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Some rug patterns are pictures. They are really too pretty to be covered with filler the hooker must use. There is, however, no need to make them like that even if you can. They should be attractively colored, though, to catch the potential hooker's eye and interest.

The rug designer who knows something of the craft of rug making has an advantage over the one who neither knows nor cares how a rug is made. My first rug, made with a commercial pattern produced by the thousands, and which satisfied neither my creative nor aesthetic instinct, started me designing rug patterns. First they were for my own use. Later, when I learned there was a demand for patterns as well as for finished rugs, I began making them for others.

Commercial rug patterns are your competition. Some of them sell for so little you could not possibly make anything if you sold yours at the same price. Others, the better kind, however, are priced high enough for you to compete with them successfully. You have certain advantages over the makers of commercial patterns. Yours are custom-made. You can supply any shape, size and design required on a few hours notice, while patterns sold in stores are limited on all three counts. Very few commercial patterns come in sizes larger than four by six feet. None come in carpeting widths and lengths or in stair tread measurements. Remember that hooking is a hand craft and the finest prize-winning rugs are nearly always made with hand-drawn patterns as the base.

I HAD never seen a hooked rug except the one I had made when I designed my first pattern. But I had seen pictures of them. Unless you have made a rug, do look at some before making a pattern. You can use your own imagination and ideas in design, but most hookers cling tenaciously to a few basic varieties. Because hooking is an old craft, most popular patterns, however modern your drawing technique, are in keeping with tradition. A decade or so ago there was an attempt to introduce modernistic design into rug patterns, but few hookers were interested and the trend ended as suddenly as it began.

Yet geometric patterns are and have always been popular with hookers. These include block designs, squares, triangles, hexagons and octagons. Many geometric patterns include flowers. One of my most popular patterns is made up of four-inch hexagons in each of which is one small blossom and a leaf. If you are accurate in measuring, you will find the geometric easy to make.

Scenic designs, landscapes and seascapes, are used, though most hookers shy away from them for two reasons; the use of such rugs is limited and the work looks too hard. Welcome mats, half circles used mostly in doorways, which often bear lettering, are occasionally called for. But the most popular of all patterns are florals, and of the florals those with scrolls bring the highest prices.

THE HOOKER who buys her pattern from you wants all her planning done by you. You may leave the background up to her though you may be asked to suggest colors for that also, but the design must be colored and easy to follow. Shading must be indicated by color gradations and all outlines must be sharp and clear.

Good drawing can be done only on good material. Although Hessian canvas, monkscloth and other fabrics are used in commercial patterns, stick to burlap. Not only is it easier to draw on, it is also much easier to hook through and the experienced hooker wants it. Burlap comes in several widths from thirty inches up to seventy-two, but thirty-six and forty are most common. During World War II burlap could not be bought at all, and the wider widths have not yet come back. The quality of burlap you use can make or ruin you as a patternmaker. Use only that which is closely woven and with tensile strength enough to hold six or eight ounces to the square foot. Needlework catalogues carry forty-inch burlap at less than fifty cents the yard and it can be bought in many stores. Burlap comes in colors as well as in natural. Use the latter always, for colors of your design show up much better, on such a neutral background. You may use burlap sacks if you can get good new ones such as grass seed, feed and sheared wool come in.

Do your pattern making on a table, drawing board or floor. I prefer the floor. Cut your burlap at least four inches longer than the length of the pattern you intend to make. The extra inches will be turned under in the finished rug. Hem or otherwise keep the cut ends from raveling. Unless you are making a very small pattern and wish to save material by using the width for its length, you will have selvage on both sides. Thumbtack the burlap to your drawing board, table or floor to keep it from creeping.

BECAUSE THEY are the easiest devices to use for drawing on burlap, I make my designs with crayons, the kind children draw with in school. Later, when I remove the burlap from the drawing surface, I outline every part of the design with ink, using the end of an old-fashioned nib penholder or the wooden end of a water color brush and black ink for the work. The ink will not rub off during the hooking process though crayon may. After this inking in, I shade the flowers or other design with crayons, using at least two shades or values for each. Scrolls are shaded and veined for easy following.

If you are to make a pattern wider than your burlap, you will need to use two or more widths. Sew these widths together by lapping one over the other about half an inch and stitching down both free sides; that is, on both the right and wrong sides. Never make a double seam, as these are almost impossible to hook through.

When the burlap is staked out ready for your hand to turn it into a pattern, measure carefully and mark off the length and width first. If you are making a square or rectangular rug this consists of marking straight lines; the weave of the burlap simplifies this process if you will just follow it. If you are making a round or oval rug, you can make these shapes in several ways. If you are very accurate you may draw them freehand. Or you may cut out a paper oval or circle and place it on the burlap, marking around it. Always be careful not to stretch the burlap when drawing, as the pattern will be distorted. You may use methods taught in geometry, using a string or ruler as a radius to rotate around the oval or circle.

WITH THE perimeter of your pattern finished, the drawing begins. If a scroll or other repeated motif is to be part of your design, make a stencil or cutout of paper—newspaper will do—as many motifs of the kind as you will need in the design. Arrange these about on the burlap in some harmonious design, measuring, spacing so the pieces will bear some relation to each other or to the pattern's center of interest. When you have made a pleasing arrangement or one in keeping with the design you may have been ordered to copy, pin the pieces down to the burlap. Then draw around each.

Flowers may be done freehand or from patterns you cut. If many are to be repeated, by all means do the latter to save time and work. After the entire design is thus outlined on the burlap, do the finishing touches, the coloring and shading.

Water colored patterns are prettier than crayoned ones, but they take much more time and do not command higher prices. Never use show card colors or tempera, for when these dry they are practically impenetrable to a hook. Shading is important in the hooked rug pattern, but it is not the detailed shading of an oil painting. Indicate the dark tones with ink outlines, the very light with no color at all but leaving the burlap natural, and use two intensities of the same color for those in between, thus giving four color gradations to each flower or leaf. These are ample for most hookers; more are usually confusing.

The more rug patterns I make, the more ideas I have for others. Ideas, inspirations are everywhere; in the scroll on a building, in cloud banks, in a scattering of leaves, on a calendar.

BEFORE ADVERTISING my pattern service, I made up half a dozen patterns to show what I could do. All were small but the designs were varied—geometric, floral, pictorial. Since then I have found that small patterns are not as popular as the five-by-three and six-by-three sizes. Even beginners want to start hearth size rugs, but they need the incentive of much pattern and little background to keep interested; so I urge the novice to take only patterns with much large detail. The veteran hooker is the one who enjoys wide open spaces. To each pattern I attach a typed lesson sheet giving directions for cutting rags, shading and color variations. Most hookers want the confidence such guidance gives.

I used the classified advertising section of our local Versailles, Kentucky, weekly newspaper to inform the public of my work. Later I advertised in the classified sections of the daily published in the nearest larger city. This I continue to do at intervals; people do forget, and then there are always new residents who have never heard of you. Much of my trade comes from surrounding towns and some of the patterns I sell are ordered by mail. Also, I have sent out penny post cards describing my patterns and prices. There are many people who never read the advertisements but who will read a personal message. I type my cards, but they could be printed or mimeographed.

Most of my trade now comes from people who have seen patterns or rugs I have made and who want similar designs. Word-of-mouth advertising is effective if it comes from a satisfied customer. I have also made patterns for women who make rugs to sell.

IN THE last six days before writing this, I have made two three-by-five-foot patterns. One has two semi-circles of large flowers, iris, campanula and poppies, with leaves. It took less than an hour to make and the burlap and crayon for it cost about 65 cents; for it I was paid $3. The other is made of six-inch blocks; alternate ones have a small flower and leaf design. Because this has to be made with precision it will take twice as long to make as the other and for it I shall have to ask $5, even though materials cost the same as for the first pattern. Both take skill, but one takes more time than the other and much more concentrated effort.

Both of the patterns made this week are rectangular. Were they oval, I would add a dollar to the cost of each, since making a perfect oval is much more difficult than making a perfect rectangle on burlap with its tendency to stretch.

I never make more than one three-by-five rug in a day because the tired hand or eye cannot have the precision of the fresh hand or eye. And patterns must be true if the rug made from them is to be. No customer will return to a patternmaker whose design is crooked or askew. I expect each pattern I make to bring in more orders, so I make it the very best I can. Winter is the patternmaker's best period because homemakers are planning something new for spring, but even in summer, the worse period, there are orders.

I prefer to handle my own patterns rather than show them in a store. No one takes as good care of your work as you do yourself. I keep some patterns on hand at all times for the random customer who wants to start work immediately and cannot wait for a pattern to he made. These are necessary also for, the tourist trade attracted by a sign in the window.