Scarfs should be woven from 20 to 24 inches wide and about 1-1/2 yards long, unless some special use requires that they should be of different length. Not only do they make pleasing table covers, but they are useful as tray cloths, and from them charming sewing or embroidery aprons may be fashioned by folding one end over, tying it with ribbons, and arranging pockets to hold the work. One scarf will make two aprons. Fancy bags are also woven on the same general lines as scarfs, but the width needs to be only 8 or 10 inches. These may be woven of the pattern throughout, or they may be striped with bands or borders. Lined with silk and finished with ribbons or cords, they are very much admired for embroidery and other fancy work.
In the discussion of the problem of hand weaving, frequent reference has been made to the use of coloured materials. While it is possible to obtain many good colours in the market, it is much more satisfactory to make these colours at home by the use of the dye pot. In former times, when hand weaving was general, there was no other way; and, in fact, dyeing and weaving may well be considered now, as they were then, sister arts. When the wool was washed, carded into rolls, spun into yarn, and again doubled and twisted, it was, generally speaking, still necessary to treat the yarn with some permanent dye before weaving it into cloth. One notable exception was found in the natural gray homespun, which was of yarn spun from the wool of both the black and the white sheep carded together. The modern worker with the hand loom will find almost the same necessity as our grandmothers did for a knowledge of the art of dyeing. Seldom will she find at hand just the shade or colour required by the design of the piece to be woven. Much of the material that is worked up for the woof of rugs, for example, will be found to be so faded or spotted that it would poorly repay one for the labour of weaving it up in that condition. And even the new material, which it is often necessary to procure for plain weaving, for pattern weaving, and for use in borders, will often need a bath in the dye pot in order to furnish the tone of colour needed.
_Some Good Points in Dyeing._--Good results in dyeing are obtained by using the prepared dyes of the markets, mixing together more than one colour often, after some experimenting, in order to produce the desired shade. Instead of mixing the dye one may, if she chooses, dye first in one colour and top off with another. A fine permanent green is obtained by dyeing thread or cloth a good yellow and topping with a blue bath. Green and blue dye used together give neither green nor blue but a blending of both colours, which is exceedingly pleasing. In all cases it is better to make the dye bath weak, leaving the article to be dyed in the bath a long time rather than to keep it a shorter time in a stronger dye. The advantage is not only greater permanency of colour but also greater certainty in the result; for one can watch the process of dyeing more easily and guard against the colours becoming too dark. The material which remains in the dye bath until it takes practically all the colour from it may generally be depended upon neither to fade nor crock.