Of rugs and carpets

The most enchanting thing in the carpet industry is the quill box. It is a large deep frame set on an easel and full of numbered holes like a punchboard. In each hole is a cardboard tube which serves as a handle for a small pompon of colored yarn.

Imagine several thousand of these pompons—each one slightly different in hue or value or chroma from all the others, blending together into a softly shaded sea of color.

The colorist is a man of importance and this magic box is his tool. When the loom-pattern is finished it is given to him. He chooses the colors for the woven fabric from his quills, selecting and rejecting till he has a perfect harmony.

The number on each quill indicates a certain dye formula which the head dyer at the mill will use to produce each exact and particular shade needed to weave the carpet.