to an alum bath after 
being washed and rinsed in the usual way 
makes cottons as safe as woolens for their 
wearing apparel. 
Any cake recipe can be used as “egg¬ 
less cake” if a rounding tablespoon of 
flour is added for each egg omitted. 
JESSIE. 
Embroidery Designs 
883 
883. Design for embroidering a one- 
piece dressing jacket. Bine transfer. 
Price, 15 cents. 
joining, cut oft' and sew the end down 
firmly and begin the next row in another 
place or there may be a ridge at the join¬ 
ing. One familiar with crocheting will 
find it easy, or if further help is needed I 
will try to give it. One rug just com¬ 
pleted began with a 14-in. chain, and 
completed measured 27x42 ins. These 
rugs are usually sold to city cottagers and 
they often furnish rags and order certain 
colors. 
In general, but two or three colors are 
used in each rug or set of rugs, and the 
preference is for the dull, soft shades. To 
obtain these I usually buy the dark color 
of tln> dye, put in some rags, let boil five 
or 10 minutes, add more rags, and in 10 
minutes add more. The packages usually 
are. say. one to three pounds, but I often 
put in four pounds, using the light shades 
near the center and the darkest in the 
edge. One lady ordered her rugs in gray, 
black and dull red, and they were lovely. 
Mother braided several and I crocheted 
several. One rug center was mostly gray 
with bits of black and dull red. mixed in 
as the rags were sewed ; the border was 
two rows of black, one of crushed rasp¬ 
berry (a light shade obtained from a 
wine-color dye), two of black, four of 
gray, two of black, two of wine-color and 
two of black. Another set was ordered of 
gray, blue and black, and others sold well 
ol brown, green and black; brown, with 
<i border of black. Christmas red and green 
carefully arranged. The fewer the colors 
the prettier the rugs are usually, and a 
room may not be expensively furnished, 
yet be pleasing because the colors are well 
chosen. 
Me are pleased with a friend’s com¬ 
ments on our guest chamber, yet the cost 
won t be great when it is all done. Green 
ancl brown are favorite colors, but for this 
hrb!bt a ypIlo ' v was needed to 
hnVbr “ ]t ' ! he P aiut is « light but not 
• ffrpen Ythe paper is white with light 
t' a . y m the background and the design, a 
green i! ye l ° ™ tau with tiny violets and 
good bnt V, th I he bed and commode were 
rS n f V ,'!V' eau and stand did not 
quite match, although all were of good 
200Homes 
Made Comfortable Because Mrs Gouier 
had such perfect results from her N. P. Sterling 
John H. Westerman, the Sterling Dealer of Walden, N. Y., in 1916 sold an N. P. Sterling 
Furnace to Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Couter. Their house had long b.een heated with stoves and 
had a low cellar under only a portion of it in which they stored their apples, winter vegeta¬ 
bles, etc. Mrs. Couter was tired of uneven heat and the constant care of her stoves so Mr 
Westerman came to her rescue. Said he could install a furnace in their cellar by cutting only 
one hole in the floor, heat the entire house evenly, and yet keep the cellar cool for storage 
purposes. 
The T* was installed. Friends and neighbors dropped in to call and after enjoying the 
solid comfort of her well heated home and hearing how easy and economical it was to run 
the N. P., went to see Mr. Westerman with the result that during 1919 alone over one hun¬ 
dred homes in and about Walden were equipped with the 
N P« Sterling Furn ace 
THE ONE-REGISTER FURNACE 
This furnace made good in Walden because it did its work satisfactorily wherever installed. Year after year 
more N. P. s went into service because others proved satisfactory the year before and the year before that. 
The N. P. will make good in your home too because it is scientifically designed by heating experts to deliver 
most heat from the least fuel and deliver it where you want it when you want it. 
) m s,'i 
_ r :,Vit ' * 
IP; 
A 
Look at the small diagram and you will see why. 
A. Scientific Sterling construction insuring perfect combustion and saving fuel. 
B. Extra large heating dome which heats air passing 
around it more quickly and to higher temperature with 
less fire. 
C. Outside air passages keep the air cool way to 
the bottom of the furnace and so make the air 
flow very swiftly into and through the heating 
chambers D, and then pours it out with great 
force through the register. 
These outside air passages are vital Sterling 
features. 
Here are some others: a cool cellar, feed door large enough for 
chunks of wood, heavy grey iron castings (no scrap used), special fire 
pot it natural gas and solid fuel are used, special three point dust and 
gas proof joints, extra large air moistener. 
It will pay you to send today for the free booklet giving the de- 
tails about the N. P. and also the name of the nearest dealer. 
• i, ,‘ mpm t>er 1 0 years of experience in building Ranges and Heaters 
is back of every N. P. 
SILL STOVE WORKS 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
Makers of the Sterling Range 
Thm Range that bakes a barrel of flour 
zvith a single hod of coal 
