er's Note," "Green Vails," "Rose in Bloom," "Pansies and Roses in
the Wilderness," "Flag-Work," "Royal Beauty," "Indian March," "Troy's
Beauty," "Primrose and Diamonds," "Crown and Diamonds," "Jay's Fancy,"
"In Summer and Winter," "Boston Beauty," and "Indian War." One named
"Bony Part's March" was very pretty, as was "Orange Peel," and "Orange
Trees"; "Dog Tracks" was even checkerwork, "Blazing Star," a
herring-bone design. "Perry's Victory" and "Lady Washington's Delight"
show probably the date of their invention, and were handsome designs,
while the "Whig Rose from Georgia," which had been given to the weaver
by an old lady a hundred years old, had proved a poor and ugly thing.
"Kapa's Diaper" was a complicated design which took "five harnesses" to
make. "Rattlesnake's Trail," "Wheels of Fancy," "Chariot Wheels and
Church Windows," and "Bachelor's Fancy" were all exceptionally fine
designs.

Sometimes extremely elaborate patterns were woven in earlier days. An
exquisitely woven coverlet as fine as linen sheeting, a corner of which
is here shown, has an elaborate border of patriotic and Masonic
emblems, patriotic inscriptions, and the name of the maker, a Red Hook,
Hudson valley, dame of a century ago, who wove this beautiful bedspread
as the crowning treasure of her bridal outfit. The "setting-up" of such
a design as this is entirely beyond my skill as a weaver to explain or
even comprehend. But it is evident that the border must have been woven
by taking up a single warp-thread at a time, with a wire needle, not by
passing a shuttle, as it is far too complicated and varied for any
treadle-harness to be able to make a shed for a shuttle.

Hand-weaving in Weaver Rose's loom-room to-day is much simplified in
many of its preparatory details by the employment of machine-made
materials. The shuttles and spools are made by machinery; and more
important still, both warp and weft is purchased ready-spun from mills.
The warp is simply a stout cotton twine or coarse thread bought in balls
or hanks; while various cheap mill-yarns or what is known as worsteds or
coarse crewels are used as filling. These, of course, are cheap, but
alas! are dyed with fleeting or garish aniline dyes. No new blue yarn
can equal either in color or durability the old indigo-dyed, homespun,
hard-twisted yarn made on a spinning-wheel. Germantown, early in the
field in American wool manufacture, still supplies nearly all the yarn
for his hand-looms.