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HOUKING, SPINI.ING, WEAVING

Kach Spring brought a renewal of the annual rite of mat hooking. With — many housewives, hooking was an on-going operation throughout the year, but the Spring sessions were occasions on which two or three neighbor ladiss got together in a semi-social spirit. Like knitting, hooking could be performed without interruption of the smooth flow of conversation -- a feature that made it especially enjoyable to the housewives.

Rags and scraps of discarded clothing had been carefull collected and set aside during the preceding months; scrap woolen yarn had been saved and dyed in various colors. For mats intended for rough usage, binder twine saved from the previous year's threshing was ayed in appropriate hues. Some mats were non-descript in pattern; others were put on canvas already bearing floral designs -- trees, landscapes, flowers -- even.animals and buildings. These were called "stamped mats." Several years after the end of the war, during a visit home, I inquired after my old uniforms which I had left: ithere, and discovered that they now formed the centerpiece of a mat that lay before the parlor stove. Everything was grist to the hooking, mill. | os ms

A product of the hooking frame that demanded great skill anda cane in the making was formed of vari-colored flowered patterns, portions of which were raised nearly an inch above the surrounding surface. Just how this result was achieved, I do not know, nor do I recall the descriptive name of those mats. Their service was usually restricted to the best room and, since the parlor was used but rarely, some of them may possibly still be found in the older farm dwellings. |

Knitting socks, mittens, toboggan caps, and stockings provided after- Supper work for the farm housewives. When a matron went visiting at a

neighbor's-house, it was her custom to take her knitting along. As a